BajaNews - 12-3-2011 at 01:38 PM
http://www.leadertelegram.com/features/travel/article_148b64...
By Brian J. Cantwell
November 26, 2011
LA PAZ, Mexico - As traffic stalled along the palm-lined street, we peered from our taxi and spied the cause.
A little parade came our way: boys in crimson church robes, young women balancing flower baskets on their heads and a flatbed truck carrying a raucous
band. Crackling fireworks zipped every which way.
A local festival? We asked the cabdriver.
He shrugged. No idea.
Maybe a wedding? Perhaps a girl's 15th birthday - they call it Fiesta de Quinceanera. Who knew?
It was just one of many street celebrations my daughter and I observed in a spring visit here.
That's La Paz, said 30-year-old Chabelo Castillo, a local dive guide.
"Any excuse, any excuse, for a party! 'Whose birthday is it today?' Hey, PAR-teee!"
La Paz, a city of 220,000, is about a two-hour drive north of Cabo San Lucas. It isn't a major tourist center, although it recently launched its
first-ever U.S. ad campaign. The state capital of Baja California Sur - the southern half of this desert peninsula - has few big hotels, with no
American names such as Marriott or Hilton.
Unlike Cabo, most partying in the street is done by locals, not by drunken gringos on college break.
For visitors looking for authentic Mexico, that is a big part of the charm.
While Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez landed here in 1535, author John Steinbeck hung out in the 1940s, and Jacques Cousteau called local waters "the
world's aquarium" in the 1960s, these days La Paz is mostly a normal, midsize Mexican city, unsullied by drug violence and untrammeled by tourists.
Costs are much lower than touristy Cabo, prompting CNNMoney's website to call La Paz one of the best places for Americans to retire. A holiday here is
kind of the Mexican equivalent of vacationing in Spokane, Wash., which also made that retirement list.
What La Paz offers that Spokane doesn't are world-class diving, saltwater fishing and kayaking on the nearby Sea of Cortez.
Just a few miles north of the Tropic of Cancer, La Paz has a pleasant winter climate, enjoyed by many as they stroll the city's sea-wall promenade, or
malecon.
"I love just walking or biking the malecon," said George Hastings, a Seattle friend who journeyed here with his wife, Celeste Bennett, on their
sailboat. "The people here are happy."
That showed in the evenings when the temperature cooled and crowds flocked to the malecon, a wide swath of red tile lined with wrought-iron benches
and dotted with sculptures of whales, manta rays, mermaids and other marine subjects.
Old couples walked past arm in arm. Groups of teens shuffled like herd animals. Twenty-somethings zoomed by on skates and bicycles, while young
couples pushed strollers.
On the adjacent street, a stream of cars poked along, including a limousine with a bride and groom standing to wave through the sunroof.
A sedan covered with pink streamers and filled with giggling young women in fancy dresses blared its horn nonstop. Another Quinceanera? A bachelorette
party? Who knew?
In 1995, my family came to La Paz from the Northwest on our sailboat. I noticed a few changes 16 years later:
- City boosters have extended the malecon miles beyond downtown, connecting with a beach park and making for a great bay-front cycling path. Bike
rentals are available downtown.
- New condos and a golf course have sprouted on El Mogote, a formerly empty peninsula in the bay, and the fancy CostaBaja resort has sprung up on the
bay's outer rim with a marina full of yachts.
- America has made incursions: Applebee's and Burger King along the malecon, a downtown Sears, plus Office Depot and Walmart on the city's edge.
But much is unchanged, and the local character remains strong. I still could find my way around downtown's narrow back streets to the Mercado Madero,
a public market where fresh shrimp mounded high at a seafood stand and steaks dripped at a butcher's counter, just down the aisle from a shop with
neon-hued party dresses.
Across the way, we stopped at our old favorite bakery, Panificadora Lilia, for pina empanadas - pineapple turnovers - for 4 pesos - about 35 cents
apiece.
On Via Revolucion, a family-run stand on the sidewalk still sold tasty fish tacos for the equivalent of 45 cents. And if you need shoes, La Paz seems
to have enough shoe stores to take care of every foot in Mexico.
We happened on big doings at the downtown primary school. Blockades stopped traffic, kids in school uniforms ran up and down sidewalks, and the local
police band stood in formation, ready to play.
It was in observance of Benito Juarez's birthday, a national holiday for the 19th-century Mexican leader famous for separating church from state - and
another chance to celebrate.
That evening, in that slow taxi, we ventured with our sailing friends to a free concert. A Mexican soprano, Loyda Vazquez, sang traditional songs at
the La Paz cultural center, a restored governor's mansion with stone towers and massive, carved wooden doors. Free concerts are a regular thing, our
friends told us - another part of the La Paz party scene.
Locals brought their children. The singer, in a long, flowing dress, trilled in an open courtyard beneath the stars, as a church bell rang in the
distance.
It was a lovely performance, diminished only slightly by the beat of music from passing cars and nearby bars, heard through the building's open doors.
La Paz - the name means "the peace" - doesn't do "quiet" well.
It's a party town - but with a big touch of class.
--
If You Go
Getting there: Horizon Airlines, part of Alaska Airlines (alaskaair.com), has direct flights on midsize turboprop planes into La Paz, Mexico, from Los
Angeles.
Combine La Paz with visits to Cabo San Lucas and Todos Santos using inexpensive connections by modern buses operated by Aguila bus lines, and you can
take advantage of cheaper airfares into Los Cabos, the big airport serving Cabo tourist centers. Buses depart daily.
Or combine a La Paz visit with Mazatlan on mainland Mexico. A passenger ferry (www.bajaferries.com) connects the two cities; the cost is about $75 one way.
Lodging: Rates start at $75 at La Casa Mexicana (casamex.com), a restored 1940s Spanish art-deco villa with five guest rooms, some with a shared bath.
A popular option for kayakers and budget travelers is La Posada Luna Sol(posadalunasol.com), on a back street three blocks from the malecon. Rooms
with a private bath start at $65, with a communal kitchen. It is connected with an outfitter, Sea & Adventures(kayakbaja.com), so arranging
outings is easy.
Centrally located on the malecon is the full-service, 110-room Hotel Perla(hotelperlabaja.com), which claims to have been the first hotel in La Paz,
circa 1940. Rates start around $75.
You'll miss easy access to strolling the waterfront, but if you want five-star amenities a short drive from La Paz, CostaBaja Resort & Spa
(costabajaresort.com) has rates in the range of $200 a night.
Restaurants: La Costa is a favorite of locals. A dinner for two of deep-fried snapper and chocolate clams was $16.
Traveler's tip: Mexico's nationwide war on drug cartels is evident in southern Baja, even though drug violence is virtually unknown there. Last spring
"Policia Preventiva" squads cruised the La Paz waterfront in open trucks, and police randomly flagged down vehicles for inspection.
bajabass - 12-3-2011 at 02:27 PM
Lies, all lies I say!!!! This place is horrible