La Paz
La Paz, Mexico 2025: Overview
We never thought we would sail in a desert. Not that we didn’t want to; the thought just never occurred to us that it is something a person would do. Enter John from Cruise-n-Learn Sailing International, Johan’s colleague and our sailing instructor for ASA in the Bahamas. John has been telling us about La Paz for a couple of years, and I became very intrigued, particularly about the whale sharks. So when we decided to plan a last minute trip and started pricing out airfares, I was delighted that La Paz made the most sense! Getting there was easy, and we were blown away with the sea life - whales, sea lions, rays, dolphins - and the health of the coral beds. The water was a bit chilly in March so we purchased wet suits for our snorkeling adventures. The days were beautiful and warm and we hiked through canyons, desert terrain, fishing villages and on the side of cliffs. We saw some of the most amazing sunsets of our lives - and we have seen some beautiful sunsets. We came away with some fantastic stories about people and some new knowledge about mending boats. It is funny how life leads you to people and people lead you to new places and adventures. We are so glad we met John and Amber and made our way to La Paz, Mexico. We will definitely go back!
Cabo San Jose to La Paz - Getting to the Marina
We saved some money on the flight by spending the first night in Lexington, KY. One of the kids wasn’t feeling good that night and I spent the night imagining all of the scenarios for the next day - delay by one day, divide and conquer or forge ahead with a sick kiddo - so not a lot of great sleep. Thankfully, he woke up feeling better and we headed to the airport before dawn. From Lexington, we flew to Atlanta then San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. John was kind enough to pick up the whole family at the airport for the 3 hour drive to La Paz. He asked which route we wanted to take and we requested the scenic route! We had tacos in a tourist town called Los Barriles.
As we were approaching El Triunfo on the ride to La Paz, John explained that the village was an old gold and silver mining town that Christy Walton, one of the heirs to the Walmart fortune, fell in love with and has helped to make a tourist destination. She has taken an interest in La Paz and the surrounding region and she also donated money to build the statues along the water in La Paz (Sculptures — Tenaja Holdings ). We were not planning to stop in El Triunfo but we saw a sign for dragonfruit (pitaya) and Alex loves dragonfruit so we stopped. It turned out to be homemade ice cream/sorbet. I didn’t want the kids in Captain John’s car with the treat so we took a short lovely walk around the town and I am so glad we did, because the village was adorable. We even had some live guitar music to add to the atmosphere.
Next stop was the Chedraui grocery store for most of our provisioning. Prior to the trip we had ordered some of the heavier provisions to the boat but we still needed to buy the majority of our food. We had our list ready to go but it still took over an hour bc we didn’t know where anything was! Chedraui was a great grocery store with a very good selection of produce, meats and wine. Our only problem was fitting all the food - and all of us - in the car!! We are so grateful to John for putting up with us as we crammed the 3 kids and me in his second row so we could fit everything else in the trunk.
From there we drove through La Paz to the marina. La Paz is a city of 250,000 people. We planned to return that evening for dinner so I didn’t take many pictures as we drove through town. There were old school busses for city transportation and a beautiful waterfront sidewalk for a nice walk with a view. I am sure there are lots of places to explore but we needed to get to the boat. I expected the marina to be in town, with walking access to the city, but it was actually a bit outside. There was traffic for a triathalon so it was slow going and we figured out quickly we wouldn’t be going back into town as planned. We did not get to explore La Paz this trip, but will definitely schedule in time for it on our next visit. The marina was in a gated community and it was a beautiful place. We got all of our luggage and provisions on the boat and went to dinner.
While we were at dinner in the marina, the kids decided to run back to the boat. They were a little excited and acting a little crazy. Apparently, Alex was in such a rush to get back to the boat that he didn’t see the safety line up and he ran his face into it. He had a pretty nasty bruise and a cut, but nothing that looked like it needed emergency services. He reenacted the whole ordeal the next day once we knew he was ok. We decided that a pirate fight made a better story. What a first day! We couldn’t wait to get the sails up the next day and head out on our adventure.
Stay tuned for more adventures on the Sea of Cortez!
Heading Out: La Paz to Caleta Lobos with an unexpected stop
Early Sunday morning we woke up and had a boat briefing and a chart briefing. This boat was both bigger and older than usual for us, a 2019 Lagoon 450. We knew that there might be some maintenance issues on an older boat and we were very open to learning something from the boat while we were there. As we headed out to the Sea of Cortez, we were immediately greeted by a sea lion swimming outside of the channel. The weather was beautiful and we couldn’t wait to get the sails out. As soon as we were in an appropriate location we turned into the wind and began lifting the main sail so we could head to our lunch stop in Balandra. It initially went smoothly, but when the sail was about half way up, we started to encounter some pretty stiff resistance. It seemed that the main sail was getting stuck on the reefing lines, so we checked and re-checked that the reef lines were not in. We started manually pulling the reefing lines that were stuck due to disuse. We took our time but continued to raise the sail. I was at the mast to guide the ropes and to help them move.
All of a sudden, there was a loud bang, and I saw a few small metal parts go flying, at least one of them off of the boat. I wasn’t sure how many parts there were, but we were able to collect a couple of washers and a small piece of metal. We immediately lowered the main and called the base. They met us at Playa Pichilingue, which was a happening spot for locals. Lots of folks camping and even big rigs for show on the beech. We dinghied in to pick up two guys. I was pretty sure we might be sail-less the rest of the trip but these guys literally put their backs into to fixing it. They told us the boat hadn’t been sailed in a while and the gooseneck bolt that was holding the boom in place should have had a hole and a steel pin at the bottom instead of a nut. While they were there we got some DW 40 to loosen up the traveler runner and were advised just to keep the reefing lines out instead of struggling each time we put up the main. It isn’t the cleanest look but it works.
After that we headed to Caleta Lobos to spend the night. We passed by “bird poop island”, which actually does look pretty cool, but it is literally a White Island because the birds use it as a bathroom. There was a small island, Roca Lobos, to snorkel, so we decided to try out the wet suits. We saw some pristinely protected coral and fish, coolest was the first puffer we saw (many more of those to come). For dinner we had chicken, bacon, corn and some rice.
That night, we noticed that we were having some trouble with the generator not charging This was not shocking since they had told us at the docks that it had 18k hours on it and it was normal for a generator to have 12-15k hours. The generator is not always a critical thing to have on a week long trip but it was critical for us. Why? They also told us at the marina that our water tanks leak (yeh!). We have been on several trips without needing to refill water, and we can typically survive without refilling at a dock. On this boat, however, we were down to 3/4ths on each tank in the first short day. Luckily, the boat had a working water maker but you need the generator to make water. If we were down a generator, we would really be restricted as to where we could go.