Visit to Todos Santos

Brenda and I did our first bus day trip to a small town named Todos Santos ("All Saints)" on the Pacific Ocean side of the Baja peninsula 55 miles from La Paz. During the 45-minute wait at the bus station we watched on the big flat screen TV Germany score two goals against England. The one way fares were 85 pesos for the 90 minute ride.

The bus was a large and modern "Greyhound" type bus with large comfortable seats and leg room which reminded me of how cramped tourist class air travel is. The movie was "Avatar" which I had not seen before. It started off in English but then the driver fiddled with the controls and soon the movie was in Spanish language with Spanish subtitles. It didn't matter because I dozed most of the way while Brenda gazed out of the window attentively as she saw her first wild cacti. (She had seen only one before, here in La Paz.) The terrain was generally flat and arid, with high hills to the south of us. I suspect that we were travelling in that gap that produces the evening cooling Coromuel wind that is unique to La Paz and is its salvation in the summer.

At the Todos Santos bus station I made what turned out to be a very fortunate move in purchasing our return tickets immediately. Outside of the bus station we immediately noticed that the air was much cooler than in La Paz - in fact, it was quite pleasant. We then walked through the small town which to me appeared to be in transition from small and traditional to larger, more modern, and definitely very "touristy" with many arts and craft shops. We walked past the Hotel California with its 245 peso lunches and found a cafe with a pleasant outdoor eating area. My sophisticated index of local prices, the cost of a bottle of beer, confirmed that we were in a tourist town: 35 pesos for a 355 ml bottle of beer vs 22 pesos in La Paz. But the lunch was good and reasonably price.

We then headed off to what appeared to be a green belt area on the map so that Brenda could survey the bird life. We were surprised to find what we can only describe as a Mexican oasis. It looked like a creek of fast rushing and clean water had been diverted along the quarter mile of road floodway, and along both sides of the road were ripe mangoes literally falling in front of our eyes, commercially grown paw paws, coconut trees, and a cattle farm with a toro with horns like goal posts keeping a wary eye on me. Brenda had a wade in a pool then we walked up to the other side where we found a large modern soccer field with lights, a viewing stand, and sand instead of grass. I had a snooze on a narrow bench in the stand while Brenda did her bird walkabout. After Brenda returned and had her snooze we set off back to town and Brenda could not resist another wade in the pool which she shared with a Mexican family who were giving their children a treat.

Back in town we wandered into a modern and superbly landscaped shopping arcade where Brenda exhibited surprising bargaining skills (As Brenda was about to walk out of the shop the proprietor asked "How much are you willing to pay?") to purchase a very nice Mexican made blouse. On one wall of the arcade was a large mural telling the story of the area from before the Conquistadors though to industrialization and modern times. Christianity was of course a big part of this story.

From there we went to the Hotel California for cooling drinks and soon we were on our way back to the bus station via a short visit to the park.

Whereas the bus from La Paz to Todos Santos had been practically empty we were surprised to find the 6 PM bus back to La Paz completely full. Of course! It was Sunday evening and people who had been visiting their families all of the way back to Cabo were returning to La Paz for the start of another working week. We thanked our lucky stars that we had purchased our tickets early.

We arrived in La Paz at 7.30 PM and immediately felt the last of the day's heat. But the city was as lively as ever. The waterfront promenade was full of people enjoying the cool of the evening and we enjoyed the walk back to the marina.

The first photo is of the decoration in the men's room at the Hotel California. The last photo is of a patriotic fan of the Mexico-Argengina World Cup game.

Brenda's Bird of the Day is a Turkey Vulture. This bird is a carrion eater. It has rather untidy looking black outer plumage and a red bare-skin head. (They look much better when airborne and a long way off.) Eight of them were huddled on a communications tower in Todos Santos and I saw several from the bus in the cactus country between La Paz and Todos Santos so there must be plenty of good pickings out there.