Our passage to La Paz was simply beautiful. Again the seas were dead calm with light winds, more or less on our nose as we headed north from Los Muertos, through the Cerralvo Island channel and around and through into La Bahia de La Paz. The highlight of the day was the huge pod of dolphin that appeared and passed right in front of and under the boat as we cruised slowly north. Hard to say but I estimated maybe 100 dolphin in the pod as they churned up the sea leaping and splashing their way on the way to where ever they were going. I'd say they hardly knew we were there. What a sight!
We raised the sails later in the day as the winds built and turned more on our beam. Lot's of fun cruising through the channels past the islands and the mainland, then finally making the turn south. And there it is! La Paz on the horizon with buildings and oil tanks on the hillside. Only a few more miles and we're there!
We make our way through the narrow channel entrance to the waterfront and into our slip at Palmira Marina and we're there! Yahoo! We made it! What an amazing thing we've done.
Kathy had put a bottle of Champaign on ice earlier so out comes the glasses and we celebrate our successful passage appropriately! We have barely finished our first glass when the Dock 3 (where we are moored) welcoming committee shows up with beers and big smiles and congratulations. And aren't most of them fellow Canadians! Before we know it (and before we've even really tidied up after our passage) we are whisked away with the crowd into La Paz for burgers and beer at the cruisers favourite restaurant on the waterfront. What a beautiful town is La Paz with a wide boulevard and 'malecon' - or pedestrian walkway and bike path - along the frontage. Folks walking, jogging, biking and generally enjoying the fine weather and pleasures of the city. It's not hard to see why many of the cruisers find La Paz very sticky - a hard place to leave. Many of the folks here on Dock 3 have been here for years already. Hmm, who knows...