La Paz (Still!) Ginger

We had the best intentions to leave as planned Wednesday morning. We've been listening to the weather daily and the forecast for a "Norther" starting Wednesday night was firm so we decided to stay put in case it was bad. Locals said these winds come up often during the winter. A new neighbor arrived at the dock Tuesday night and said the one big protected anchorage north of us was packed with people who had been listening to the forecast. The final straw was Wednesday morning as we listened to the weather they were predicting 40 kts, 10 foot wind waves and specifically mentioned that there wouldn't be any protection from the small islands we were planning to visit. We stayed at the dock. The surge was intense at our dock, the wind gusts in the marina were in the high 30s and the surge slammed the boats and docks around for 48 hours. We chafed through 4 lines but since we had 10 lines out the boat was OK. The motion was very uncomfortable and the sand blowing covered every surface on the boat with a fine grit. We have new respect for the Northers! We plan to head out to the islands tomorrow, swim with the sea lions and then make our way south west toward Puerto Vallarta. We're jealous of the snow storm at home and would have happily traded the last 48 hours of this storm for snow in Seattle. The temperatures here have been in the low 60s at night and we've been forced to get out our fleece. The mosquito curtains are almost done and Peter accomplished some big items on the to do list here in the last week so we're ready for the tropical mainland.
La Paz was a great city to visit. There is a vital downtown and it's been a treat to explore. It's tiring to try to find the things on our shopping list here and I'm learning that most of the items on the list are just extras. We had a great night on the town with Nick and Cindi from Baloo. We took a siesta and went into town at 8P last Saturday to get the weekend night experience. We watched a traditional Folklorico dance exhibition on the Malecon (the waterfront promenade), went to a tequila bar, and went to see a guitar duel which didn't happen before we left that place at 1:15 in the morning. While waiting for the duel we did get to see some happy cowboys and some great dancing on the dance floor. Finally we went in search of the mythical "late, late dinner" we've heard about, for the men who stay out drinking. We found out that all the kitchens are closed at that hour, there is no IHOP here and the mythical meal is hot dogs from the street carts. Though Cindi and I were hungry this wasn't our kind of late dinner but reports were positive that the bacon wrapped hot dogs hit the spot. We got back to the boat at 2:30 and had a great time! Enough of the delights of civilization for now, though, we're really looking forward to being back out in the sea and away from the city.