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Sept. 6-13, 2003
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 La Paz Works its Charm; Old Baja BeckonsThe Hotel La Concha is a bit older, originally constructed in the 1970s as a hotel management school. The rooms are smaller and basic, but have views to a varying degree, and everything you need: including good a/c, room service, telephones, refrigerators and TV. The Mexican staff was friendly and courteous, sometimes a bit lost with simple requests, but eventually things would happen. The hotel was a bit noisy at times from trucks on the highway using their Jake brakes. Your basic Mexican 3-star hotel. A pleasant surprise was the very nice pool, palapa bar, restaurant and beach. Since the hotel has been around for a while, large palms and other trees shade you from the hot sun and make for a comfortable place to cool off and eat. The food at the restaurant was also good (ask for a bar menu at night for burgers and smaller meals). This a good thing for a single traveler like myself, as cabs are $6 each way to town. La Paz offers plenty of nightlife; I went into town to eat a couple of nights (don't bother going on Sundays - everything is closed). I enjoyed a couple of restaurants and ended up at Las Brisa del Mar for my 50th birthday. I had a fantastic filet minon steak dinner, a couple of strong margaritas and a Mexican string band to serenade me for only $35! The city doesn't start hopping until later in the evening after it's cooled off. There is a promenade called the malecón along the waterfront with people strolling around enjoying the evening. It has lots of the usual bars, shops and sidewalk entertainment to enjoy. In hot, humid summer weather, the city is best enjoyed early in the morning and late in the evening. Various types of sea life are best enjoyed at different parts of the year in the Sea of Cortez. In the spring there is great whale watching, with migratory pods of grey whales coming there, and visibility tends not to be as good. Early in the summer, the water warms up; the visibility clears up, so the best months are July and August for mantas and whale sharks. September (as I found out) is the wet season, hot and humid with the occasional hurricane. There aren't many, but unfortunately in 2003, two hit in a month. I missed Ignacio by two weeks and then Marty came two weeks later! Sometimes the dive gods smile. October until mid-November can be the best time of year to dive; cooler air temps and less humidity is the rule. The diving from mid-November on can be quite good in cooler water, and hammerhead sharks are more easily found, but it is windy, so allow extra days in your schedule. Divers going to Cozumel are missing a bet if they think there isn't great warm water diving on the West Coast of Mexico. Avoid the long flights to the South Pacific or South America; some of the best diving in the world is right here 5 hours away in the Sea of Cortez. |
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Click on photos to view larger image and caption. Numbers refer to dive log #.
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