Our Life in La Paz
03 January 2010 | It's a dog's life.....
It's been a little over a month now since we pulled in to the dock here in Marina Palmira and put a temporary end to our constant traveling and overnight passages. We are enjoying life here tremendously!
We've managed to get out to the nearby islands for some fun "mini vacations" where we hike, snorkel, explore and relax in the beauty of the red rocked islands as they rise out of the azure sea. And there's a lot more of that to come.
When we're back here at the dock, we are content with some comfortable routine -- our morning hike (or climb!) to the Fisherman's Cross high atop the hill over looking the marina, walking to town nearly every day to shop, browse or just poke around learning our way through the city. Evenings bring a gathering of cruisers on the dock to watch the sun go down and talk about our days and our plans and exchange information. We've got a great group of people (and pets!) here. Celebrating the holidays with these new found friends was a real treat.
Dishes, the dog, is a very special delight. She's a true Boat Dog and has been traveling the Sea of Cortez with Vicky, aboard Inspiration at Sea, for several years. She's always there to greet you with a wag and a smile when you walk down the dock, often running to you like you're her long lost best friend. She happily jumps aboard Cetus to sit with Terry in the cockpit when he's out there reading or writing.
We are constantly busy. In fact, I still haven't been able to find enough time in the day to accomplish everything I'd like to -- organizing pictures, editing our movies from the camcorder, writing Christmas letters (opps -- too late for that now!) and on and on. When we're not walking or cooking and cleaning or any of the other normal everyday activities, we are working on "The Book". Terry's about 3/4 through the writing of the 1st draft of the sequel to Rick's Place. Once he writes it out longhand, I take it over and type and tweak and throw in my two cents worth -- it's really a fun project.
The city of La Paz is much as we remember it from 10 years ago when we fell in love with it. With no cruise ships coming into port and no huge high rise hotels, it is a quiet, comfortable city. It doesn't have the hustle and bustle and noise or street vendors with their trays of silver or piles of hats like you find (or they find you!) in the larger resort towns of Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta or nearby Cabo.
While Gig Harbor will always be home, we quickly realized as we set sail down the coast that we wouldn't ever be living aboard a boat there again -- at least not through the winter! When we reached San Francisco and settled in again at our old marina in Emeryville, we thought that might be a good place to return to when were done with this traveling adventure and want to settle in a bit. It's close enough to "home" for travel back and forth, yet the winter on a boat is much more pleasant than in the Northwest. Plus, we love walking through and exploring San Francisco!
Now that we're here, we're starting to think this may be The Place. We don't plan to "get stuck" here as so many cruisers do when they get to Mexico, because we still have some traveling dreams to fulfill. But once our wandering days are done and we want to grow some "semi-roots", La Paz, with it's quiet lifestyle, nearly perfect climate (at least in the winter) and the lower cost of living (which makes our retirement dollars go further!), just may be the spot!