Ventured and Gained

As planned, we rented a car and headed a few kilometers out of town to visit with some friends of a friend. When my co-worker "A" heard where we were going, she hooked us up with her friends "B" and "G", saying that they knew all about La Paz and we should chat with them. Boy did we! But let me start at the beginning.

It turns out that if you want an automatic transmission, you have to pay 200 pesos more, so I bit the bullet and offered to be the driver for the day. We rented our car, a cute little azul Nissan Platina, from Hertz and followed the directions to the house. Thankfully, the speed limits here are all ludicrously low (40-60 km/hr), so I didn't feel pressured to move too quickly, although most of the locals were flying past me. Crazy American drivers! We got there safe and sound with hardly a mistake - something I am quite proud of.

"G" had made a delicious lunch of frittata and salad, which we enjoyed after a brief tour of their house. They designed it themselves and it is beautiful. Because the weather here is so wonderful and consistent (highs of 80-100F and lows of 40-60F year-round), they built three small buildings rather than one big one and connected them with covered breezeways. The main building contains the kitchen and living room. Then off to one side is the bedroom/bathroom and den/office and off to the other (in an L shape) is the guest room/bathroom and laundry room. There was a palapa covered screen gazebo where we ate lunch and the whole yard was filled with cactus, palms and flowering bushes. The yard was covered with crushed rock and there was a pool smack dab in the middle of everything.

We spent quite some time talking with them about their experiences. Both are retired now and quite settled in La Paz, but they spent 15 years earlier sailing around the world on their own boat. They love being in Mexico and they have many of the same ideas about life that Mikey and I have. Our conversation was far-reaching (from pets and vets to politics to children to efficient living) and quite educational. I hope that we will see them again when we come back, for surely we will be doing so. I would like to make this our regular vacation spot!

We managed to tear ourselves away from our new friends and make our way back home in the late afternoon. In order to return the car with the same amount of gas as we got it, we had to stop and buy 7 liters of gas from the Pemex (apparently the one and only gas station around, possibly because they have a refinery/plant just out of town). We dropped of the car and walked back to our hotel. My head hurts a bit from the concentration required for driving in a different country, but I am thrilled that we took the chance to make this trip.