Unusual sites

We've been doing tourist things with our friends, Ross and Linda from Victoria, who travelled to La Paz in their trailer last weekend and again this weekend (they've been touring around Mexico on a holiday). We viewed the Panteon, the whale museum, the museum of anthropology, and many other interesting sites and sculptures.

The Panteon...

No, those are NOT houses. Panteon means cemetery in Spanish, and all those cement structures are built over burial sites. Early in the morning every Sunday, a very large flea market is held across the street. Very different.

One very large whale, from the back...

and the front...

We also saw a whole lot of skulls (not real!) commemorating the death of Christ...

We had an enjoyable and interesting day spent with our friends from back home.

Sharks, mermaids & shells

We went in our dinghy around the tip of the Magote (a narrow strip of land across from our anchorage in front of Marina de La Paz) to search for rare "paper" Nautilus shells and whale sharks reported to be in the area. Nautilus shells are described as being paper thin and this type can be quite large. Unfortunately, our hunt was unsuccessful, but Jordan did find this lovely mermaid on the beach.

Sexy!

While trolling around in the dinghy, we spotted a few kayakers and headed off towards them - where we saw a large whale shark approximately 7 to 8 m (25 feet) long. Whale sharks are very docile creatures and their diet consists of eating plankton that they scoop up near the surface of the water as they swim with their mouths wide open.

Jordan immediately got into the water and swam alongside it and then dove underneath it. When he returned to the dinghy, he exclaimed Just like National Graphic! I bypassed the opportunity as I felt that I couldn't swim fast enough to keep up and the water was still very chilly.

Distant rendezvous

Good friends from Victoria, Linda and Ross, arrived in La Paz yesterday in their trailer. After a nice long visit, we discovered that they are heading to Todos Santos today to also see the Hotel California, and will be back in La Paz next weekend for some more touring and another visit with us. We had a few chilly cervezas sitting around the pool at their RV park.

Linda and Ross adamantly turned down swimming with the whale sharks with us, which we are looking forward to doing in a day or two!

As we sit here writing this, we are listening to the fish as they make very distinctive continuous loud slaps against the hull of our boat as they knock the krill off to eat. Quite a different sound than that of the tiny shrimp as they make an orchestra of popping sounds feeding at a minuscule scale.

Hotel California

On Wednesday, Jordan played his fiddle with a couple of other musicians for a very green St. Paddy's day and everyone's enjoyment. Then today, we drove to Todos Santos, about 50 miles SW of La Paz, with Beth and Sam of SV Dark Star to check out the famous Hotel California. As we entered the hotel, a band was playing the song of the same name that was originally released in late 1976 by the Eagles! Jordan was lucky enough to hear the Eagles play this song live long, long ago.

Go to www.hotelcaliforniabaja.com and click on Gallery for a slideshow that shows the fabulous, brightly coloured hotel and surrounding area.

That's fowl/foul

How did the birds know we were gone?? Somehow they figured it out, took up roost, and pooped everywhere!! As Jordan's mom says, It is the Poop deck after all. (The name originates from the French word for stern, la poupe.)

Pelicans relaxing on an anchored derelict boat

Then we discovered that tiny fish had taken up residence in the inlet for our toilet and then got sucked up and died. The little dead fish ended up in the rim of the toilet and the odour was nauseating. Jordan had to dismantle the toilet, take it to the dock, remove the dead fish, and deodorize with bleach to put everything back to normal. Now everything is scrubbed clean and smells great again.

Back in Victoria...

Jordan and I flew back to Victoria BC on February 23rd and were there for awhile taking care of business and visiting family and friends. We spent time pulling weeds and scrubbing the moss off the fence at our house, taking care of taxes, and running all sorts of errands.

First few days, it rained continually. Of course everyone said it had been sunny continually before we arrived! Temperature was good for Victoria but we were missing the 26°C to 32°C (80°F to 90°F) we had been experiencing back in La Paz.

I also flew to Calgary to visit my family and surprise my mom in Drumheller on her birthday - she was definitely surprised and not expecting me at all! Thanks go out to all our relatives for letting us move in with them and for transporting me back and forth from Calgary.

Was a sad day to leave...lots of love to all...but don't forget we will be back for the summer (May till September) as we could not complete everything during our time home. So now our plans are to sail north up the Sea of Cortez on March 30th until sometime in May and then put Sea Turtle up on the hard - probably in San Carlos or Guaymas.

As you've probably noticed by now from our previous posts, plans always seem to change once you start sailing!