Jan 10-18, 2013, Cortez Marina, La Paz, BCS,  Part 2

PICTURES DID NOT POST

Over the next several days the wind kicked up and it got cold.  I had packed away my warm clothes before I left because we were “in paradise” now where it is always warm. Darn.  Back to jackets and long pants.  

The rest of the week in La Paz was spent exploring the town and working on projects.  Groceries came from any one of a number of small shops and stalls.  It is not really a pretty town.  A few of the old buildings are left but have been converted into offices, shops and restaurants.  Most of them have been replaced by modern concrete buildings that somehow never look finished.  Sidewalks start and stop at random and there are a lot of weed filled lots.  But people are friendly and seem happy and busy. I never saw any homeless or beggars.  In the evenings and on the weekend the malacon along the waterfront was filled with people out strolling, biking or rollerskating.

 I developed a habit of going down different streets every time I went into town.  On one trip I discovered a community garden and had a great time with the young man in charge.  My onboard herb garden had died of neglect while I was gone.  He was happy to sell me some basil plants and seeds for cilantro and arugula.  Back at the boat, I turned out all the old soil and started over, adding the bottoms of some green onions that were onboard.  I really need to find or make some kind of greenhouse cover for it to keep the wind and salt spray off.

When we bought Rhapsody, way back when, I had 3 requests.  I wanted a spice rack, a big mirror and someplace to keep jewelry.  So far, all 3 had been at the bottom of the project list but this was the week that it changed.  Alan had made not one but two lovely spice racks while I was gone.  We only needed to decide where to put them. 

Next came the mirror.  It was to go on the door to the head.  He had the measurements and the approximate location of a mirror shop in town, approximate because the were, “close to the church, maybe a few blocks away from the waterfront”.   Eventually we found it , and entered into discussions in our weak spanish as to exactly what was needed.  Mission accomplished, we headed home and once there, realized that we did not know how we were going to install it.  The next day, I made my way back to the shop alone armed with pictures of the door.  After further discussions which included a son who had not been there the day before, I emerged with a tube of silicone guaranteed to hold it in place even if the boat sank.   Two out of three projects completed. 

The final project, my jewelry box, I completed myself   Armed with the tube of silicone and some discarded packing foam, I transformed the inside of the medicine cabinet into a cabinet for my jewelry.  It is tiny but it holds several pair of earrings and a few necklaces.  Just enough to glam up an pair of pants for a night on the town.

Friday morning when we were supposed to leave it was was still cold and windy and we still had projects that were not quite done so we decided to give ourselves one more day before we left.  Finally, Saturday morning the weather was better .  Time to say goodbye to friends and cast off.  We made our way down the channel to the gas dock and then across the bay where we anchored ready for an early start the next day.