The days after Christmas

And the celebrations continued on..

We started Christmas morning with a loaf of sausage bread and a bottle of champagne while opening our presents. Christmas day was spent lounging around watching Christmas cartoons and relaxing. In the late afternoon we went to see Alberto and Rocio, local friends of ours here in La Paz. We brought their daughters Christmas presents and a bottle of Moet Chandon bubbly to help celebrate the Holidays. They were still recuperating from the fiesta the night before.


Boxing day, a very British tradition and still celebrated in the former British colonies (i.e. Canada). Well, Liz a.k.a.Land-Ho had a huge potluck dinner planed at her house, just around the corner from our Marina. And more turkey..... But it was delicious. It never ceases to amaze us the culinary delights one can have at cruiser potlucks. The cooking talents are just mind boggling. And so it was at Liz's place also. 22 cruisers got together and put an incredible feast together. Folks like Don and Helen of Sarah Ann, Rick and Joanne of Carma, Billie and Joe of Yellow Star, Nikki and her Brazilian/Indian girlfriend Christine of "Sailing since Tuesday", just to name a few. You get the message. Great dinner....

Christmas Eve in La Paz 2008

Christmas in La Paz - A nice balmy day to begin with. Blue skies and temps in the high 70's to low 80's. What else can one ask for?

Since Christmas Eve dinner was an affair for 8 cruisers (Jim and Heather of Meerkat, Paul and Erin of Romany Star, Bob and Janey of Amiga and Alex and Sue of Maitairoa). Meerkat graciously offered their cat to host the event. It's not that easy to have a sit down turkey dinner on a medium sized mono hull.

After measuring the different ovens and BBQ's, Alex and Sue went on the hunt for the perfect sized Virginia Smoked Turkey and Ham. Between Walmart, Sorianas, City Club, CCC and Sam's, there were enough choices. Succesfully completing their mission, they started the slow defrosting process of the 6.95 kg bird.





The festivities stated with a potluck appetizer party at Club Cruceros. When you say 3:00 PM, it's 3:00 PM and not a minute later. It's amazing what cruisers come up with for these types of events. A small section of the La Paz Symphony was planned to show up, but never materialized. Perhaps manana.










Around 4:00 PM we took off with our food cart, consisting of our contribution for the feast: the turkey, smoked ham and Sue's famous Christmas sausage bread.

Ready for battle....

We began by injecting the turkey and ham with Triple Sec, a trick we learned from Tim and Cindy on SV Masquerade a few years ago. The bird barely fit into Meerkat's oven but in it went at +/- 350F, continuosly being basted every 15 minutes with Triple Sec. After a short while you started to smell the aroma coming out of that little stove.





The ham went on the BBQ, Jim's delicious stuffing ended up in"Romany Star's" oven. Erin got a lesson on making mashed potatoes on Heather's stove. Overall work was smoothly in progess, thanks partially to Paul and Erin's great tasting mulled wine sitting on the counter, while tasting Sue's sausage bread as appetizer. Rounding up the main course were those fantastic green beans from "Romany Star"(reminds us we still need the recipe).


Once everything was done, we sat down for an incredible dinner on Meerkat's aft deck with a glowing fire place on Meerkat's giant computer screen. We had borrowed a foldable table from Carpe Diem for this event and had created a nice long dining table, where everybody could sit down at the same time.

The dinner was rounded up with desert provided by Bob and Janey of "Amiga". Home made brownies with vanilla ice cream. We were so happy to have Bob and Janey back for Christmas eve, so Janey's brownies were the icing on the cake....

Christmas dock party in Marina Don Jose

Last year we organized a Christmas dock party while in Marina Palmira. Since it was such a success, we decided to do it again this year.

It's actually quite easy. All you got to do is announce it every morning on the 8:00 AM cruisers net for about a week. Bring a appetizer finger food to share and your own drinks. The weather cooperated, a beautiful evening and about 50+ cruisers got together to celebrate the christmas season and have a good time in front of Maitairoa. Since we are on the long dock of Marina Don Jose we provided also the appropriate music through our outside speakers.

