1/7/2011 - Our plans, such as they are...

We kept getting asked what our plans are. When are we leaving La Paz? Are we heading "across" to Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, etc? Or, as an anonymous commenter asked on our blog the other day: "Now that you're no longer cruising, are you going to live on the boat or buy a house?" The only answers to these questions that we can be sure of adhering to is "I don't know" and "Maybe".

The standard observance about cruisers' schedules (by cruisers) is that they're firmly cast in Jello (or sand). In other words, there's generally nothing firm about them. We're no different.

Originally we had planned to be in the Puerto Vallarta area for the winter because we'd always read and heard that the weather and water are much warmer there and that it can get uncomfortably cool in Baja in the winter. Those plans went by the wayside when we found out that Lulu's brother had a chance to snag a condo in La Paz for Christmas. So we decided to stay here through Christmas and maybe move over to the mainland after the holidays. Since then, a situation arose requiring Lulu to fly to Idaho to help her Mom move into a new apartment. She won't be back here until around the end of January, so, other than to move from Marina Costa Baja to the anchorage about mid-month, I'm not going anywhere until she gets back.

So that will give me all of January to watch the weather. I've been checking weather for here and Puerto Vallarta every morning for a week or two now. It might be true that the water temperature is more conducive to swimming but the air temperatures have been virtually the same. The largest difference I've seen so far was a whole 5 degree spread and La Paz was still in the 70s that day. So, so far I haven't seen any huge reason to cross the Sea just yet. It definitely hasn't been "uncomfortably cool" here yet.

At this point, the only thing that I'm fairly sure of is that we plan to spend our summer in the northern Sea of Cortez and our spring getting there. Next fall we'll head back down the sea and maybe spend next winter on the mainland. But then again, maybe not.

Everybody has their own style. Some folks want to almost never touch land, others like to get places, spend a few days and then move on. Some want to see how many places they can get to in a season and others aren't satisfied with just ticking off places in Mexico, they need to venture further and soon. To all of these folks, I say "Enjoy!" Our style, at least so far, is that we like to get to a place and then, if we like it, stay long enough to really get a feel for the place. We love La Paz. And, it's a fairly large place that we have barely scratched the surface of. One of my goals while Lulu is in Idaho is to branch out further afield. I want to ride the colectivos to wherever they go. Colectivos are little converted school buses (usually) that move folks around the city for a flat fare of, I believe, 8 pesos. One thing I want to see is how close I can get to the airport on a colectivo versus hiring a cab. There's also a ton of places where we want to eat while we're here and, since we can't afford to and don't want to eat out every night, this is going to take some time.

So, when are we leaving La Paz? When there's a reason to, I guess. So far no place else is calling us so we're good here until we get bored or the weather turns to crap or the islands call out to us or...

Next January or the one after that we'll be asked the question, "So, when are you going to leave Puerto Vallarta?" Or, Chamela? Zihuatanejo? Barra de Navidad? San Blas? or maybe, La Paz? Rest assured that we'll get to all these places but we'll get there in our own good time. And once we get there, we'll stay awhile, thank you very much.