Via L.A. to Baja California

Start of the big holiday then! We were really looking forward to this one – two weeks in Mexico and California.

After a short stop-over in London Heathrow (where we had a lunch at Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food – pretty good restaurant I have to say, perhaps the best meal I’ve had at an airport so far!), we flew over the Atlantic to Los Angeles. The flight wasn’t too bad – got to catch up on my reading, and naturally watched a few in-flight movies.

Unfortunately, we did arrive with a couple of hours of delay, and immigration at LAX is a bit of a nightmare. And to boot, it was raining. But anyway, we were basically just spending the night there before catching our flight down to Baja California in Mexico. I did take the opportunity to have dinner with Robert (whom I met at a good friend’s wedding in Finland last autumn), we went for some Japanese (there wasn’t a lot of choice – it was pretty late by the time we hit the streets of LA). Nice meal, and good catching up with Robert.

After a pretty good night’s sleep, we got up for an early breakfast. This being the US, we went for a real American feast – pancakes with maple syrup and butter (and a bit of bacon, toast and hash browns for me, just to make a real meal of it!). Yummie.

Our flight to La Paz in Mexico was without incidents, and we were happy to see Marie and JayJay at the arrivals hall at the airport. After some enthusiastic greetings, we headed down to our hotel, located in downtown La Paz, where we were reunited with the rest of the group (Gilles, Valerie, Celian and Hector). The hotel is quite a find, I have to say, a real gem of a place. I guess the best way to describe the place would be cool & funky. The courtyard is basically full of pretty much everything imaginable: various memorabilia, old bikes, statues, bottles, old spare parts. But it’s all kind of pretty, and gives the place a very special atmosphere. The free tequila shots offered by our kind hosts definitely helped for the atmosphere as well ;-).

For the evening, we headed over to JayJay’s house for a bit of an aperitif. So we got to meet his mum, a nephew of his, and a couple of friends of his. Great fun – yet more tequila and beer was confused, as well as quite large quantities of nachos with some nice chili guacamole.

Me and Mathilde picked up some takeaway Mexican on the Malecon, and we then had our dinner at the hotel. Nicely spicy, yummie ymmie…

The next day the plan was to take a boat out into the Sea of Cortez to go and explore the natural beauty of Baja California. But jet lag was still hitting us, and we woke up rather early. Instead of lazing about in the bed, we decided to go and check out el Malecon – the famous seaside boulevard of La Paz. And what a time to check it out – at dawn. ‘twas a very beautiful morning walk, a perfect way to start the day.



After a brekkie at the hotel, it was time to head out to Baja Expeditions, where JayJay works, get some diving equipment, and then go down to the port of La Paz where our ship, the Sandman, was waiting for us…