Palmira Hotel La Paz

... dog came into yard area &#8211; first Tanka did a low growl and then he began crying. So the little dog came to the window and eventually, Tanka and I went outside and 'made friends'. <br><br>Manuel was outside so we walked across the street to say hello and Paul joined us. Manuel told us of off road races both this weekend and next. Two of his nephews race. So maybe we&#8217;ll get to see some action.

... a good luck charm, or something ... 'cause we sure didn't find the magic at lunch! We chose a beachfront joint called Kiwi, with a bunch of gringos sitting on the patio, so we thought it looked promising. The staff was very nice and welcoming, but English was in short supply... it was too hot for any of us to be really hungry, so we ordered just a plate of nachos (merry memories of the meal we'd had in Loreto dancing in our heads) and bottled ...

... college here, studying marine biology and is from Tijuana. We talked a bit about the violence and drug trafficking there and he said his family lives in an affluent area of the city but its still quite dangerous. Pretty sad&#8230; greed kills. <br><br>Paul beat me at gin rummy and we had wine with bread and olive oil - so all wasn&#8217;t lost. <br><br>Only complaint is increasing foot/ankle pain and swelling. Trying ice on it.

... right outside your door, so there's no reason to potentially taint your body with the local tap water. The sink and shower were a part of the main room, and the toilet area was separate. That always makes it easier to share a room, as you can use the toilet without tying up the entire bathroom. The shower worked fine but I did notice that for the first several seconds, the water had a slightly blackish tint to it. The shower head could ...

... it goes up pretty high at other times of the year. I've been very comfortable in my drysuit in combination with some long underwear. No heavy undergarment like back home. The lack of the undergarment though has meant that all of the condensation inside the suit gets soaked into my long underwear, making me a little wet in the arms and legs by the end of a dive. Lesson learned. Next time I'll wear a thin layer of polar fleece instead. Still, I was ...

... around the other direction, which probably wouldn't be much better and would certainly have been longer. We fought through it though and eventually ascended right near the boat. Man, we were exhausted! I have to admit that all the extra work and surge right after lunch had me a little queasy. I definitely don't want to end our last day of diving like that tomorrow!! But I see it this way. I've now earned the tequila and cerveza I'm now headed down ...

... waren es dann zwei - und noch etwas später gesellten sich die beiden Suizos aus Luzern dazu. Diese brachten im Verlauf des Abends auch ausserdem eine Flasche Tequilla Suizo (Kräuter) unter die Leute. Naturgemäss wurde die kleine Gesellschaft auch zu fortgeschrittener Stunde nicht leiser, so dass der Hotelinhaber beschloss, den lustigen Haufen in einen nahegelegen Kuba-Nightclub zu verlegen. Die live Performance der kubanischen Musik- und Tanzgruppe forderte von allen Anwesenden ...

... marathon game. I sit and write for a couple of hours, unusually unaffected by the sway of the ship before excited Eli comes to take me out onto the deck. Under a blanket of starts and passing moonlight-silhouetted islands, we look out into the dark to see the approaching lights of the port. Eli leaves me to the spray and damp, fresh air as I remember nights of bright starry skies: Camping with Robbie at Sutton-on-Sea, cooking on an open fire and burning ...

Off on the boat today - 17 hours!!! Cant afford a cabin, so it is the cheap seats for us!!!! Well we went on the boat and when we saw the cheap seats our hearts sank. They were worse than any bus seats we had ever been on and the salon was dirty and hot. The miserable lady (and she really was miserable) gave us seats on 2 different rows, I have no idea why!!! So we went up on deck, fed up and not ...

... San Ysidro. From here we changed some dollars to pesos and crossed a zig-zagging concrete ramp that took us high over the wall that divides Mexico from the USA. I had crossed this way eight years ago on a day excursion into Tijuana and had found the whole experience one I was not keen to repeat. That had been the first time in my life that I had ventured into a 'developing' country and I had found the beggars and the chaos threatening.<br><br><br>Now there are no beggars and the whole ...