Wednesday in La Paz

I had coffee at 8.30 AM with Davd and Al.  The “palapa” coffee group has shrunk because Ken and Don now do a daily morning walk along the malecon and Rick is in the USA.  At 9.30 AM we moved onto Club Cruceros for their  coffee session and after that I returned to the restaurant table for an internet session.  The wireless signal was good enough to enable me to have Skype conversations with Australia and the USA; so thanks to the generosity of  Neil and his marina, I will have good internet access during my brief stay in La Paz.

When I got back to the apartment building I settled with Theresa for the three day stay.

In the afternoon I visited David Miller aboard his Passport 43 “Questor” (a roomy and beautiful boat inside with fore and aft shrouds to both sets of spreaders on the outside that makes me envious) for a two-hour tutorial on his MarinePlotter software.  I realize how fortunate I am to have these one-on-one sessions with the creator of the software and will reciprocate by continuing to beta test the product.  I am hoping that those DB9-USB converters that I purchased in the USA will enable me to connect the AIS transponder to the laptop so that I can explore the new AIS facility of MP live instead of in simulation mode.

Before returning to the apartment I saw some more people.  I ran into Roger, who had installed my refrigerator and had given me advice via Sailmail when I had that fan-related problem in Argentina.  I walked over to Eco Naviara and said “hello” to Yolanda and thanked her for returning my FM3 residency card do the department of immigration.  Then I popped over to the chandlery across the street and said hello to Roberto.

At this point the only person I haven't seen is Reggie, the wizard  who replace all of Pachuca's teak.  I'll try to telephone him tomorrow.

I also invited the “palapa” coffee group to dinner on me tomorrow night at the marina restaurant.  There will be five of us: Bob, David, Ken, Don and myself.  Al can't make it because he and his wife are departing in the morning for one of their regular cruises.  At the dinner I will propose a toast to Rick, who will undergo major surgery on Monday.

In the evening I was on my own and strolled down to Rancho Viejo a block away for dinner.  I started off with a margarita, my favorite cocktail and my first since leaving La Paz last November.  I followed that with four tacos arrachera.  As always, I was presented with a large platter of all of the ingredients that I would need to put together my own tacos.  At the end I was rescued from my burning lips and tongue and watery eyes by the second margarita.  It was the meal that I wanted in the restaurant that I wanted and I was not disappointed.