La Paz at last!

Hello from the City of Peace! La Paz is a truly beautiful place. The malecon (waterfront walkway) stretches for three miles along the beautiful turquoise Gulf of California. There are palm trees, benches, sculptures, little lookout piers all along the way. I´m sitting in an internet cafe by the town square, right across the street from the cathedral. Pictures next post.

We are camped on Playa Tecolote, which means Owl Beach, about 15 miles outside of LaPaz. It´s very scenic (pictures next post) and the camping is free. There are quite a few RVs camped here, and everyone is very friendly. In fact, it´s hard to walk all the way down the beach because people stop you and want to visit. Almost everyone we´ve met here, as well as elsewhere along our route, seems to be from British Columbia. The couple in the RV camped next door to us on the beach are from Vancouver, and live on their 40 foot power boat there. The guy, Len, just retired, and he and his wife, Betty, are on their first Baja trip, just like us. We´ve spent the last two days just hanging out and relaxing--walking on the beach, riding our bikes, and general hanging out. Today we came into town to grocery shop and do laundry. The waiter at the place we had lunch--fish tacos, of course-- drew us a map to the labanderia (laundry), which we found without too much trouble. Then the fun began! The lady inside spoke absolutely no English. My Spanish is coming along, but the trouble is that, although I can usually ask for what I want in Spanish, I can only occasionally understand what they tell me back. Eventually, I figured out that she was the proprietress, and that she was using all four of the washing machines. Doing the laundry myself was not an option-- she would do it for me. Somehow or other, we were able to negotiate a price--about $10 American for tres loads, and I could pick it up after 7 p.m. tonight. I was proud of myself, because I was able to ask (and understand her reply) in Spanish what the hours were tomorrow (Domingo) and Monday (Lunes), and agreed that we´d come back Lunes and pick it up. Phew!

Now it´s off to the supermarket and then back to the beach.