FEB 23, 2020 SUN- the fist half of today was posted on last week. We got our ride from the island to the mainland after a phenomenal morning of whale watching. For whatever reason when we pulled up to the launch, our boat was driven right onto a trailer and we rode boat to the hotel that way. Pretty cool, like being in a parade, of one. We settled into our room, got something to drink and took a nice long hot shower followed by a nap. We met a nice couple from San Diego, Betty and Joe Templeton, who were just heading out for a day ride. They had been to Africa and we discussed their trip with tips if we take that trip. It has long been a desire of mine but had put it off due to the long flight. However, Betty had some good ideas on how to avoid that with worth while stay overs on the way. Something to think about.
Feb 24, 2020 Mon-Breakfast and we were off by 8:40. Ok, so back again to La Paz, went to Walmart to stock up some supplies for the next three weeks then made our way to the new digs, and returned rental car. After settling in we walked a bit. Carnival is going on and the main street along the ocean is closed. Jam packed with vendors, rides, music stages, etc. Not sure I want to par-take in all of that noise and madness. A shower felt good to wash the hair. Hadn’t been washed in five days. Yuck. Though I did sort of enjoy not having to worry about doing anything but putting it up. Needless to say my hair said thank you for getting the salt out. LOL. I talked to my dad which was nice after five days! We took to the sheets for a well deserved rest.
Feb. 25th 2020 Tues- After breakfast we took a walk down the main one way street out front of us and looked for some markets that I had found online. Found all but one. Not too bad of a start for getting to know the layout. Picked up a couple of items needed for functioning in the kitchen. Had lunch and dinner in. Made spaghetti. Boy that sure tasted good! Then it was time to head down to the Malecon for the Fat Tues. parade. What a freaking blast. We missed the first floats, not sure how many, but the ones we did see were spectacular. All kinds of music and dancing, and costumes. Oh my, the costumes. I could have stood there and watched for hours. With the sun setting on the other side of the street it was truly a spectacle. The ocean was flat as can be, and just a mild breeze blowing and it special. We had heard there was suppose to be fireworks, but there wasn’t any. 😦 A nice walk on part of the Malecon we haven’t been on yet got us to a nice park on the ocean side. We definitely will have to rent bikes at some point as the Malecon is 3.5 miles long. We also met our neighbor Kirby today. She is originally from Minnesota and has a friend with a boat down here. She will be a nice neighbor for sure. Looking forward to a glass of hooch in the back patio with her.
everyone gets in on the fun 
Feb. 26th 2020 Wed.- Regular morning walk to learn our neighborhood. It will take a few days to get the nearby streets all in. But we have lots of time so no big deal. We ran into a couple, Sonya and Jeff from Whales, that I had met at the Magdalena Hotel on Mon. morning. What a small world. Who would have figured that!?!?! Also met a couple from Ontario at a coffee shop down the street that are actually our neighbors. They are staying right on the corner across the street from us. Another go figure. However they will be leaving here on Sun. Nice couple. I went into a pharmacy and got some of my RX refilled. I thought if I spaced them out I could make them last for the rest of the trip. However, weeks ago I forgot to keep spacing them, and then for five days didn’t take them at all. Not good, got headaches each day for days. Time to get back on schedule. No problem filling the RX. Just took my bottle in and said I wanted 30, and pay. Not real cheap but better than turning into a bitch for the rest of the trip. NO BODY wants that!
We had a nice visit with neighbor Kirby and her friend Jason our in our courtyard. While doing that the flame on the gas stove blew out and the kitchen filled with fumes. Guess it had been out for quite some time but not more than 30 mins. as I had set a timer and had checked on it. A nice pot of chicken in mushroom soup and baked potatoes really tasted good for a change. A nice evening stroll up a different street rounded out the day.
Feb. 27th 2020 Thurs-I had two stores on the list to find today. We hot them both. One is called Waldo’s and is sort of like dollar tree only a little more expensive. The other store was Dax. Dax is where you go for your cosmetic needs. But, they had the largest selection of cake mixes. More than Walmart! Go figure. We had passed a fish taco joint yesterday that Bill wanted to try so that is where we had lunch. Best darn fish tacos ever for a buck a piece. I’m sure this will be a staple here for us. We spent a little time out in the patio and read for a while. Our afternoon walk led us to Tail Hunters on the Malecon for a cool sip from the second floor deck over looking the bay, where we chatted with a man from Alberta, Cananda. A very low key night.
Feb. 28th 2020 Fri-Destination=bakery. There are a couple of highly rated bakeries here in La Paz and I like to have a destination when walking so we headed off to one. It was a ways off but that’s was ok because if I got something at least I could walk it off going back “home”. Busy little place, and nice set up. Fresh things coming out of the kitchen while we stood and looked around. But sadly nothing chewy, gooey, and yummy looking to me. 😦 We headed back to the Malecon and had a wonderful fresh frosted cinnabun! I found a pair of bright pink pants for $5.00. That made me a happy camper. I HAVE to stop buying stuff. I think I am already out of room. May have to have Wendy carry some back for me again.
I was invited out to lunch by Kirby our next door neighbor. She is enrolled on Spanish classes and has met some nice ladies there. We went to Mim. There were three other ladies there when we arrived. Two formerly from San Francisco and one from Washington state. It was nice to “get away” and have some lady talk and meet new “friends”. We yapped for 2 1/2 hrs. then Kirby and I came back and sat in our court yard for another three hours and yapped some more. No evening walk as it was 6:30 before we headed in for dinner. A nice day.
Feb. 29, 2020 SAT- Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Well, not exactly. We had seen many writings about the Serpentario such as one of the best things to do in La Paz, etc. So today we hiked the hour walk down to see it for ourselves. Quaint and small this center has a lot of “cleaning” up to do. The water in All of the exhibits was green and dirty. Many of the reptile exhibits were empty. I suppose for kids, who don’t know the difference and this their first encounter with “wild life”, its better than nothing. We really took our time and was finished in half an hour. The nice thing was we got a good walk in and got to see some area we wouldn’t have had we not gone. We passed a shop making fresh tortillas. I had never seen them mass produced with a machine. Kind of neat. A woman and her son were working the outfit. I wonder how many of those things they can crank out in a day? The woman fed the machine with dough that ran thru a press and onto a conveyor which ran them into the hot oil and out onto a rack. See pic below.
one sly fox 
colors didn’t come out in pic 
tortilla “factory”
We knew going down we wouldn’t we walking back so took a Uber to lunch at the fish taco joint. I don’t think there is a better deal or fish taco in town! We had some nice time in the courtyard where I trimmed up some of the suckers around the trees and cleared up the place some. Looks much better and not so wild now. After dinner at home we headed down to the Malecon for an evening walk and sunset. Much to our surprise there was a cultural arts thing going on in one of the plazas. We took in a rock group, dancers, and a jazz band. You never know what you are going to find.
photo bombed by a pigeon? !
Sunday we have been invited to game night from one of the lady’s at the lunch the other day. We also plan to rent bikes for a few hours and take a bus up to the big beach called Balandra Beach. This is suppose to be spectacular. Looking forward to it.
The Lauers Travel 