Category: 2019-12 (December)

We are in the marina, walking every day, taking care of stuff on the boat. We have gotten some good beer (Baja Brewing Scorpion) and see a fairly subdued La Paz. Covid has certainly impacted the economy. We have done some Christmas shopping, and work on the boat. We participate in the La Paz Cruisers Net most mornings, (8 am on VHF ch 22a) weather, tides, and local information. We are flying back to Tijuana on Monday 12/21 and walking across the border to visit relatives in California. We return on Jan 2, 2021.

*******************

Posted by BajaInsider on December 19, 2020

Face Coverings Now the LAW in BCS

Wearing a Mask and observing health protocoles is the LAW in BCS.

Effective December 18, 2020 until further notice, wearing a face mask covering is now the law, in simple terms anywhere outside the door of your home. In all locations, in your car, out in the street and of course, in all establishments. you are required to observe social distancing, mask use and gathering limitations. A 36-hour jail stay and a fine of $8600MN if you do not use face masks or do not respect protocols including gatherings and social distancing, that says new law published in the Official Gazette.

AGREEMENT TO DISCOVER NEW SANITARY MEASURES ADOPTED BY THE STATE HEALTH SAFETY COMMITTEE, TO CONTROL, MITIGATE AND PREVENT THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 IN THE STATE

FIRST ARTICLE. “The purpose of this Agreement is to establish as a priority measure of prevention and care for public health, the mandatory use of a mask as well as other measures to prevent the transmission and risks of contagion of the COVID-19 disease, until the State Committee of Sagunidad en Salud officially declares the conclusion of the health emergency of the SARS CoV2 virus (COVID-19)

SECOND ARTICLE.- The use of face masks is mandatory for all people who are in the territory of the State of Baja California Sur on roads and public spaces or for common use, inside establishments either for trade, industry or Services, Centers of work of any branch, shopping centers, considered essential or non-essential, as well as for users, operators and drivers of the passenger transport service in any modality.

You may argue the constitutionality of mask wearing in your home country, but here and Baja California Sur, Mexico City and some other Mexican States it is the law. If you are here on a visa, tourist, temporary or permanent

*******************

No Pictures for this post.

We walked to the farmers market for fruit and veggies, stopped at OXXO (like a 7-11) for Tecate beer. The beer is not to drink, but to make pancakes with. The beer was pretty inexpensive, 220 pesos for 24 beers ($11.65), then back to the boat.

Our next plan is to wash the boat. Renee’ will make appetizers, and a desert to share then at 4 pm we will go to the cruisers club here in La Paz for the Pot Luck. It is at 4 pm as that is midnight ZULU time (Greenwich mean time). Later there are supposed to be fireworks downtown.

We went to the potluck, which was very well attended. Ate too much, and socialized for a couple of hours. Then back to the boat by about 7:30 or so. Renee’ took a nap, (I had taken one earlier in the day). When she woke up we played cards, then watched a movie, YESTERDAY. It was pretty enjoyable. Followed by another card game.

At midnight, we heard the horns on some other boats, and Renee’ saw the fireworks in town and we went to bed.

Renee’ took the laundry to the laundromat, no small feat. It’s is of course all on foot. 4 loads of clothes to catch up, almost a mile round trip to get a cart to haul the laundry, then another walk to the laundromat, with a cart full of laundry (about a mile), then back as she was told it was full until about 4pm. Then she walked to the grocery store, and back.

While Renee’ was walking all over town, I was busy on the boat. I changed the oil in the generator, installed the EPIRB (radio emergency locator). It is already registered, and would work if we needed it right out of the box, but it is better to have it actually mounted on deck.

We also got the holding tank pumped out. This was really good for figuring out jus what the heck is going on with it. Our gauge showed 80%, but when pumped out into a semi clear plastic tank only had about 7 gallons in a 55 gallon tank. I filled our holding tank up with water, and then it was pumped out to the same tank. We pumped about 45 gallons out of the tank. This compares to my calculation in San Diego of about 35 gallons. So, good news! We are making progress cleaning out the crud in the bottom of the tank. Also, this apparently rinsed the inside of the tank and cleaned the sensors as when it was pumped out this time it showed that the tank was at about 10%. We are going to get some enzyme treatment for the tank, (maybe next year?) and in the meantime, every time we are in a marina, fill the tank with water before we go out so that we can pump it out when we get a couple of miles out. This is to rinse the tank.

In the afternoon, Renee’ walked back to the laundromat and got the clothes going. I went over later and helped her fold the clothes. We had a late dinner, and went to bed.

We got up to a pretty windy day. We added more dock lines and walked to church.

This is a bilingual service. There are a few cruisers here, and we have been invited to a bible study on Wednesday morning at 10 am.

This is a change for us, as we have not really been able to attend church (we did a couple of weeks ago in San Jose Del Cabo). This church shows that it is not just about listening & reading the Bible or hearing sermons, we need to be in the christian community. We need to be involved.

We read Psalm 8, it was read in Spanish, then read in English and expounded on from personal experience.

Most of the music was in Spanish, but at least one song was English. There were about 60 or 70 people in the service. There are only about a half dozen gringos in the service. One is the pastor, her husband was the pastor, but he died about 2 years ago, and she felt called to take it on. They moved into this building last year, and spent the time renovating it and getting it ready for church.

The room is much like Community Lutheran in Oceanside, complete with the support beams in the middle of the room.

This is a young church, they have an active internship with two interns learning to be pastors, included in this is music and English. There were about 15-20 students under the age of 12 that were called to the front of the church to be blessed by the church before going to the Sunday school.

The pastor gave the message in English, with a translator. It was done very well. I suspect that I may have been the only one in the room that needed it done in English. As I really don’t speak any Spanish, but most of the gringos that I talked to down here do speak some. The message was solid, and a call to believe, and follow Jesus. With a reminder that our duty as Christians is to help others to choose life with Jesus.

On the walk back to the boat we saw a kite boarder on the bay. He was doing loops in the air, 20+ feet up!

We got up as normal, had breakfast and did our devotions. Then went for a walk.

We wanted haircuts (it has been about 2 months) and to look for Baja Brewing company beer. We got the haircuts, walked for about 4 hours, found some other cruisers staying at the same marina (they were looking for a bank). When we found them we were about 2 miles away from the marina. But we did not find the beer.

Over all a very quiet day. Sometimes you just need those.