Love Carnaval en La Paz!

Well heck, I just love La Paz.  I never want to spend all our time down here in the city, but I do like to visit the colorful capitol of Baja California Sur.  This year we only stayed a couple of days, but those two days were rich with Carnaval. Our arrival date coincided with the first parade day.  This year they would have three days of parade during the week-long celebration.

I love walking out of the bus station and into the beauty of the Malecon and the Sea Of Cortez.  The Malecon is a three mile stretch of wide sidewalk along the shore anchored by a marina at each end. This year our hotel is near the marina on the east end.  The bus station sits about in the middle.  We'd taken the early bus from Pescadero and so had the major part of the day to sample the Malecon before checking onto our hotel. 

View from the tourist wharf off the Malecon

Our first order of business upon arrival was to find a sunny patio near the Malecon where we could get a meal.  After weeks of our repetitive menu in Pescadero, we were looking forward to restaurant meals.  The place we settled upon even had expresso and I slurped my pretty coffee down before Bruce could snap a photo.

At that early hour, the Malecon was already crowded with booths that would open for the evening's festivities.

Tecate beer sells for $2.22 USD

Our next stop was the car rental place.  Bruce wanted to double check the prices he found on the internet, and maybe they'd give him a better deal in person.  While we found no better deals, but we did find two car rental agents who spoke less English than I did Spanish, so we had some fun chatting with them and getting some vocab lessons.  We asked them about the parade, explaining that it is hard to get information about dates and times of Carnaval in the US.  We wondered which direction the parade would go tonight? Which side of the street would offer better viewing?  What time would it start?  That last question brought side glances and giggles as they  named several times, all between 5pm and 7pm.  They answered our confused looks explaining that in Mexico, things don't really happen on time.  (Reminded me of my trips to Montana Indian Reservations with the Livingston schools where we learned about "Indian time.").  We decided to be back on the Malecon by 5pm and see what happened from there.

We'd come quite a ways west from the bus station and decided to head back east toward our hotel.  We were surprised to find five stages set up on the Malecon!  On our last time to Carnaval, there were three.  Throughout the night there would be bands at each stage in addition to the hawkers selling their wares along the street.  The booths mostly sold food and drinks, but there were carnival rides concentrated along one part and then there was The Blanket Man.  Once Carnaval started, he stood high on his own flatbed trailer with mountains of folded blankets surrounding him, and huge blankets hanging from above, giving him a colorful backdrop.  His loud microphone amplified a nonstop sales pitch.  His many helpers folded and unfolded blankets, creating custom piles which the blanket salesmen would then auction off.  He was a show unto himself and commanded a large audience, but at this hour, we couldn't even decide which booth was his!  Most booths, unlike the Tecate booth, still had their sales "windows" closed tightly with plain tarps.

We got lucky as we passed the main stage.  A large band had taken the stage and was playing and singing.  We decided it must have been a pre-performance sound check, as the singers and band members were in street clothes, not in performers' attire. We did enjoy a sample of their music.

If you can zoom in just right of center on the above photo you'll see some traditional instruments. With their music in my ears we began our long walk to our hotel.  I was excited about the Mexican culture we'd already sampled.  I imagined that I could soak up the culture these two days much like the sand at Pescadero soaks up the seawater delivered by the big waves and my joy would burble forth like the miniature geysers made by the sand crabs at high tide.

We made it to the hotel by check-in time, but having seen the ice machine, we were puzzled to find no ice bucket.  Lacking that bit of vocabulary, I used the words I had and asked for a box or a bag for ice.  It took a minute for the desk clerk to understand what I needed, but he soon returned with a smile and an ice bucket and the vocab lessons ran both ways.  He put the bucket in my hands saying, "En ingles es boo-get?" (In English it is boo-get?). Yes, yes!  But what is it in Spanish?  He laughed explaining they don't have a word for it.  It is "algo para hielo" which literally translates to "something for ice." We both got a kick out of that.

We decided to try for an Uber back to downtown for the parade and went to a shady place with chairs and tables just outside the front door.  It looked like a public spot occupied by a younger couple.  She was standing behind a seated man, playing with his hair.  I tried to make a little joke rather than surprise them and said, "Oh, is this a barbershop?". They laughed and began a conversation.  The couple resides in La Paz, he is a surgeon and she teaches at university level training future elementary school teachers.  They were waiting for friends staying in the hotel (one was an ER doc he'd met in med school) and all would ride together to the parade.  They said Uber was no longer a dependable ride service in La Paz, not enough drivers.  About then our driver cancelled our ride.  I guess they felt sorry for us, told us the name of a better ride service to use in La Paz and offered to take us in the back of their pickup.  We gladly clamored aboard, figuring we were in good hands with a surgeon and an ER doc in the cab!  They let us out close to the parade route while they drove off to find parking.

