La Paz, Carnaval and Friends!

We arrived La Paz  February 8th, 2013....

In the middle of Carnaval!

February 8…La Paz!  We finally made it south and into our waiting slip in Marina Palmira.  Adrianna has patiently saved our berth for us and we came in nicely, easy landing.  Our neighbor boat, s/v Orion, a big Catamaran, is still around, as well. 

Kind of feels like getting home again. 

Here's a view of bill and our boat in our slip taken from the neighboring boat. Makes the marina look pretty crowded!

 Oh my! We have arrived in the middle of Carnaval!  The town is totally immersed in parties, festivities, music and parades.  Plus costumes, drinks and food.  We made a few street nights to people watch and find cheap margaritas as well as watch the parade from the Tailhunter, a fun restaurant/cantina combo.  I love their Hawaiian Poke, a sashimi’d ahi tuna. YUM! And…they have Chope/Negra Modelo on draft, too.

 Linda and Judy from s/v JUCE, shopping for Carnaval junk.

 

NOT Linda and Judy...a couple of dancers from a parade float teasing us at a restaurant.

Bill with Bruce and Judy.

Typical Carnaval Fare.

Um, ok...these are for the grandkids but we had to try them on.....

So far we have been able to meet up with s/v JUCE, Bruce and Judy for some wild times, m/v Maitairoa, Alex and Sue to plan Mark Mulligan’s upcoming gig here and get tickets to sell, s/v Kasasa, Ellen and Ian – all in other marinas, Lisa from s/v Andiamo and Seattle, but now living here part time, and Susan and Dennis on s/v TwoCanPlay with their business of boat care, Ross Marine, and our neighbors on s/v Orion, Mike and Cathy from Seattle, here at Palmira.

Us with Ian and Ellen at the Valentine Party at La Costa.

...and Lisa with a friend at the V party, as well.

We’ve also seen and heard on the NET a few boats we recognize and have chatted with over the years.  Old home week, LOL.

The La Paz plan to renew our FM3/Mexican Visas, has slightly changed as the Mexican law changed (again) last November.  We found out that with our 4 years on-board with FM3’s has earned us the privilege to now apply for permanent residency!  No, we are not moving full time to Mexico, LOL….but we can now come and go as we please without the Visa hassle!  So once we are home in May, we will start the process at the border. It’s so easy here but, alas, we need to start it before November. 

Sunday February 17: a sail day away with s/v Orion on their beautiful Catamaran along with 10 or so others….for a sail race in the La Paz bay area.  I counted 17 boats entered and crewed with friends – so they all had lotsa people aboard.  Had a great day out…weather was perfect.  Not much wind to start but it kicked up to 15 or so later.  The guys crewed and Bill had a fun job with the port jib lines and got to drive us part way out of the channel.  It’s a BIG boat with real power.  I sat around with “the girls” and watched, ate and sunned, LOL. The start line was funny as everyone has to have engines OFF at least 5 minutes before the “start” so we all just milled around and tried not to run into each other using sails alone. What a fun day. 

Some La Paz Bay race shots and aboard s/v Orion....crew shirts to boot!

Now back to work...have the new stainless rails done and getting some new canvas work/repairs.