Sleep aboard the ferry is not quite as deep as hoped for but it sure beats sleep aboard a bus! One inconvenience is the need to get dressed to go to the bathroom in the night.About 8:00 we get up and brave the showers once more. I discover a trick to stop the curtain blowing in - turn off the water. Hmm...
Breakfast is cornflakes with long life milk, artificially flavored yogurt, and some orange drink (orange colored, that is).
Up on deck there is fine sunny weather and beautiful views of the beaches of Baja California Sur.
We arrive at La Paz after 12 noon - only a couple of hours behind schedule. The disembarking area fills with a tour party of aging gringos who can be heard from our cabin. Interesting how 10 Americans can be heard above 100 Mexicans...
After disembarking, we board our pre-arranged bus that will take us to the city. And we wait. After half an hour or so the bus is completely full (standing room at half the price of a seat) and we move of. The short drive along the sandy coast has great views of large sea-birds fishing their lunch. The shallow waters glitter in a range of deep blues and greens. This is more like it. Kind of what we were expecting in Mazatlán in fact.
The onward bus to San Ignacio will leave at 21:00 (local time - which doesn't seem to have much relation to any other time zone). That gives us 6 hours or so to enjoy La Paz. Luckily we're able to store our bags at the bus station (Monica negotiates a 50% discount - my hero!)
After enjoying an excellent and cheap lunch (away from the "Carlos & Charlie's" US tourist dollar zone) we hit the beach. The day is spent idly killing time and watching carnival preparations. A group of young men are demonstrating their 'machismo' by preparing a 20m pole for a 'Voladores de Papantla' exhibition. This involves four guys climbing (without harness or rope) to the top of the pole and then spinning around on a kind of platform to wind rope around the top of the pole. A bit difficult to explain - check out the photos!
In the evening we stroll along the carnival route soaking up the lights and colors. The most interesting stall is a man 'auctioning' blankets and cushions. He has a microphone and talks continuously in a showman style. As he talks he puts together a 'package' of a blanket, some sheets, and some cushions, which he offers for a fixed price for about 30 seconds. Then he starts again with a different set of items. He seems to be selling quite a lot. His 'competitive advantage' is not so much his prices but the fact that he grabs so much attention. There is a small crowd just watching him. Further up the street we someone else doing the same thing. Looks like someone his hit on a winning formula.
Shortly after 8pm we're back at the bus station to await our fate of a bumpy 9 hour overnight bus ride. This time we'll be riding 'regular' class - the only class available. At least when we reach our final destination tomorrow we'll be able to pitch our tent and relax...
The bus isn't too bad and amazingly I manage to get some sleep as we wind our way up the baja peninsular.
