Hotel Marina La Paz

... caves through narrow apertures formed into the rock by erosion, where hosts of red and yellow spotted crabs scuttled away as the boat neared them. As we continued following the shore at about 50 metres out the captain suddenly spotted movement in the water as a fin emerged from the surface. Astonishingly we had a whale and her cub just off the side of the boat!!! They moved around the bay and every so often would surface and we would pull alongside to snatch a ...

... a number of times and just drove right next to the light blue sea, not a soul in sight. Brilliant stuff.<br><br>As we penetrated deeper into the desert and the track became fainter until we were driving across the untouched tundra through fields of cactus, Kerry started to take pensive glances at our measly litre of tepid water and have premonitions of us breaking down, passing out from dehydration and having our bones picked clean by the vultures. This ...

... paleta afterwards (frozen bar on stick but insulting to call it a popcicle). Paul's favorites are pecan and pistachio and I swear, the pecan one has more pecan than cream. SO good.I like the coconut ones and the pico de gallo (named for the hot Mexican relish &#8212; a mosaic of cucumber, mango, and jicama with orange, chili, salt, and pepper). Yummy!<br>

... chum with<br>those on the most modest of boats in great harmony. J Had the privilege of meeting Paul from Vancouver, BC. He retired 11 years ago and he and his wife have been on a voyage since that time throughout the Pacific and all around Europe - spoke of the challenging waters and weather recently encountered when leaving the ...

... on board, it was time to motor on to site two for the day. Dive two was done at the site of the wreck of a Mexican navy destroyer. The ship had previously belonged to the US navy but had been sold to Mexico following WWII. It was about 150 feet long and sat in about 60 feet of water lying on its starboard side. To our relief, this one was an easy dive! We descended the anchor line and were a bit disappointed by the viz. It was very much like a ...

... max out of the water. It makes for a great lounging spot for another sea lion colony, although this group wasn't as used to divers and therefore not as playful. On our first dive, Marylou and I were attempting to locate a wreck but were unable to find it. No big deal though, as we made some really cool finds of nudibranchs, jelly fish, and octopus. Very exciting and we were more than happy with those finds. On ...

... who stays there is interesting,jewellry makers,from the mainland,labourers for the carnival,and many travellers.Yesterday we met some Swedish women there and it was fun for me to 'prata Svenska' again. Tony's arranging my birthday onboard and we may sail out to the islands the next day ,before I leave. Sadly, I leave on Wednesday,for a long journey.I'm taking the bus to Tijuana,then walking across the ...

... bumper-to-bumper on the malecon - you'd think that "cruising" was a lost art from 1950's middle-America, but it's alive and well in Mexico!...anyone with four wheels and a little gas drags their sled down to the malecon to be seen and represent their favorite flavor of mariachi music played at speaker-cone destroying decibel levels...it's pretty hilarious. La Paz is a pretty affluent town, so we saw Hummers with neon ground effects, tuner-cars, as well as the beat ...

... deep into my leg. I tore it off and trod on it but, to my amazement, the spikes were of sufficient strength even to pierce some way through the soles of my (hiking) boot.<br><br><br>There were many birds there on account of a nearby oasis (with palm trees growing by it) including large black eagles that glided all day on the thermals. The only other creatures around were numerous skittish lizards and a group of horses. We were told to be careful of rattlesnakes, but we never saw any. But ...