It is fair to say that we have fallen in love with La Paz. Its easy-going pace and friendliness, along with the fact that it offers a great opportunity for resupplying with its large tiendas and supermercados, have done us in, at least for a while.

We plan to leave our boat here at Palmira Marina while we travel to the States for the Christmas Holidays.  We are currently staying at Marina de La Paz, which is located right downtown. We like this. And they have a great restaurant/bar right off the marina, with a beautiful view and a nice breeze, worthy of a good SIESTA!

There are quite a few boats here from the Haha. Notably, we have seen Southern Run, Seasilk, Saperlipopette, Charisma, Air Ops, and Lady B. And there are some more we have not seen around, but we have heard on the VHF radio.

Here we got our Mexican Ham reciprocal license and our 10-year import permit to allow us to bring in parts from the States. The process by which we got these is worth describing. Everything here is done in triplicate, of course. Mel and Thelma, who have been living for many years in La Paz in their home-built tri-maran "TEA AND HONEY" were very helpful in explaining the process. We walked to a remote, but elegantly appointed, Communications building, where two very nice ladies helped us fill the required forms. The license cost 800 pesos, roughly $80 US. We then had to go to the OTHER side of town, to the Mexican bank, to pay for the license. Once this was done, we had to return to the Communications building with the stamped bank receipt, which then got us another receipt. The application papers will be sent to Mexico City, and the official license will be mailed back to us here in La Paz in a month or so. WHEW!....We can legally use our radio now, since we have a receipt.

At 8am every morning, the cruisers run a radio net on Channel 22 VHF. During this time, one hears about the weather forecast, the world news headlines, tides, buy sell or trade, and many other interesting tidbits. Marinas and major marine businesses monitor and jump in to answer a question, or to announce that a fax has arrived for a given boat name. It is a nice little community that communicates and works together very well.

For Thanskgiving, the Club Cruceros is organizing a Thanksgiving Dinner, with each boat signing up to bring something for the group. Daisy is bringing a Waldorf salad for SIESTA. There are over 30 boats who plan to participate.

It is amazing how easily one meets great people while cruising. We were saddened to say goodbye for now toTom and Norma on SAILING, when they sailed on to Mazatlan. However, we have met many other friends to make up for it. Notably among them are Kathy and Richard on their gorgeous catamaran "OUT OF AFRICA". Two nights ago, we stayed up with them on a seaside table at the Santa Cruz Marina, after a delicious dinner at La Fonda Restaurant (more later on La Fonda and its owners). We were trying to stay up for the meteor shower that was forecasted to happen starting at 2am. To help us stay awake in the balmy breeze, we then went to listen to music at a bar nearby, where we heard one of the noisiest rock and roll bands we have ever heard. What they lacked in talent, they made up in volume!! But the locals were enjoying every minute of the resounding blast. After taking in the bar scene for a while, to keep from going permanently deaf, we wondered over to SIESTA, where we all laid down on deck and counted 60+ shooting stars. Not a bad way of life, huh?

The day after we arrived, we rode our bicycles 3.5 miles to Marina Palmira to arrange for a slip during the upcoming Holiday season, when we plan to travel to Florida. Yes, those bicycles were worth bringing all the way down here!!! Oh, yes!!! At Palmira, we met Ed and Becky of SEASILK and Bob, Pat and Fred of SOUTHERN RUN. All 10 of us went to dinner at the LOS ARCOS HOTEL, after a brief rendezvous on SIESTA. A good time was had by all.