22 hours in La Paz

In the black of night up came the anchor and we were headed for La Paz for a bunch of work and most important to pick up Jean. It was the mellowest day I can remember with the exception of some tide working against us part of the trip. Reaching La Paz we followed the long entrance to Marina Cortez. I’d called a few weeks ago for a slip and was told they were booked until January. But I thought maybe they could squeeze us in for a night… So Vicki called them on the radio and we lucked out! It took a bit of effort for the security guard to direct us to a spot on the non-electric slip between two runabouts – Vicki’s comment was, “Will we fit in there?” We will see. And actually, backing in it wasn’t bad at all and we got on the dock perfectly.

We checked in and headed to drop off our laundry. Of course the lady who works at the spot we normally go was swamped, Google search and we were off to a nearby alternative. This lady was also busy but squeezed us in if we arrived at precisely 6:30pm. Done! Then we walked down to see the cost for a rental car. I checked with Hertz while Vicki checked with Avis. Just as I got a price Vicki came in with good news, only $16 at Avis. “With taxes?” “Yep!” Okay, so over we went and I gave her my information and we waited. And waited. Evidently the car had to be dropped off so we headed for some tacos instead of sitting in the office waiting.

My belly full I headed back to Avis only to learn the cost was not $16 but $60. Ugh. I told her that was too much and after dropping the insurance the cost came down to $40. Not great but it would make life easier so I took the car. Next project was washing the boat. It was quite windy now so we added fenders and then gave Strikhedonia a good cleaning. I was bummed to see that the sea water that coated us the last three days kicked the rusting into high gear and we had some rust starting at the station bases. Blerg. Boat cleaned we hustled to the car.

A trip to the Pemex to top off the jerry cans began the rush. Then I hit the grocery store while Vicki went to Telcel to get a SIM card and service. I blasted through the shopping racking up $180 in food. They banned plastic bags, so our groceries were loaded into the cart, which I then transferred into the backseat of the car. The SIM card for Vicki’s phone was working but she could not send texts to the US, so back to Telcel were after a bit of a wait someone figured out that with iPhones you need to enter 00 plus the US number. Unlike Android which is “+” plus the US number. Mystery solved we headed home to store all our purchases.

Hot, sweaty, and tired I hit the shower before resting for an hour. And just like that we needed to pick up Jean. We stopped early at the laundry and scored our clean sheets and clothes. And made it to the airport with five minutes to spare. Excellent. The night was capped off with a nice dinner at La Costa. Everyone was exhausted from the early start to the day (Jean 3:30am, Vicki/me 2:00am), so no games tonight.

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