Last Few Days in La Paz

[Kyle]After a couple more days in La Paz, we’re finally ready to set off. {Maryanne: as ready as we can be}

We got two sets of transmission parts, just in case one of them tries puling that trick again. I’ve taken the thing apart so many times now that I could probably replace the relevant parts in under an hour. Let’s hope it never comes to that.

All of our mail managed to get to us just a few minutes before the marina closed for the night, so we didn’t have to abandon any of it. {Maryanne: Excellent news for the Tupperware food processing front!}

One of the best moments for me, which was nowhere near the end, was after yet another trip to the store. I was sorting through a huge pile of purchases trying to figure out where to stow it all. I asked Maryanne what I should do with our shopping bags. I expected her to say, “Put them in the cockpit for our next trip”. Instead, she said, “Put them away. We won’t be needing them for a while”. Woo, Hoo!!

Today (Apr. 5th 2017), we went through the convoluted process of clearing out. It wasn’t that difficult, just time consuming. And the process of self-checkout had been meticulously documented by prior cruisers on the local Club Cruceros web site. One of the government offices we needed to visit, Immigration, was clear on the other side of town from the others, so there was a lot of shuttling back and forth.

Artwork of La Paz Malecon

The guy at Immigration seemed especially annoyed with us. Most boats departing for international destinations from Baja leave Cabo San Lucas because it’s at the tip. We weren’t falling for that because everything in Cabo has a crazy rich tourist markup. Even though the forms were not that complicated and had been filled out by us so that all he needed to do was check it was correct and imprint a stamp. He got irritated when we didn’t have a photocopy of our passports, boat registration and Begonia’s Temporary Import Permit, which we didn't know we needed need. When we asked if they could make a copy, he said we would have to go to a copy place two blocks away. Maryanne managed to dig out copies that she keeps for most of the paperwork he requested, but not the TIP. He took our forms without the copy, looked at them, read them carefully and then disappeared into the back for half an hour. Maryanne thinks he was making coffee to prove a point. When he came back, he stamped our forms and then made a copy of our TIP using a copy machine that was within arm’s reach.

With the paperwork all done, we returned to the marina, where we learned we had won yet another prize in a raffle we had entered a few days earlier. It was a bucket of goodies which included two bottles of wine and one of champagne. The other available prizes were a haircut, a free breakfast or a month at the dinghy dock, none of which we could have used before leaving. The bucket of luxury goods was a fantastic send off.

So the time has come for us to leave México and head for the southern hemisphere, where I understand everything is upside down. We have been looking forward to this for a very long time so we are very excited. The main reason I retired early was because we wanted to go to the South Pacific, but there was no way I could figure out a workable commute. Now we can go anywhere, the weather window has opened up and we’re off!

La Paz

Maryanne: The visit to La Paz was primarily for administration, mail, and re-provisioning. We also unexpectedly had to deal with the repairs after the crash, and a failed computer so the chore list was even longer than we expected (not unusual). We (or at least I) were also hoping to have some tourist time while we were there. Luckily all the walking back and forth took us past many of the highlights, it was a real pleasure to get to the Whale Museum, the waterfront promenade (Malecon) was always a pleasure and we even made it inside a church or too. Of course we also ate out a few times (since we'll be a month at sea with just my cooking) and Kyle was particularly fond of the margaritas).

But yes, it all got done, and we are indeed headed off towards the South Pacific islands - Woo Hoo indeed!!!