February 17 Guided La Paz City Bus Tour

We looked forward to this day as we feel that a guided bus tour is a great way to get a good overview of a city as well as an opportunity to visit sites and see sights that you most likely would not find or be aware of on your own. This proved to be true with La Paz.

Our bus tour first took us out to the outskirts to some remote resorts and beaches. On the way we saw the ferry you can take to mainland Mexico and also the facility where they offload and store their fuel when it is brought in by tanker.

Of great interest to me was a set of large ponds we passed where they raise/farm shrimp. From my commercial banking days I had financed Atlantic salmon fish farms and heard a great deal about these land locked fish and shrimp ponds.

We visited a weaving factory and watched the Mexican crafts persons at work. Their weaving machines are about 8 feet high, 10 feet long and 4 feet deep. The base threads are continuous and run vertically. They then run the colored yarns horizontally making the patterns. One man was working on a pattern that was very wide. For his machine he had to literally throw the horizontal thread crosswise through the meshwork to make it work. Hard to describe but it was very impressive and strenuous work for him. We were all amazed as well at the intense heat that built up in this rustic, uninsulated, wooden building. I cannot imagine the heat they work in during the summer months. Of course they had a show room where they were selling articles made there and they were quite reasonably priced.

We were fortunate enough to visit a pottery manufacturing shop with very gifted artisans at work. They explained to us the various steps which come together to make the finished product a thing of great beauty. It was very rewarding to watch them at work and see the end results. Of course, again, they had items on hand for sale to us.

We made a brief visit to the La Paz city market. What an experience. This was a cross between Pike’s Place Market in Seattle and the village street markets of Vietnam. However here in La Paz they had an unlikely assortment of items all together. Tennis shoes, hats, clothing, pharmacy items, sculpture and right in the next booth…raw meat, cheeses, live animals, vegetables, breads and of course tortillas. Some items have prices marked, and others have no markings so you have to ask and try to understand past the language barrier…and of course you are expected to “bargain” with them…which adds to the experience. I am much better at this now since my experiences bargaining with the merchants in Vietnam.

We finished up our bus trip at a Mexican taco restaurant. I ordered a recommended fish taco…specifically shrimp. Their tacos are not in a crisp shell like in US but in a flour or corn tortilla shell. Gary does not like restaurant fish or chicken real well (he got sick before on it) so we tried to order him a beef one…they said beef taco not available but they would bring him beans and salad. OK, he likes beans, that is fine. His meal took so long to come we were all finished when it finally arrived…AND it was beans, salad AND a BIG beef steak…not what he wanted for a light lunch and probably very expensive. They took it back and took the steak off and only charged for the beans and salad. On second thought (knowing it was not their fault that we could not understand Spanish well enough to avoid such a mix up) we offered to pay for the steak as it probably went to waste or at least could not be served to another customer. They declined graciously and said all was OK.

We have found on this trip without exception that the Mexicans are very generous and pleasant when you are also good to them.