Enigmatic Nomadics: *Baja~ A Day in La Paz Centro

February 25, 2016

Sitting on the beach for the past couple of weeks has been pretty nice and relaxing. When Jamie goes into town to do errands he usually goes alone due to it being easier for him on the sand; with the weight of groceries, water, propane, etc. he doesn't need another 100+ lbs. to deal with and with me staying back I can watch the van and be with the girls.
Today, though, I needed to get off the beach and be around activity. It was an overcast day not getting higher than about 70-72*, with the nice breeze coming off of the ocean and the clouds, it was a good day to put the girls in their room and go to town. We decided to first go put more data on our TelCel usb devices, then grab a few small things at the store and grab a "real" bite to eat downtown.

The TelCel we went to seemed kind of like a headquarters, it's a pretty big store and reminded me of an Apple store of sorts, more with phones than computers but big and full of technology. This particular TelCel store is so easy to add more data to your device. We walk in, walk to the far left to the ladies behind the glass, ask for 300 pesos worth (which is 1 gig), they ask for your phone number associated with the device, charge it, ask you to sign the paper saying it's right and you're done. We tried doing this in Mulege and it was the most difficult process, it took a lot of time and we don't even think it was processed right. We were thankful to find this store, it's in town (La Paz) right next to a big Burger King and the same parking lot as the City Club & Sears. I believe it's the only Sears in La Paz, but it's pretty big, you can't miss it.

The parking lot

You can't miss it!

From TelCel we went to the strip (that's what I call it) to see what was happening, get some footage and find some local food to munch on. We drove the strip looking at all of the different restaurants and shops, seeing which one looked like the most fun. We took a couple of laps, easy to do on the bike and decided on a place that had the most people at it. We saw some really awesome places that we would have liked to have gone to, but they either looked like they hadn't opened yet or no one was there so we chose the one with the most atmosphere happening at that moment.

We pulled into a parking spot that was curbside to the table we sat at. A waiter motioned for us to sit down and he'd be right there, this place seemed to be slamming, a ton of activity & people (locals & tourists) along with tv's and music blaring, plus a nice breeze and view of the water.

As we were looking over the menus, we figured out that we had picked a Lobster House to eat at. Luckily, they have a Taco menu that is a bit cheaper than the regular menu and since that was what we were coming to town for anyway, it worked out well.

Prices in Pesos

Our waiters name was Oscar and we asked him what he preferred and what he would order if he wanted Tacos. He pointed to a few items on the menu, so that's what we ordered; 6 Tacos~ 2 Pescado (fish), 2 Camaron (Shrimp) 2 Marlin (Marlin) along with a couple of Tecate Lights. Oscar brought us some homemade tortilla chips with a slightly spicy fish salsa, that was to die for and some salt & the juiciest limes...they bring limes with pretty much everything here. The food came out really fast and looked amazing, I think I could get used to this!

The Tacos come with what you ordered (fish, shrimp, etc) and the tortilla, another plate is brought out with fixin's; coleslaw, a light green sauce almost cucumberish to taste, spicy salsa, pico de galo, and juicy limes for you to dress the taco up however you want. We put everything on them, well sans the spicy salsa for this gal but everything else...even the coleslaw (I've never eaten coleslaw in my life, but this was not like "American slaw"). We ate like we had never seen food in our lives, I'm sure it was quite a sight...it was just so good though, everywhere we turned there was food!!

After eating, we sat back and digested our awesome meal a bit, had another beer and looked over the other menu. The prices didn't seem too bad for the upscale feel and it being a Lobster House. The name of the restaurant is Bismark-cito.

The pictures below will show you the different menus and prices along with our bill (in pesos). The food was great with good service from Oscar and an all around pleasant atmosphere, we would definitely come back here!

That is about $15 U.S. Dollars

On our way home, we stopped by the Walmart and grabbed a few things and spent some time walking around. The Walmart here is so interesting. It has things for sale, inside the store, that you just don't see in the States. As we walked in, I saw a salesman showing a full-sized refrigerator to a family! I'm totally in love with their clothing and shoe options too, everything is colorful and beautiful, it's almost like the items are made better, too. I'm so on board with Mexican Walmart! haha

ATV's & Scooters for sale inside Walmart

Come get your motorcycle at Wally World!

One of many aisles of Mexican beer

Oh and the Bakery (Panaderia)....Oh.My.Goodness!! I could spend all day here trying all the different cakes, breads, muffins, rolls, things I've never seen or heard of. I'd probably gain a good 60 lbs. if I lived here due to the Panaderia, everything is made fresh daily and it smells sooooo good. The Bakery works a little differently as well. You walk into the Bakery area and pick up a big circular silver tray and a pair of tongs, go pick out what you want setting it on the tray. When you are done, you bring the tray over to the counter where one of the Baker's takes your tray and puts your items one by one in a brown paper sack, they punch the items into a computer and put a sticker on the bag. I didn't know what everything was so the first time around I got a couple of croissants (yum), a couple of jalapeno cheesy breads and a couple of pieces of bread that look like garlic bread slices (but aren't) with butter and sugar (I learned later) on-top. Everything was delicious, we made sandwiches out of the croissants and cheesy jalapeno bread and I cooked up the sugar, butter bread on the stove later and had them for dessert...mighty tasty!

The Bakery is about 5 of these deep!

On our way back to the van, we saw a couple of guys stuck in the sand, so Jamie dropped me off at the van, strapped the shovel to the bike and went to go help dig them out. Once he got back, about 15 minutes later, the guys drove by honking and giving a thumbs up.

It was nice to get out of camp today and do something different. The Sunset was a beautiful way to end a great day.
Here's to being able to live this way for now. It may end at any moment but at least we have today!