Across The Big Floor: La Paz

For Carnivale (mardi gras or Fat Tuesday) we drove over to La Paz. We are in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and La Paz is the capitol. Highway 1 goes in a circle through Cabo San Lucas, La Paz and San Jose del Cabo. We left here and went through Cabo San Lucas and on up a toll road through Todos Santos and other little towns. (This was after a Larry adventure in CSL). Once we got to La Paz after a 2 + hour drive, I realized we really did not have a plan.

La Paz is a very large city and it had a lot of traffic and even traffic signals. The best maps we had are in a 10 year old 'Cabo' tour book. So we drove and drove (large city) trying to navigate our way to the waterfront and the Malecon (along the waterfront) where the carnivale parade would be. Larry had also mentioned he needed to get gas in the car.

We found the Malecon, but of course the police municipal had the streets blocked going down to it as it would be of course. Well, we had about 2-3 hours to kill, so we headed back to the downtown area and found a gas station. (Larry said fill it up, but for some reason, the attendant stopped at 100 pesos). As he was cleaning the windshield (anyone remember when this was done in the US at gas stations?) the attendant asked me if I habla espanol. I indicated little with my thumb and finger. I guess he was going to explain the flat front passenger tire to me, but instead he pointed it out to Larry who was standing next to the fueling (but not watching that it was stopped at 100 pesos - which equals about $5.27 so we probably got only 2 or so gallons.)

So we were pointed into the direction of a place to get the tire (llanta) problem fixed. For some reason, after Larry pulled into the place, he asked the guy to just replace the flat with the spare. I said, why don't you just have him repair the tire? Oh! so that is what was done for a few bucks.

On our way again we now had A PLAN. We parked a block from the parade route and now it was time to find a restroom. We walked along the street looking at the vendors setting up their booths and a couple of the floats, found an Applebees, used the restrooms and had a well deserved drink. We asked around for when the parade started, but it turns out there was no exact time.

We went back to the car to eat the lunch we had packed and just relaxed until 4:30, made our way back to the parade route and staked out a front row spot (which we 'gave up for some short kids).

So now we have seen Carnivale parade in La Paz (saw it in Mazatlan in 2014) and found it a fun homey parade; the Mazatlan parade was much more corporate sponsored. There was lots of music and dancing on the floats so that was the same. I love being around the Mexican families, it reminds me that people are the same wherever you go. We stood next to a pair of grandparents who were delighted to be sharing the event with their granddaughter who was 6-7 years old.

The drive home we took the western route back which was much windier. Both routes are very isolated for most of the way, so one sure better have a reliable car!