As ususal the food variety was incredible. Let cruisers loose for a party and they come up with incrfedible foods, including Sue's now semi famous Maitai Gelo shots. They are getting better and better....

The re-opening of "Las Tres Virgenes"

We were invited to the official re-opening ceremony of "Las Tres Virgenes" on December 17th, 2008 at their new location on Calle Madero 1130.

A casual get together of about 60 family and friends in a beautiful new setting. The house is one of the old Aramburo houses and used to be the residence of the first governors of Baja California. It has beautiful architecture and a great cozy court yard. The entrance hall has some fantastic paintings by Ken Bonner, owner of the Casa Tuscany B&B (http://www.tuscanybaja.com/).

The three new partners standing in the main entrance hall enjoying the moment....

Maria Jose again outdid herself with her entrees, the attention to detail meticulous as ever and a great Mariacchi band.

Maria Jose had at work in her, what she calls, "camping cooking" kitchen....... The new kitchen was still sitting in Customs as we enjoyed this evening.

Gathering from what we saw this evening, this place will have the same if not more success as the previous location had in the past.

Sue, Jesse and Al

Sue's surprise birthday party

For Sue's 40th birthday, I planned a surprise party in La Paz. It's not that easy when Sue is always around and wants to come along everywhere. But, there is the internet and with the help of email and an account Sue doesn't know how to access we got the whole thing planned. The tough part was getting 30 guests to arrive at a location within a short period of time and more importantly - DON'T SPILL THE BEANS ! -

Well, it all went well. As we were leaving the parking lot of the marina, I blindfolded Sue (against some hollering from her side). We drove around La Paz turning left and right and in circles until Sue totally lost her orientation. Then I drove through downtown La Paz to the new location of "Las Tres Virgenes". Even so they weren't open for business yet, they graciously agreed to cater the party for us. It also served as a dry run for their planned opening ceremonies. I had arranged with Maria Jose that a parking spot would stay open right in front of the restaurant.

Got to watch those steps...

We unloaded Sue (still blindfolded and with no clue about what was going to hit her).


As we walked into the restaurant there was a wall of friends standing there with 2 cakes lit up like a big fire.... You know those mean little candles which never go out.....

Maria Jose, the Chef of Las Tres Virgenes assembled a nice menu consisting of her famous Caesar Salad, Mesquite grilled pulpito (mini Octopus), poplano soup, Tuna Salad and Lamb burritos,

accompanied by some good Chilean vines. As usual the preparation was superb and VERY tasty. Yummi!

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL....

Pictures courtesy of Eagle Dancer, Meerkat and Ceilidh as well as yours truly

"The process of renting an apartment in La Paz"

The apartment hunt started in earnest around middle of November when we started spreading the word that we were looking for an apartment. Word to mouth always works well. We also started looking at the local daily newspaper and posts at the "La Paz Gringo" website.

We found a nice unit a block up from the malecon, around the corner from the bread guy and just up the street from "Perico Marinero" and "Tequilla's". A few of our favorite watering holes in walking distance. The problem was that the owner was still doing a major remodeling on the unit and kept giving us false ready dates, dragging it out by weeks. When we finally realized that the only source for hot water was the instant heated shower head, we walked away from the unit. Parking was also a problem so we didn't feel too bad. Not living next door to these tempataions would be a plus in the long run.

We learned something new every day about apartments. Besides security features, "hot" water in the kitchen was a top priority on the list. This is not that common as we found out.

After viewing many more vacant units, we finally settled on a nice furnished two bedroom unit around the corner from City Club in a new 4 unit complex with swimming pool. The property is owned by a Dutchman and his Mexican wife, who live next door.

Now the real work starts: moving off the boat..... What a nightmare......