Last night some guy was out walking the streets with a clown horn. You could hear him from a ways off, like ten beeps, at a marching cadence, the he'd yell something... ten beeps and a yell, ten beeps... Louder and louder, then around the outside of our B&B and off into the distance. Like a one man parade of crazy. Maybe he is waiting for the world to end and doesn't realize it already did end on the 21st.
Lots of pops and bangs too. Fireworks I think, maybe the occasional gunshot?
It quiets down by 11.
After a comfortable nights sleep, we were up getting ready for an adventure today.
Breakfast from our hosts at 8:00. We eat in the garden which surrounds the pool, in the interior courtyard of this compound. Imagine owning like an entire city block, building your house in an L shape on one corner, and a wall around the rest of the block. So the entire inside is a garden with pool, and around the outside of the garden, along the wall, you build six rooms, slowly and tastefully. A big garage for parking (that is if you have a rental car, which we don't. I would urge you all to boycott Hertz.) and that is what they have built. It is pretty cool.
Breakfast: coffee, juice, tea, yogurt and fruit to start. Then sopas. Oh, were they great! Tomato, avocado, lettuce, beans, chorizo, cheese and some special sauce, all on corn tortilla. The best ever.
We were picked up at 9:00 for a ride over to meet our boat for the day. Benjamin greeted us, he was the guide, and Loreto was the captain. We were headed out to swim with the whale sharks, then cruise over and around an island, Espiritu Santo.
Well, the whale sharks were HUGE, as in bigger than the boat huge. They looked big from the surface, but in the water they were gigantic. One was hanging, tail down, mouth up and open just gulping in fish... when he turned to go, he turned away from me, then suddenly turned and came right at me... I put my arm out, and when he brushed my hand he turned suddenly away from me. I was lucky his tail did not swipe me. He felt smooth, slimy, but when I got out of the water my hand was scraped and bleeding. No pain, just weird.
Did I mention they are HUGE?
Aura, if you are reading along on this story, get Max and have him tell his story. Just hit "comment."
Anyway, we stopped at a beach to pick up lunch (for later) then headed across the straight to the island. The dome of the cathedral in La Paz was beautiful, silhouetted against the smokey, early morning mountains.
Once at Espiritu Santo we saw the following, in no particular order: (Because it was all so beautiful it comes back to me in visions, like lights going off in my brain, each so colorful and a different scene.)
Leaping, flying sting rays of some sort, a whole group just exploding what? Maybe ten feet above the water. Black on top, white underneath.
Sea lions, families, nursing pups, adults, brown, tan, black, on the rocks in the sun, tucked into caves; the islands red rock covered white with bird poop, like snow.
Pelicans, some with yellow heads (ready to mate) diving, soaring, sitting in groups. I love watching the pelicans swoop down then cruise along on the air current between swells.
Frigate birds, a huge group, the dominant males with bright red throats, puffed out. They look so cool flying.
Dolphins, arcing up out of the water, then leaping free!
Well, around three we finally took a break for lunch. We pulled up on a little deserted beach, and while we explored they set up a table with tortillas, fresh cerviche, and this great sweet smoked fish. A can of Tecate cerveza and we were in food heaven. Imagine, sitting on a white sand beach, blue blue water in front, red and black rock cliffs, topped by those tall green cacti. We spent some time shell collecting, then headed back to town.
On the way in we watched the most beautiful sunset paint the sky, and straight away on the other side the full moon rose over the mountains. La Paz was strung out like diamonds as we finally pulled onto the harbour.
Here is a plug for our skipper and guide. (When I return I will edit and replace the photos with great ones, and link to his email.)
If you are in La Paz, you should go on a tour of Espiritu Santo with Benjamin Duarte, of Baja Biking Explorers (phone 044.612.139.0202). Not only was the cost very reasonable, but we stayed out the entire day, past sunset. We swam with whale sharks three times, and he was great at getting us in position for seeing things. He swam with us to try to get us in position to see the sea lions and sharks. The food was good, we took plenty of time to explore things, and he was really well read about the geology, marine biology and so on. While we were relaxing after lunch, he and his captain were walking the beach collecting trash.
A recommendation if you go: dress warm. Even with sweats on, Gail was cold the entire time. I wore a light fleece and was OK, but everyone was pretty chilled.
We got back to our room about 7pm (the people here who went with another tour guide returned about 4:30) and took hot showers before heading out for dinner.
As we were leaving, we solved yesterday's mystery of the crazy horn-beeping yelling man!
We were walking out, when far off I heard the beeping and his cry. It would fade in and out of the dusty alleys. (Only the main streets are paved, the rest are dirt. We live on a dirt road. The lighting is widely scattered, kind of yellowish.) so far in the distance, in the dim yellow haze, three, four blocks away we see this figure dart across the alley, beeping madly. A mournful cry every ten beeps, "oooonnn..."
Fireworks (or gunshots?) go off behind him. We hear him far to the left, more crackling of fireworks all around, maybe a gunshot. A lone dog is barking crazily. The beeping is louder, "OOOONNN...!" And now two blocks away a zigg-zagging shadow is heading straight towards us!
This was getting exciting!
It is still too dim to see clearly, but he is moving at a good clip BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP KOOOOOONNNNN BEEP BEEP
POW! CRACKLE! BEEP
About a block away we suddenly see him, under a lone yellow street light. He is riding a bike. One of those Mexican bikes, like a huge, backwards tricycle, with the metal frame basket on the front. He has something in the basket, and he is riding, zig-zaggedy up and down all the alleys, beeping and yelling to announce he is selling...
"Pooooonnnnn" (pan, or sweet rolls)
He pulls up, we smile, he flips back the nice cloth covering the rolls in the basket. Donuts.
8pm the donut vendor is out.
He remounts his bike, heads slowly up a block and disappears around the corner, as the beeps fade away and the fireworks (day after Christmas?) sporadically go off.
We find the Bismarck for dinner, about two miles down the Malecon. I order a seafood combo plate. The fish was good, the scallops great, the shrimp fantastic, the lobster tail good, the margarita strong and flavorful. (Note to self: two good shrimp meals...) gail had sea bass and really loved the margarita. The restaurant was really lit up festively, trees wrapped in lights, hanging balls of white lights blinking on and off, those kind of paper stars lit up. At the table next to us was a family from our tour boat (small town) and on the other side again, a group of friends, one of whom brought a guitar and was singing. Unlike yesterday's singer, however, she really had a good voice.
They drank their tequila slow, we enjoyed the meal and concert, then walked slowly home.