Celebrations in La Paz

After a quick run from San Carlos, we were so excited to be back in La Paz for a while. This year we arrived early enough to catch our flurry of autumn events including our wedding anniversary, Halloween, Dias de los Muertos, and my birthday. La Paz is a great foodie town and there were many opportunities to try some new places we had missed our last season.

First off was our anniversary. I had remembered a really nice looking restaurant Sorstis that we wanted to visit last season but we weren’t sure if they had outdoor dining which was one of our hard-and-fast rules last time. As customary for us we booked an early reservation (when the restaurant first opens for dinner) and got dressed up in our best boat attire for our anniversary dinner out. The food was excellent and since we had an early dinner we had the place practically to ourselves. Plus we discovered that the restaurant is actually in an open-air courtyard that we couldn’t see from the street, so even better!

  • plate of sea bass with sweet potato mash
  • romaine salad
  • chocolate dessert
  • Greg at dinner
  • Greg and Kristin wearing nice clothes posing on the dock in beside Sonrisa

Next up on our list of things we skipped last season was to visit the La Paz art museum – Museo de Arte de Baja California Sur where we saw the amazing sculpture exhibit of Javier Marín.

The crew of Sonrisa outside the Museo de Arte de Baja California Sur. I guess this is what happens when you get paid per streetlamp.

As we wandered around town we also noticed several new murals by one of our favorite artists Uli Martinez. Once we saw a couple we kept our eyes open for more. It’s time for another hunt for murals!

  • Mural of pristine natural scene with green cliffs, people tending a garden, overlooking blue water and skies. Caption reads "Tu Decides" (you decide)
  • mural of characters made of fruit, cactus and a bird paddling a boat with a large cocktail
  • mural of a manta ray comprised of faces and a whale
  • mural of a fish made up of bodies

We also noticed many new sculptures along the Malecon. There’s been much work done here over the summer!

  • bronze sculpture of a mermaid the shape of a conch shell
  • bronze sculpture of a cutaway of a conch shell
  • bronze sculpture of a diver sitting on the bow of a boat looking out to sea
  • bronze sculpture of a diver sitting on the bow of a boat looking out to sea
  • stone sculpture of a donut shaped rock standing on end
  • sculpture of a picture frame with the ocean visible through the center

A few days later we were celebrating Halloween, Dias de Los Muertos, and my birthday all within the same few days. For my birthday, Kristin treated me to a wonderful dinner at Nim. We ordered a bottle of Rose from Ensenada which ended up being quite delicious and enjoyed that with our most intriguing appetizer special of scallop ceviche followed by our main courses. Kristin had the Morrocan lamb and I had the pork tenderloin. Everything was delicious. We topped it off with some wonderful and unusual baklava cups with ice cream. They even decorated it for “mi cumpleaños.”

Immediately after that we hiked over to the Teatro de la Ciudad La Paz to check out the Dias de Muertos festival. By the time we arrived the open air courtyard seats were ‘sold out,’ but there were plenty of places along the sidewalk to watch the performances. Whenever one of the Catrinas would parade by people on the sidewalk would rush up to the gate to get a photo. The costumes were one of the most impressive features of the evening.

  • Catrina in silver dress and crown
  • Catrina in black and pink dress
  • Catrina in gold dress with lantern
  • Catrinas lined up on stage for awards

There was also some beautiful traditional Mexican folk dance, some Aztec dance, contemporary dance, folk music, pop music, and even an ABBA medley courtesy of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Baja California Sur. Check out the discussion page for the festival for much better photos and videos than we captured from the cheap seats.

women dancers twirling white dresses and men dancers in red shirts and white cowboy hats

After a week of celebrations that were so memorable, we were ready to explore the more natural aspects to La Paz and get out to the islands. Next up – our trips to Isla Espiritu Santos and Isla Partida!

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