More La Paz

It's been kind of a mixed holiday week.   Carol and I had a wonderful Christmas eve dinner at the very elegant Sortis restaurant in La Paz followed by an equally wonderful dinner the next evening on a friend's big luxurious catamaran.  It helped that at least one person in all three couples was a certifiable foodie.  On the down side, the weather has been so bad that we were never able to go explore nearby coves and islands.  The only good weather windows were short and conflicted with our holiday dinners.  The rest of the times it was howling winds.  The other bummer was discovering the cabin sole had flooded after I had refilled the water tank.  I thought I had cured that problem when I rebedded the inspection cover on the water tank back in June, 2015, but apparently now the second plate is leaking.  We spent a whole evening bailing and soaking up the water on and around the tank.  Now everything is ventilating and drying out.  After Carol leaves, I'll rebed the second inspection plate.  Always something.  At least now I've gotten the exhaust anti-siphon loop secured in a way that won't break again. 

On the positive side, I had a second instance of being blown away by the people of Mexico (or at least La Paz):  I had absent-mindedly left my iPhone on a bench on the malecon and not realized it until about a half hour later.  Although I didn't expect to ever see it again and was bummed by the prospects of getting a replacement in Mexico and trying to deal with AT&T, I felt I had to go back and at least try to find it.   I rode my bike the 15 minutes back to the malecon and rode along looking at every bench.  There was my phone in its bright yellow case!!! Just where I had left it in plain view, with people constantly walking by.  Amazing!!!

Well, in the couple of days that Carol will still be here, we decided to just take a cab to Ballandra beach for a picnic on one of the nice days forecast, and then for New Years we will go to a special New Years dinner at Sortis with some dock friends.  A five course dinner there should be quite special!  The next morning might be a bit rough, though....

 

 

La Paz and Todos Santos

With the bow repair completed and Carol's arrival, it was finally time to do some touristy things.  Because a norther was blowing, we decided to get out of Dodge (La Paz), and take a trip to Todos Santos, which is known as a picturesque artsy tourist destination.    Instead of renting a car, I got us on the local tour bus which was cheap, easy and very nice.  We stayed in the famous Hotel California.  (Yes, we were able to leave.)  It was pleasant and interesting, but don't get a drink across the street...the margaritas were $10, an outrageous price for Mexico.  When we returned to La Paz, the weather had calmed down enough for us to try swimming with the whale sharks.  Quite the adventure!  Just scary enough!  We've done a bit of the typical cruiser things too:  shopping, dining out, pot lucks etc.  We have reservations at a nice restaurant for Christmas Eve, a potluck dinner with friends planned for Christmas, and plan for all of us to walk along the malecon at midnight Chrismas Eve when the baby Jesus is added to all the nativity scenes.

Happy holidays to all!!

 

LA PAZ

 

TODOS SANTOS

 

 

 

 

What a Difference a Week Makes!

What a difference a week makes!!  The great dock crash repair is complete and the results are much better than I had dared hope.  It looks like it never happened.  Suddenly La Paz is a much better place!  Here's the story:

As I completed the structural work from inside, I continued to talk to Arturo (in my very limited Spanish and virtually no English), a local who does boat work here on the dock daily, about hiring him and his friend, who was a painter, to do the final filling, fairing and painting outside.  When I was finally able to get a quote from him, it was only 4,000 pesos, the eqivalent of about $200.  I figured I had little to lose and was burned out from two weeks of miserable grinding and 'glassing.  At that price, my expectations were not high.  I figured if it was really bad I could always paint a shark mouth or smiley face over it.  The work started with Arturo and his friend sanding down the high spots with my battery-powered grinder.  The next step was filling with a two-part polyester resin marine filler.  That was followed by the painter hand sanding the filler with a sanding block, filling again and sanding again.  It was obvious he knew what he was doing.  He had eyes in his hands.  Finally, a thick coat of what might have been gelcoat was skillfully troweled on.  The next day the painter hand sanded most of that off, working down to fine sanding. While that was happening, a third man was brought down to the dock.  He was the color-matching master.  He spent the better part of an hour mixing and testing paint color until he was satisfied.  Next, two coats of primer were air-brushed on the bow.  After that, wet sanding with very fine paper.  Finally, air-brushing two coats of color that matched virtually perfectly.  Looked great even before the final buffing out! 

About halfway through the job, Arturo asked me if it would be okay to get an additional 500 pesos. (I think he realized he had underestimated how much would be involved.)  Of course I had no problem with that given that at $225 it was still far less than the job was worth.  I ended up giving them 6,000 pesos (about $300) which was still amazingly cheap by U.S. standards.  But at 50% more than the original quote, they were happy.  I hope it helps make it a happy holiday for them.

The more I talk with Mexicans and see how hard many of them work just to get the basic necessities and how warm, happy and friendly they are, the more I like and admire them.  Whenever I comment to one of them about working hard, they all respond with essentially the same phrase:  “No trabajo, no comida!,” which I would translate as “You don't work, you don't eat!”  Amazingly, it's always said with a smile, not bitterness.

While Arturo's team was working on the bow repair, I took care of my own tasks inside.  First was cleaning up the mess left from the 'glass work.  Lots of vacuuming (with a new vacuum I had to buy to replace a friend's that I had burned out) followed by wiping down every surface, book and video in the v-berth.  So far I've spent almost two days cleaning up and I'm not done yet.  I also managed to take care of a few essential tasks on the to-do list:  repairing the toilet, reconnecting and securing the transmission shift cable and replacing the frayed alternator belt on the engine.  When re-securing the shift cable ends, I added a dab of epoxy to the screw heads so that they can't vibrate loose again.  I'd much rather have to grind off a couple of screw heads (should that become necessary) than have another dock crash!

Carol is scheduled to arrive here in a couple of days, and I'm very much looking forward to enjoying the area rather than just grinding away.  What a difference a week makes!!!