La Paz, Cabo, and Todos Santos

Sebastian, Richard, the dog, and Alberto

On Thursday, we drove to La Paz, the capital of the state of Baja California Sur. Our first stop was at Arte La Xoma. Alberto is basically the English-speaking representative of families who do high level custom copper work. The work is done in Santa Clara del Cobre, in Michoacan. The cost of living is much higher in the Baja, so the work is done in Michoacan. They start with a solid block of copper, heat it red hot, and then a team of workers with sledgehammers beat it into a sheet, and shape it to make it a bathtub, sink, bowl, plate, or whatever is desired. We enjoyed our visit, and Richard urged his son, Sebastian, to create a website for the business. Richard bought a copper bowl from them in 2006, when they had a shop in Todos Santos.

The Malecon in La Paz

Our next stop was Bismarkcito, a restaurant on the Malecon in La Paz. The Malecon is a sidewalk along the bay, with palm trees, and is one of the tourist attractions of the town. We started out outside, but the cold wind caused us to move inside. Richard and Sandi had sea bass Veracruzana, which Sandi liked very much. The portions were huge.

We then went to the regional museum of history and anthropology, which took us from the migration of humans to the Americas, all the way to statehood for Baja California Sur, which did not take place until 1974. The Baja has historically been lightly populated, with missions up and down the peninsula. There was a special exhibit of underwater archaeology of a US submarine which sunk near the coast. Perhaps the most impressive exhibit was large photos of the paintings done by the Paleoindians, which are now a UNESCO world heritage site.

We made a brief stop at the Nicholas Bravo Mercado, mostly to let people see a real Mexican market, and then headed home.

Pam, Sandi and Jackie

Friday we drove to Cabo San Lucas to have lunch with Jackie and Martin, who were college friends of Sandi, Pam, and David. We met them at Dona Lolitas restaurant, down the street from our hotel in Cabo, where the owner greeted us like friends, as we had eaten there before. In Todos Santos, we tried to buy fish and get cash from an ATM, but were not successful.

Saturday we had lunch at Cerritos Surf Town, where we were able to watch some folks surfing. We spoke later to some surfers,, and they pointed out the larger waves further from the beach, 6 meters or 20 feet. They said that they had been surfing hard in the morning and were resting now. Sandi and Richard walked on the beach, which was fairly busy with kids and dogs.

 In the evening, Richard went out to watch the music at the Tropic of Cancer Music Festival. His favorite was a local band, los Hijos del Tropico, a perfect name for a group from a town that is bisected by the Tropic of Cancer. There was a lot of energy, they were having fun, and not taking themselves too seriously. He also enjoyed Radio Free Honduras, a band from Chicago, led by a Honduran, backed up by Anglo musicians.

On Sunday we went to mass at noon. It was a bigger deal than usual, with a bishop attending. One of the people on the altar was a woman whose only function appeared to be holding the bishop's mitre when he took it off...... The previous week the priest spoke about the current bishop, nearing retirement age, and the new bishop, to be ordained late in January. We were confused when the bishop appeared to be neither of these. We found out at the end of mass that the bishop was an auxiliary bishop from Mexico City. After mass, we took our picture in front of the Todos Santos sign. Lunch was at Tre Galline, good.

Richard had read about live music by an all woman band at Todos Santos Brewing, so we went there for dinner. The band was Son del Mar, two sisters playing Son Jarocho, a type of folk music from Veracruz. Although they were originally from Monterrey, they had family in Veracruz, and had learned to play in that style. One of their key instruments was the tarima, a small platform with vent holes, which amplified the sound of their shoes on the platform, using their shoes as tap shoes. Their mother wore a mask of an old woman for a folkloric dance, La Vieja.

At dawn Monday morning, Richard drove to Punta Lobos in hopes of seeing the fishermen set out, but the waves were too large that day. We returned to Taller 17 for their brownies, excellent with or without gluten. Then we went back to Cerritos Surf Town for lunch. We enjoyed watching whales; David said that I had done a good job getting the whales to show up. We were fascinated to watch a wedding company set up a photo shoot. They even gave us the flowers left over from the shoot. We stayed through sunset. It was really an excellent way to end our trip.

We got up early on Tuesday morning to head home. We took the toll road to the airport, turned in the car, and waited for our flight to Phoenix. We cleared customs and immigration in Phoenix. We had lunch with Pam and Dave, and then went to our respective gates. The weather forecast in Denver was bad; Sandi booked us a hotel room for Tuesday night at the airport. Three out of four Southwest flights from Phoenix to Denver were canceled that afternoon, but our flight flew on time. It was snowing hard by the time we landed in Denver, so we were happy that we did not need to drive I-25 in a snowstorm, when we were tired.