Jenny and Bob arrived as scheduled, on Thursday. With them both hear we enjoyed two days on the beach, a day of shopping in Todos Santos, the weekly artisan's fair in Pescadero and many good meals. On Monday we rode with Bob to the Cabo Airport to say good-bye to Jenny and to travel north in Bob's rental car to La Paz. It was good to discover that the four of us "travel well together."
In La Paz Bob conquered the traffic admirably in his rental. We had no trouble driving right to il Rustico and snagging a perfect parking place. After owner Franco welcomed us to our casitas, we wandered the malecon having time to preview some of the many opening Carnaval booths before parade time. We chose to watch the parade close to its starting point and even got a seat on the curb close enough to view with nothing in the way to interfere with photos. It was a nice long parade full of extraordinary sites. Beautiful women wore long gowns cascading down the steps leading to their platforms on the floats. Music blared from speakers on each float accompanying the dancers following in the street, or dancing on the float while hanging onto their Barbie-doll type stands. One semi tractor pulled a float with so many dancers that the whole cab of the semi was literally bouncing in time to the music. (The dance floor at the Silver Dollar in Butte on St. Patty's day had nothing over on these guys!)
Once the tail end of the parade passed our station, we walked along the parade route parallel to the parade and finally passing it before finding a friendly restaurant where last year we found last year margarita bargains, great food and helpful waiters. We enjoyed three margaritas for $100 pesos (about $8), perfect for our threesome. The margaritas were made with Controy (Mexican Contreaux) freshly squeezed Mandarin oranges, and tequila. Before long we had our waiter involved in conversation and he quickly worked the conversation around to the subject of whale sharks. He told us they were the biggest of all sharks, had we ever seen one? No? Well, they are often 5 meters long and they are in the ocean very near to our restaurant, and Martin, our waiter, just happened to be promoting his friends who take people out on boats to swim with the sharks. He assured us they eat only small things, particularly plankton. I told him I had felt scared to swim with the baby sized sea lions. " Oh, he said, "these are big, but I have never heard of them hurting anyone." Before long, we were negotiating price and time. At the price he agreed to, he would have to let other people join our party and we would have to bring our own water, but his buddies would provide all the snorkel gear we needed. we shook hands, made a deposit and agreed to meet him in the morning.
At 9:30 the next morning we found Martin and Jessie, a young woman from Saskatchewan, waiting for us. Off we all went to the docks to find Coca and Patima, our guide and our pilot in a boat waiting for us. During the ride out to the shark sight, Coca stood bull-rider style at the bow, leaning his weight against the bowline while Patima piloted the boat. Coca kept an eye out, sweeping his head side to side looking for the sharks. I uneasily remembered that three times in my life I have boarded a boat with the sole intention of seeing a whale and have never been successful. It was taking longer than we thought it would to spot one and I didn't think this was the time to mention my bad luck. Within minutes, Bruce, recalling a friend's failed fishing expedition a year ago, asked if anyone had brought along a banana. You see, last year, Bruce's guides had discovered a banana on board the boat which was catching no fish. The banana was quickly tossed overboard as the theory is that bananas on board a fishing boat brought bad luck. No, no one had a banana and I kept my mouth shut about the other bad luck person we had on board.
After another 30 minutes passed we began seeing jumping fish and flying sting rays! Just 300 yards from our bow we could see three or four other boats just like ours. Our guide made a discreet cell phone call, corrected the pilot's course, and then he was pointing toward the water before he began doling out the snorkel gear. Young Jessie was the first one ready. The guide told her to wait while the pilot quietly guided the boat in the direction the guide indicated. "Alli! Ahorita!" cried our guide; and Jessie jumped into the water. We watched open-mouthed as she swam after a tail we could barely see just breaking the surface of the water. Finding us all dumbstruck, the guide took over the helm and maneuvered closer to Jessie. When she stopped swimming and moved her mask atop her head, her face was jubilant. The only reason she had changed her ticket to fly out of La Paz instead of Cabo was because she wanted to see the sharks! Our guide began pointing and motioning Jessie to come on board. No, she was fine, we needn't worry about her. Coca took us closer to where the shark had gone. By now we had all donned our gear, ready to awkwardly tumble into the water at a moment's notice. This time I was rewarded! I could see the large tail just ahead of me in the murky water. I had a few thoughts about what would happen if I got swatted by that tail, but I had seen how quickly he had gotten away from young Jessie, so I quickly broke into that overhand stroke I used to practice in the dead of one lonely winter as a college student in Missoula. Ay! I was gaining on him! I swam along his side (giving that tail plenty of room) and could soon see first his spotted side, then his dorsal fin and finally his head and the line of his mouth! I swam with him awhile before he "kicked it in gear" and rapidly outpaced me. When I stopped and looked back, I discovered I had left our boat far behind and was glad everyone else was on board and watching for me as I was out of oomph! The boat motored to me. Jessie and I hung on to the ladder while Coca scoured the waters for another shark and took us close to him for another chance at a personal encounter. This time I was only able to catch up to his dorsal fin before I tired. It was reassuring to find that the whale sharks basically ignored us. We had been told not to touch the sharks, but that we could swim near them with no harm done. Both Jessie and I were uneasy when 5 or more people from the other boats trailed after one and soon we let them have the swim. Our guide was bothered a bit as he could see that some of the people from the other boats were touching the sharks. So he took us away until he found a lonely shark for us to swim with. Soon we were all too tired to keep up with the sharks, even young Jessie. Our guide kindly took us so close to other sharks that we could get more viewing from the boat. What a wonderful way to spend a La Paz morning! I was especially glad that my whale viewing jinx was broken and that Jessie's got to see her whale shark.
Another night at Carnaval revealed many interesting sites and games of chance, but we never saw the game that took away the young tequila salesmen's enchilada money. Today we have a long drive to Cabo Pulmo where we may not have Internet access. First we must load up on groceries before we leave this enchanting city by the sea.
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