What happens when you come to a place such as this, a paradise where so many come to vacation, but you come with a different purpose. You come to live, not holiday. How does that change what you do and how you experience the place you are in? These are the questions we have asked ourselves and are looking to find answers to. Not only here in beautiful La Paz, but in other places around the world. But for today, we are here, so how is it going?
Well, as you saw in our last post, the first week was spent in awe of the beauty surrounding us. We walked to the Malecon every single day, just taking in the breathtaking views of the water from there. And while we still do that, maybe not every single day, but several days a week, we have also begun to explore other parts of the area where we are staying. We do that for both the fun of exploring and for practical reasons – where can we get groceries? Where is a coffee shop we can call our own? What restaurants do we want to frequent (hint, if you get away from the Malecon, the prices go way down!)? So the last several weeks have been spent exploring and settling in.
First of all, we found that there is a little market, just a block from our digs, where we can purchase fresh fruit and veggies as well as meat and cheese. I like going in and asking for “dos pechugas de pollo por fovor” (2 chicken breasts please) with a little more confidence that I first did. And veg? You just pick up the plastic bowl and fill it with your choices, then cheerfully hand it up to the lady who weighs it all and tells you the total. Now here, I must admit, I still struggle. It is one thing to learn some basic Spanish and another thing entirely to have a native speaker rattle off a bunch of numbers to you. As soon as they start talking, I freeze and, when possible, ask them to either write it down or show me on a calculator. Lots of local merchants are very used to the Gringos who come into their shops and will have a way to show you the total close by. Occasionally I just have to guess and hand over what I hope is a large enough bill to pay for the purchase but not so big as to deplete their change. I am also getting better at quickly doing the exchange in my head so I know if this is a good deal or not.
Of course, the local market does not have everything. For bigger purchases, we walk several blocks up to the local Chedraui (pronounced shay-DROW-ee). This grocery store has it all! Inside is a panaderia (bakery). Here you take a tray, load up the baked goods you want and then the girl at the counter puts them in a bag and labels them with the price tag. So much to choose from! Elsewhere in the store, you can find just about anything you might need, from tequilla to ovens! Our first few trips to Chedraui were kind of all over the place. We found the store to be so huge, it was overwhelming. But just like at home, we soon found our way, and now we can walk through the store to the various departments to find what we are looking for. This store works hard to help out the “gringos” by having signs printed in both Spanish and English. As well, they have a special “Gourmet” aisle where we can find some items not usually found in Mexican stores. We were super happy to find that peanut butter (one of our staples) is stocked in this store. All in all, we really like Chedraui, although we still keep our fresh fruit and veg for the local market!
Aside from groceries, we have also spent quite a long time wandering the streets around where we are staying, looking for the perfect coffee shop. Problem is, there are MANY places that we have come to love! Some are pretty simple and others are pretty fancy, but all produce a great cup of coffee. One guide that I have developed for a really good coffee shop is how they serve the “cafe con leche” (coffee with milk). If it comes with the milk on the side and the milk is cold, as we might get back home in BC, that’s pretty much the bottom of the scale. Next up, the coffee come with the milk already in it, which is ok, but the very best, in my humble opinion, is when the coffee comes with the milk served separately and heated – ah, perfection! The price of coffee and treats varies around town. Coffee can cost anywhere from 35 – 50 pesos ($2-3) and treats anywhere from 35 pesos for a super yummy chocolate croissant to 90 pesos for the most wonderous crepe filled with mascarpone cream and topped with delicious fresh fruit. We seem to have developed a serious problem with our coffee and treats, in that there are WAY too many places where we can buy delicious treats! Ah well, that’s not such a bad problem to have, is it?
Of course, we do eat at home most of the time, but our little place does not have the most efficient of kitchens, so cooking is a bit of a challenge. I did manage to create our annual New Year’s breakfast of mimosas and Eggs Benedict, but it was a challenge!
When not eating at home, we have found many little places to eat. One way to feel more at home has been to find places where we can order something we might have back home, like pizza. But it has been such a pleasure to explore the local cuisine and the many beautiful locations there are here to eat from.
Goodness! It looks like all we do here is eat and drink! Well, in order to maintain some sort of fitness level, we have also had to work out what to do on a daily basis for exercise. While walking continues to be our main source of exercise, as well as our way of exploring the city, we have found other things to do as well. Snorkeling is something we had wanted to do a lot of while here, and we have been out a few times, but need to get out a lot more. It is possible to swim just off the malacon, and we took advantage of that for our very first Polar Bear Swim (yes, I know, this doesn’t really count, but we did get in the water on New Year’s Day!). The best snorkeling can be found further away from the city though, at some of the beautiful beaches, such as Tecolote, where we were able to catch sight of a number of fish. It was a fun and exhausting experience as we swam out to a little isolated beach, carried along with the tide, only to find that the way back was a LOT more work! Good thing the water here is so very salty. You are so buoyant it would be hard to sink! On another snorkeling day, we just floated along in very shallow water, looking at the creatures we could find in the coral reef there. This day was more relaxing and so refreshing!
Back home in BC, we had very much gotten into hiking, spending a lot of last winter out using our new trekking poles to head up and down the many trails around Vancouver Island. However, down here there are not as many places for us to hike near town and the heat really makes it difficult anyways. There is one hill that we were determined to check out though. Cerro de la Calavera is located just outside of town and consists of some very interesting rock formations and arches formed from sandstone. On Christmas Eve, we tried our first hike, ending up actually above the area we had wanted to see. This was a particularly hot day and we both found it pretty challenging. On another day, when the weather was a bit cooler, we tried again, and found the perfect lookout we had been searching for. Such fun! But if you go, make sure you bring plenty of water, particularly if you plan on hiking up and over the top!
So, now we are pretty settled and feeling very much at home. What’s next, you ask? Well, first of all, Whale Sharks!!! We actually tried to get out to see them during the week between Christmas and New Years, but the town was absolutely swamped with tourists and we couldn’t get out on a boat. So, we are hoping to head out in the next few days for this exciting adventure. Also coming up, we have rented a car for a few days and will travel a little farther afield to check out other snorkeling beaches, as well as heading over to Todos Santos for an overnight. Should be a lot of fun, so stay tuned!
Coleen Zimmer
January 7, 2022 at 11:31pmLove reading everything! For some reason I wasn’t getting alert there was something new!
The deserts look yummy and I love seeing your day to day activities. So cool to see regular stores. Great idea to just pick veggies and weight them all instead if how we do it up here. Less waste. Great under water pics too! Look forward to more ❤️
Sue and Jim
January 10, 2022 at 6:57pmnot sure about the updates, Colleen. I’ll have to ask my tech guy to have a look. I’m so glad you enjoy the posts!
Steve Miller
January 12, 2022 at 7:58pmI am still looking out the window at a field of snow, although good news (?) it is being reduced by heavy rains. So reading your blog is a good tonic.
By the way, I found a Canadian Department of Defence site (https://decision-support-tools.com/map?regionid=Mexico) that documents the percent of the population that currently have covid, in the countries and regions of the world Mexico comes out as particularly low, especially compared to Canada. It’s weird because you get asked here in Canada if you have been travelling, and you get the feeling that if you answer yes they will want to put you in a baggie and into the dumpster. But right now, Canada is the dangerous spot!
Sue and Jim
January 16, 2022 at 9:56pmglad to know the weather is becoming more “normal”. We have decided to stay on down here until the end of March, hoping to avoid crowds of Covid spreaders at the airport and also the cold weather up there! Numbers here have gone up and we are trying to get our booster here before we head home. Fingers crossed!