Arriving in La Paz, Mexico

November 8, 2022  

On the morning of November 8th, as the unpleasant rocking of the previous night was slowly dying off, we started our engine, pulled up our anchor, and motored the 8 nautical miles to the start of the channel into the harbour of La Paz. 

There are a lot of sandbars through the large harbour of La Paz so it was very important to follow the 4-nautical-mile long, narrow channel that was well marked.  The channel has a depth of about 20 feet, which is plenty of water for us, but too shallow and too narrow for large vessels.  The commercial port of La Paz is out at the mouth of the channel, and large vessels anchor outside of this area. 

Once inside the harbour we anchored on the city side.  The main harbour area of La Paz is divided into two by a shallow, but unseen, sand bar that runs down the middle, there is a channel across this sand bar, but we chose to anchor on the city side at first. 

We launched Kiki and headed into town to check in with the Port Captain, and also to pay our anchoring fees. 

One of the marinas here, Marina de La Paz, is amazingly supportive of the cruising community, and even if one is not staying in their marina, which is currently very full with a full waitlist, they still offer certain services.  One of these very helpful services is the use of their dinghy dock for a small fee, and when we got there that day we went into the office and paid for a monthly pass for Kiki.  Along with this small fee comes unlimited access to fresh drinking water, which they desalinate themselves, and also garbage and recycle disposal including that of old oil.  What an amazing service! 

We walked along the Malecon (harbour-front walkway) for the first time and viewed the various statues along the way. 

At the API office (Port Administration) we paid to anchor in the harbour of La Paz, which worked out to about $1.50 Canadian a day, and they required a copy of our official documents.  Although the man in the office spoke minimal English, he was very pleased with our efforts in Spanish, and was very friendly and easy to communicate with. 

We continued on to the Port Captain's office where we officially checked in to the Port and got our crew list stamped.  The woman at the counter was very friendly and spoke no English, but the interaction went very well. 

When we got back home it was early evening, and we decided to move anchor over to the other side of the harbour.  It seemed less busy on the other side, with much less wave action from passing boats. 

We are quite happy that we moved.  We are now anchored alongside of sandy beaches and mangroves, and look across at the city instead of the other way around.  It is also much calmer and quieter over on this side of the harbour, which, in our opinion, makes it a much nicer area to be anchored in.