La Paz

We arrived in La Paz on Sunday after anchoring just north of here Friday and Saturday nights. We're anchored out and still working on the "check in cha-cha"... (the final step remains unfinished - the port captain closed his office just as we walked up at 3pm, after about a 2 mile trek across town...) Oh well, Manana. The search begins for where to get groceries and how to haul them back to the boat. We've already found a market, bakery, and Mercado (grocery store) in our wanderings around town, but I'm not sure we could find our way back to them. It seem that at most of the intersections, on top of the stop signs, where normally the street names would be displayed, there is instead a small Pepsi advertisement. A few of the intersections that do have name plates seem to have them arranged at such an angle that it's uncertain which name goes with which street. Iain and I found the most reliable method of navigation was by counting the blocks on the map... then there's the problem of deciding if the cross street you're passing is significant enough to be shown on the map! Christmas is coming fast - it's hard to get in the sprirt when the sun is shining and we're wearing shorts and walking barefoot... Yesterday it occurred to me that the weather here is probably not unlike Bethlehem this time of year, and that all the nativity scenes showing snow around the stable where Jesus lay in the manger were perhaps a bit off... Still, tradition and conditioning are hard to let go of. We've got a little fake fir tree decorated with shells on the countertop next to the sink, and are excited to take part in some of the Christmas festivities here. More will follow...