Hi -

Here it is the 19th already. La Paz is putting up more lights. There are more boats with lights too. The tree is at the Kiosko on the Malecon walkway. They have activities here on the weekends. There are booths set up all over town on the sidewalks. Several blocks of the streets near the city square and cathedral are closed for all of the booths. Everyone is getting ready for Christmas. You hear Christmas songs in Spanish and English all about town. They are selling toys, clothing and accesories mostly with some churro, buritto, taco, tamale and pizza stands.

We are still having fun exploring. Several of our fellow boaters are flying home for Christmas. The rest of us are planning a potluck dinner for the 25th. The 24th there's and appetizer/dessert potluck at 3 with Christmas Carols. Then the English church is having Christmas eve service at 7. There are all sorts of concerts every night. They really like to celebrate. The people here begin on the 16th of Dec. Then every night they add some more. They do fireworks. The first night we heard only one. Last night there were about 5. By Christmas I've bet told there are a lot. The Christmas booths have sparklers for the kids. I guess New Years is even a bigger fireworks show.

Pinatas are a part of Christmas here. There are "dulcerias" (candy stores) that sell pinatas and all the candy to fill them. They have hard candy that has gum in the middle too. We found one candy that is sugar, peanuts and flavoring. It is ground and then formed into a disk the crumbles when you bite it. Sure is good. They don't have a lot of chocolate here. The chocolate we found has cinnamon oil in it. Tasty. There is imported chocolate from the USA but it's pricey. On our walk we saw women making all of the pinatas outside their homes. It was fun to watch. I get a kick out of the "variety" in the stores. The candy store has walls and rows of candy with about 1/2 of one wall with toilet paper, hot sauce and plastic bags. The pet food store has one wall of dry food in large bins. In the middle are some 50 pound bags and bins of raw hide pieces. Right next to these are bins of all different kinds of ground chili [powder. The other wall has bins of dried peppers and a few other "treats" for dogs. An unusual assortment.

We walked by a primary school. It was built to resemble a castle with lots of painted murals inside and out. The schools for preschoolers and primary kids are all really brightly colored and decorated. They really make nice places for their little children. The schools are all locked and have fences around them made of rod iron. The children are really happy.

Today we are taking it easy on the boat. We're still at Marina Palmira docks. The wind has been blowing more and the water out in the bay is rather rough. It's a nice 80 degrees here in the boat, a little warmer outside. I saw where the east is socked in with snow. Hope you all are not having too cold a winter.

Well that's all for now. I'll write more later.

Love to you all,
Joy and Dave