We didn't really know what to expect but we were happy to see fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, muffins, bagels and cold cereal with milk and several flavors of juice.
Then we headed out to explore.
La Paz is a large metropolitan city that is the capitol of Baja California Sur (South).
We walked around the downtown area and found many interesting tourist type stores and also lots of stores that the local residents shop at.
We went into the Municipal Market to see what that was all about.
It was filled with locals doing their shopping. It was set up sort of like a swap meet with small booths that sold certain items.
There was a booth selling purses, one selling Levi's, shoes were in abundance and then at the other end of the market was the grocery department with lots of additional booths and stalls.
They had lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
There was a wide selection of seafood in several stalls that included all types of fish, shellfish, shrimp, crab, octopus and squid.
The meat section had typical glass fronted meat display areas with stacks of various types of steaks, ground meats, and sausages on display.
They also had a specialty department.
You could pick up a fresh hoof or two as well as all of the tripe you might need.
If you were going to have a special get together, they had other delicacies.
How about a nice pigs head or some pigs legs with the tasty pigs feet still attached?
That pretty much ended Suzie's urge to shop for a while and we decided to head out to the beach.
We walked back to the hotel and got the car and headed out. There is a very popular beach located a few miles out of town and that is where we headed.
As we drove out of the downtown area, we found that there were lots of condo or apartment type buildings built up along the beach area. They looked like tourist type facilities.
We also saw lots of desert and interesting rock formations.
The drive to the beach took us past a large busy commercial harbor that served as an import point for many of the supplies needed by the large population of southern Baja.
There was a steady stream of trucks pulling cargo containers from the port, heading out to the nearby cities and towns.
This port also served as a terminal for ferry service to Guaymas and Mazatlan on the mainland of Mexico.
The beach was located a mile past the harbor and was beautiful. The water was chilly and it was a windy day so we didn't even think about going into the water but it looked very inviting.
The beach is protected from the north wind by a rocky point.
Out past the rocky point the wind was whipping up some pretty good surf.
Everywhere we walked was another beautiful scene.
When we went back to town, we spent several nice afternoons walking through the downtown area. There were lots of the regular tourist type stores with t-shirts and other touristy junk.
We also found some interesting sights.
As we were walking down the sidewalk, a man was in front of an arched doorway sweeping. He asked us if we were looking for a hotel. We said we already had a hotel but he said it wasn't anything like his hotel and invited us to walk around the patio area which we did.
The reason that we did was because he had seen us admiring a statue in front of his archway and told us that if we thought it was interesting then we would like what we would find inside.
The statue we were admiring was a life size horse made out of palm fronds. It must have been made by a very patient and creative individual.
Then we went into the patio area.
There were interesting things hanging on every available space outside of each of the rooms.
Yes . . . . . . . . . this is a dried monkey! ! !
We stayed in La Paz for several days and in the next chapter, we will take you to some outlying villages.
Some of you have asked about forwarding our blog on to friends or family who might be interested.
We hope you will share this with anyone you think might find it interesting, and any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Be sure to remind them that there is a Blog Archive listed right under our picture at the top of the page that will take them back to past chapters of the blog.
More to come soon,
Tom & Suzie
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