La Paz is the largest city and the capital of Baja California Sur, it is a working class city with a population of around 300,000, and is true to it's name, which translates as "the peace." Know for its casual, easy-paced and peaceful lifestyle, La Paz is a "real" mexican city, there are no high-rise hotels or time share salespeople here, in fact, other than my fellow cruisers, who stick mostly around the waterfront, there are virtually no tourists here. There is the beautiful palm fringed malecon (boardwalk) that runs the entire distance of the waterfront, but the real city center is several blocks inland, and is bustling with activity, there are many shops, restaurants, and of course a large cathedral located in front of the Jardine (town square).
Although the American media portraits this to be a horrible place my experience with the honest, friendly mexican people continues to amaze me. The other night I was walking down the malecon when I came across a place called Rin Rin Pizza, a restaurant with a small street cart out front selling slices. Since I haven't had any pizza for over a month, I decided to get a couple of slices and watch the sunset. The young girl, who spoke no english, and myself, who speaks virtually no spanish, agreed that the price was 20 pasos a slice, which is around 1.80 USD. I took my two slices across a busy street and woofed them down, deciding that it was so damm good, I was going back for more. As I approached the cart for round two the young girl quickly handed me 16 pasos and said two was only 24 total I had overpaid for the first two slices, and here was my money back. So now not only did this delicious, spicy mexican pizza only cost about $2.25 for TWO slices, but I was once again treated to the warm, friendly attitude of the mexican people, as this girl could have easily pocketed the money and I would never have known. I bought two more slices and woofed them down too.
Shaybo's flying down today, and I can't wait to continue exploring La Paz with her.