La Paz

 

"...we wondered why so much of the Gulf was familiar to us, why this town had a "home" feeling. We had never seen a town which even looked like La Paz, and yet coming to it was like returning rather than visiting. Some quality there is in the whole Gulf that trips a trigger of recognition so that in fantastic and exotic scenery one finds oneself nodding and saying inwardly, 'Yes, I know'. " - The Log from the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck

La Paz is a town where cruisers come to settle down. They arrive, enjoy and stop moving their boat. Some even sell their boats and buy condos. It is a town that inspires “settling” and the best term we’ve heard regarding this phenomenon is being “La Paused”. Estrellita has been in La Paz for 2 months and we’ve been aboard her here for 5 of those weeks.

We’ve come full circle in our feelings about the town. We loved it upon arrival. The air was crackling with the energy of new cruisers running around, in love with travel, in love with Mexico. We left for 3 weeks of beautiful cruising in the nearby islands and returned in time for American Thanksgiving and we spent a month exploring the town, eating a large number of tacos (more on this later), and using our time dockside to get a bunch of boatwork and Pacific prep completed. Once my family came and left, we moved the boat to another dock and left her while we went to La Ventana for 3 weeks of living/eating/breathing kiteboarding.

Upon arriving in La Ventana we realized we were in sore need of a cruising break (more on that later as well) and we realized in general that the shiny had rubbed off La Paz for us and that we were ready to leave. We chose to spend more time in fewer places in Mexico and we've enjoyed staying in he La Paz area because we now have a new sport/passion but after a second family visit and a few more weeks of prep, we’re ready to head off to more exotic places.