Last Post from La Paz

Wednesday, April 25 

i-phone beading photo by Fernandina

Today is our last in La Paz. Time for a quick post before we unplug the internet cable.

Among the most delightful activities of the last few days was a trip to Petros’ Bead Shop. Originally I went to pick up shell charms for Diane Marsh to use with her grandkids, but once I saw the place, I thought of my broken bracelet. It’s an old favorite, but one strand had detached. Here it could be fixed!

The next day I arrived, bracelet in pocket, showed it to one of the workers and while waiting, started to browse the beads. As most female readers are aware, it’s sometimes difficult to coordinate jewelry since usually it comes to you one piece at a time. This bracelet had 4 different strands, each with a different type of bead. I’d always wished for a necklace to match.

Fernandina, volunteer findings packager and 

Maestra de Espanol.

Mary Luz, the owner at work on my earrings.

Pretty soon several people were hunting for beads like those in my bracelet. The next thing I knew, we had found some great matches and the store’s owner, Mary, was teaching me how to make a necklace. She was incredibly patient with me and introduced me to her friends as they came in and out, as well as to some useful vocab, for example, “herreramientas” means tools. We had lots of friendly conversation, all in Spanish. One woman told me her favorite movie was Sleepless in Seattle! Her daughter was packaging up parts while I strung beads. This was the best conversational Spanish of the trip. The whole project took over 4 hours! In the end Mary couldn’t resist making some matching earrings.

I missed Bridge as a result, but wore the splendid collection to show my Bridge friends today.

Here's Gratitude all clean and polished with her new decal and me bedecked with new handmade jewelry.

Most of this week has been spent getting ready for our Up Beat trip to San Diego. The boat has been cleaned and waxed, new zincs screwed on, oil changed, lines de-salted, shackles zip-tied, a head repaired, presents purchased and the galley reprovisioned, most of the time in torrid conditions. The sun is intense by 10 a.m. and our cabin feels like an oven. One day we went to a long movie just to escape the heated evening. Our Seattle friends the Backuses who have AC in their boat, Frannie B, kindly invited us over a couple of times to enjoy their luxurious cool.

We used the services of an agent to help us with all the clearance paperwork for getting out of the country because the offices you have to visit are all over town. He started two days ago. Today we had to pass the health inspection. Why our boat should be healthy when we leave, instead of when we arrived in Mexico, isn’t clear, but it scared me. I dusted everywhere, cleaned up every crumb in the galley, sanitized the heads to hospital standards and even polished the brass.  When the uniformed representative of the health dept arrived, I invited him in, but he preferred to sit in the cockpit writing on his clipboard. Sitting next to him I waited, ready to answer all his questions. I noted that mostly he was filling in blanks for the date, location, etc Finally I found the blank for condition of boat. He wrote “buenas conditiones.” No questions, no internal examination! This inspection cost us about $100. Oh well, now we have the official Zarpe and 48 hours to vamoose.  

(N.B. Though cleanliness is its own reward, tonight we had a semi-surprise visit from an Environmental Consultant, friend of Tom Keffer, to make all that effort seem worthwhile.)