Back in Marina Palmira, Randall and I worked on a few boat chores as we awaited the New Year’s festivities. For Randall this included borrowing from Rob on SV Avant, a tiny camera on a thin, flexible arm. Hooked-up to a computer, it was possible to feed the camera into awkward places and see the images on the screen. There were the inevitable jokes about performing self-colonoscopies but the serious benefit was being able to look inside our mast to try to discover the origin of the loud new clunking sound that had developed on our last multi-night passage.

Riveted inside the mast is a PVC pipe that protects, and stops from clanging, various electrical wires. Randall suspected that this pipe had either broken or become detached from part of the mast, and movement of this pipe was causing the occasional loud bong. The camera did not show any breaks in the pipe just above deck level so Randall tied the bottom of the PVC pipe very tightly inside the bottom of the mast. Although we are going to have to wait until we are in rough seas again to see if this had cured the noise, Randall was very impressed with the camera and that is now on his shopping list.

On New Year’s Eve we enjoyed appetizers with Lindy and Al on Enchanté and then set off to take a taxi into downtown La Paz. While we were waiting, some local cruisers with a car offered us a ride along the Malecón. As we approached the “Coco-cola” Christmas Tree our driver noted that compared to the previous New Year’s Eve, there were far fewer signs of preparation for a big firework display or parade.

While the others headed off to bar called “The Shack”, we made our way to the restaurant at the Hotel Perla. The dining room with sides open to the Malecón was distinctive for two reasons. One reason was that during the day it was filled with assorted, brightly colored wooden chairs and the other was that at the entrance sat a large, fake skeleton dressed as Santa. We had chosen this restaurant because it was offering a special New Year’s Eve dinner and we would have a good view of any parade on the Malecón. We had made our reservations for 8 pm and we were encouraged that all of the tables were reserved, suggesting this was a popular place. Of course, we were the first to arrive but the tables gradually filled-up, mostly with local families dressed in their best.

There was a very mellow three-piece band playing what sounded to us like Mexican “pop” music and a few people were dancing, including Randall, me, and some very young children. Not realizing that most other people would order off the regular menu, we all chose the special turkey dinner which was a poor decision for two reasons. Firstly, we had been eating turkey in some form for most days since Christmas, and, secondly, it was not a particular flavorful meal.

Even though it was apparent that the table was ours until after midnight, the wait-staff were keen to serve us quickly before the place filled-up, so by 10 pm we decided that we had nursed our drinks (including some very sour sangrias) for long enough. It was not obvious that there were going to be any big organized events downtown so we returned to the boat courtesy of a very speedy taxi-driver who seemed keen to get back downtown to rescue other patrons who were leaving early. Although the meal had not been quite as memorable as we had hoped, it had been fun to watch local people enjoying an evening out and we were quite thankful for having avoided a loud, tourist-filled bar.

We stayed-up until midnight but saw only scattered fireworks along the whole waterfront and no big display. We never did hear if there was any parade but we suspect not. We gathered that La Paz was not having a very good season with fewer tourists than usual, partly because of the poor impression given in the international press about drug-related-killings throughout Mexico. It seemed likely that La Paz was as free from this problem as anywhere but sadly, such good news does not get reported to most potential visitors.

A second problem for Baja California was that on January 1st, the “value-added” or sales-tax was going to increase from 5% to 15% to match the rest of the country. For many years, the two states of Baja California had enjoyed a reduced tax-rate to allow them to better compete against the neighboring USA but that favor was being discontinued and local businesses were not happy about it. Thus, it was perhaps understandable that this was a rather more subdued celebration of the New Year than usual. We were just happy that it lived-up to the city’s name and was peaceful.