Shopping and Soccer

We went ashore relatively early today in order to do our shopping at CCC before the worst heat of the day. We were early enough to catch the regular morning coffee crew at the table and I introduced Brenda to Dave, Al, and others. Brenda already knew Ken and of course Bob.

My plan had been to use the bicycle to make a trip to Lopez Marine then meet Brenda at CCC. At Lopez marine I was going to get the price on a replacement topping lift which would be 120 ft long. This was going to cost me some serious money. Fortunately I sought the counsel of the Round Table of Wise Men. They told me where I could get the rope for a lower price. Then we discussed my plan to use the boom to extract the SABB engine and I was told that the topping lift would not be a player anyway because the main load had to be taken by the main halyard supporting the boom directly over the point of load from the engine. Great! That meant that I didn't need a new topping lift. But it got better. After some discussion I received the opinion that it would be easier and safer for Joel to construct a wooden scaffold for lifting the engine out. They reckoned that Joel's workshop would have the necessary planks, hoists, etc for doing the job and it shouldn't be a big problem for them. So I walked away with no worries about the topping lift, no worries about the boom, and few worries about the engine extraction because I will put the responsibility on Joel an his crew.

Brenda and I walked back from CCC heavily laden with groceries. Along the way I stopped by a roadside vendor and purchased an enormous bag of oranges for 80 pesos. These oranges looked better than what CCC offered and later on the boat we were able to verify that the oranges were as sweet and juicy as we had hoped. Because I was carrying such a big load I tended to walk ahead of Brenda then stop to rest. At one point I walked across the street to the little beach where the fishing pangas are based and set up some rickity chairs under in a covered area for Brenda and I to have a rest in the pleasant setting. I struck up a halting conversation with a nice old man who was also under the shelter. Then Brenda showed up with a bloody hand and knee and blood on her shorts, blouse, and hat. She had stumbled on one of the many sidewalk traps and fallen. This trap was spiky pieces of metal sticking out of the sidewalk at the end of the crosswalk. I had constantly warned Brenda to the point of nagging about looking at every place where she stepped because nothing can be trusted. Fortunately Brenda was not seriously hurt. A bright side of the event is that even as Brenda was falling two men started to rush over to help her. One was a policeman.

After lunch I had a good session reading the newspapers.

In the New York Times I saw for the first time a phrase that must become a contender for the political Newspeak prize of the decade. The apology of a member of Congress to BP included the statement that "I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure...." Legitimately Wrong. I took the trouble to look up the definitions of "legitimate" and "wrong" and found them so mutually exclusive in meaning that juxtaposition them in a phrase was nothing less than political genius. I like the sound of it. It has a ring to it - or maybe a wring to it because it appears to me that the English Language has suffered yet another affront to its integrity at the rack of modern politicalspeak.

Then I said to Brenda "Hey, that Mexico was in that soccer game that I glimpsed in the restaurant Two minutes ago they won 2-0 over France." No wonder the waiters at The Dock restaurant had been more watching TV than waiting on tables. A few minutes later Brenda called me out to the cockpit and we could hear across the water the din of car horns and human cheers as the town of La Paz celebrated in the streets under the hot 4PM sun. To me this was too one sided, so from the safety and anonymity of my boat I yelled out "Vive la France" and "Merde a vous", but neither that nor "It's only a game" had any effect (mercifully). But I jest. It was great to see the triumph and pride of the Mexican people. Mexico is a large and populous country and I have seen in my short time here evidence of the strengthening foundations for a bright future.

Later in the afternoon we took the Zodiac to the Mogote peninsula. On we way we dropped by Bob's boat Adios and gave him 5 oranges from our plentiful supply.

I took the accompanying photos from the Mogote peninsula. The middle photo shows one of the victims of past storms scattered througout the area. This was a ply board catamaran that must have been deemed not worth saving. In the background above the bow of this unfortunate boat is Bob' Carroll's Adios.

The last photos represent my first attempt at panoramic photography. The two photos cover all of La Paz from the entrance to the channel near the oil terminal at the left to the head of the bay at the right.

Brenda's Bird of the Day is a Great Blue Heron.These are tall, widespread in North America and very elegant in colour and stance. We passed close by a GBH that was on a post at the exit of the Marina.

A further note about yesterday's Bird: On the way back from the Mogote we saw one Frigatebird flying low. Next he was beset by several of his fellow Frigatebirds. It is one of their feeding methods - to harrass another bird until he disgorges his last meal.