Carnaval La Paz 2014

This past week brought Carnaval to La Paz, and it was a really good one!!  Lots of interesting floats and bright new costumes.
But, in order for you to get even a glimpse of what it's actually like, you'll need to look at these pics in front of your loudest music cranked up.  Every float has a built in sound system, - you can see some of them - so you'll have to change the music frequently too.

Have fun.

                                                                              

 Sorry, did the best we could shooting into the sun.

 

This is a float from Brazil

To give you an idea of size, the parade route is about 3/4 mile long...................and it all looks pretty much like this.

The gay boys float

Friend Billy.  Bruce & Judy s/v JUCE in the background.

Yes, we had a good time!  It was a two beer parade, lasting over an hour, and easily the best one of the last couple years.  And, Hector finished our canvass work on Monday - only one day late which is outstanding for Mexico - and it is todo bien!  So now we have a few days to take care of odds and ends and provision before beginning our trip North to San Carlos.  There will be many friends on boats doing the same thing, so we look forward to taking our time, doing some visiting, and enjoying the Sea.  Maybe we'll even catch a fish.  For sure, we intend to check out some new anchorages too.  And, as you know, there will be little if any internet once we leave La Paz, but Claudia will be sending Spots whenever our anchor comes up or goes down.  So for now, Adios.

As the Prop Turns

We continue to have a wonderful time here in La Paz.  Cool nights and sunny 80's for daytime - getting pretty tan too.  We're still at the dock as Hector isn't quite finished with the new dodger yet.  I had no idea how much work there is to making that.  He says he will finish today.  Woo Hoo!  Then, after a good bath, we'll take some outside pictures to update the for sale ad and you can see if you want.  IRIE is looking good!

We have one more week here in the Marina before we lose our internet connection, so I thought maybe it would be good to send some more pictures while we can.  Also, it's Carnival time right now, so we'll try to get some shots of that to send before we leave to go North next Sunday.

This is our friend Hector.  He did some canvass work for us on Sojourner, and has been a highlight of our visits to La Paz ever since.  He learned to use sewing machines as a little kid in his Father's shop.  These days, he has become too busy for much socializing.  When you're really good at what you do, responsible, and speak near perfect English, it doesn't take long for word to get around.  I'm pretty sure that Hector turns down more work than he takes these days........

By the way, does anyone remember Maxine?  She's been seen all over the place lately.  Frisky even.  Maybe it's the weather

Some interesting art along the Malecon..........

And a bit more art here and there in La Paz.

Ever since we started coming to La Paz in Winter, we've heard about the Whale Sharks.  These are sharks the size of whales that hang out in the area.  Local pangas take tourists out to see them all the time.  They're supposed to be really docile, feeding on plankton rather than folks, and people jump in the water and swim with them.  Last week, we finally took our dinghy out with friends to try and find them for ourselves.  Well, we had a great dinghy ride, but this turns out to be a lot like fishing - who would have thought?  After a couple of hours, the beer was gone and we hadn't seen a thing.  Claudia was not impressed with me.

So, when I had a chance yesterday to take our dinghy out in search again, it wasn't much of a surprise that she chose to let me go alone.            Too bad for her.

We still didn't find the Whale Sharks even though there were several pangas out there - the idea is to go where the pangas are.  But we did come across two Humpbacks who put on quite a show for us.......
 

Do you remember the long fin on the malecon art whale?    Here's a real one....












Dale and Moe had a good look at this one........

There were lot's of shots of the fins and tails.   
Then, all of a sudden             this whale came out of the water           about 20 feet               straight up! 

The camera was in my hand, turned on and everything.  And I missed it.   
I'm not too impressed with me either............



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