The excitement on the Malecon reminded me of Livingston on 2nd of July as people hustle to their favored viewing spot.  We stopped when we found a place with a bit of shade and some cement stumps just big enough to comfortably sit.  The street, blocked off hours ago for the parade hummed with activity.  Street vendors and pedestrians roamed freely.

Although it was well after 5pm when we arrived, we had plenty of time waiting for the parade to begin.  I'd been thinking all day of the delicious roasted corn I'd eaten several years ago from a street vendor.  Served on a stick it came seasoned with all kinds of things: mayonnaise, dried cheeses, chili powder (definitely not on the heart-healthy diet).  This year I was disappointed to see it served only in a cup, but I went ahead and "sinned" and found it just as delicious.

Ricardo serves up elote (corn) in a cup.

Ricardo did a brisk business, so I wasn't the only one who found the corn combo irresistible.

Finally, something happened: police cars and policeman on foot slowly moved down the street ushering people out of the road.  Just as I was thinking how the crowd would surge back out as soon as the police went by, here came another group of policeman followed by the parade:

The parade begins

Bruce noted the time....6:30.  This parade puts all parades to shame and is simply indescribable.  I'll just include our favorites.

Like many things, this one baffled me.  The banner translates as "prevention is the true change.". I thought maybe it was something from the local dentists, but then I noticed the people walking alongside the float were handing out strips of foiled wrapped condoms.  I am still baffled.

Must be every student from the music school on board!

And the parade continued on in an amazing array of lights, beautiful costumes and lots of music.

The vacuum left at parade's end quickly filled with the spectators turned Carnaval participants.  The fun fair was in full swing with rides lit up; people crowded around every food or alcohol booth.  We joined the crowd watching a band at the first stage.  I was happy when those neighboring me could understand what I said and I could understand their answers!  On we went to The Blanket Man now holding court.  The street was so crowded and entertaining, I didn't even think about taking photos.  Such much was happening all around us!

When hunger got the better of us, Bruce opted for a hot dog (really??), but I wasn't sure about eating a taco al pastor offered at the food booths.

Yes, that's thinly sliced pork "grilling" on a rotating spit.  The man in the photo is shaving off the pieces he figures are cooked enough to serve.  Judging from the crowd around the taco booth, this was a popular item at Carnaval.  We walked a little further through the crowd and found a place offering chicken tacos and a place to sit.  I was happy to sit with that dinner while I waited for my phone to download Didi, the new ride app our new friends had told us about.

Turns out, the downloading and subsequent setup took longer than desired, so we decided to now walk toward our hotel while enjoying the Eastern edge of Carnaval.  Soon enough we arrived at the drive to our hotel.  As luck would have it, we arrived just as our doctor friend was heading home.  He stopped while his girlfriend rolled down the window.  They both laughed and they told us they had to park so far away from Carnaval, they had to "Didi" back to their truck!

I had promised Bruce we'd eat a fancy restaurant dinner in La Paz after he agreed to eating "street food" at Carnaval.  So the next night, he picked out a restaurant close to our hotel with an outdoor patio on the marina, and fancy it was! We timed our meal to coincide with sunset and started with shrimp cocktail:

There were well over a dozen shrimp as big as the one on my spoon in a very delicious sauce!  After we ate all the shrimp, I hated to let the sauce go.  I mused aloud to the waitress about if I had a shot of tequila to put in it, I'd drink the sauce.  "You want one?" she asked.  Oh! Twist my arm!

For the main entree, Bruce was happy to see his favorite pasta on the menu and ordered spaghetti.  I went out on a limb and ordered some kind of fish.  All I knew was that it was cooked with garlic and served on a bed of fresh greens.  Sounded perfectly doable.  But when it came, I had to ask the waitress how I should eat it:

The "before" shot

I gotta admit, I was a bit intimidated.  That tilt of my head is apparently an involuntary trait inherited from my dad when I don't understand the situation in front of me.  The kind, tequila temptress, aka waitress, explained the procedure and I'm here to tell you it was the most delicious fish I've ever eaten!  The Mexicans would say, "Muy rico!". I say succulent and moist, lightly infused with the taste of garlic.  A squeeze from the accompanying roasted lemon dressed the greens perfectly.

The "after" shot

I felt like made a pretty good "dent" in my meal.  Bruce nearly licked his plate clean (but declined my offer to share my fish).  All-in-all we had a very successful Carnaval and side trip to La Paz.  The next morning, we did indeed use the Didi app to get a ride back to the bus station and on the ride home savored our memories (while watching a Harry Potter movie in Spanish!).

Just as an end note, I am posting this two days after the killing of El Mencho on the mainland, a week after our La Paz trip. Many of you have kindly expressed concern over our safety with news of the cartel violence on the mainland.  I want you all to know that we neither feel nor see any effects from the killing of El Mencho on Sunday.  We are all safe here on the southern end of Baja and life goes on as normal.  It sounds like things settled down rapidly on the mainland, so life in the most affected areas is returning to normal.