La Paz

and a VW spa day.

We have been telling E for the last few weeks that he just needs to get us as far as La Paz and we would book him a "spa day" with rojelio.  How else could we describe a day at the best vw mechanic in mexico??

We planned on dropping E off first thing friday morning, knowing that the shop was only open a half day on saturday and then rolling into a long weekend and hoping we would have the bus back and be north on a beach before that happened.  As it turned out, we rolled off the ferry around 2pm; raced into town to grab the keys to our lodging and then straight to the shop.

The guys were great (as always) and got right to work.  There are simply no other hands we'd trust E's heath in more!

We walked away and settled in to wait a day and see what they told us.  In the meantime we hit what might be our favorite (non street food) taco place in all of mexico.  Taco Fish has amazing fish tacos and an even more impressive buffet of salsa, sides and condiments. Impressive to say the least.

We hit a few other tiendas on the way back to our place to make sure we had plenty of ceviche, fresh tortillas and some barbacoa.   Jen only made it about an hour before walking down to her favorite ice cream shop as well.   She's been dreaming about this place since before we left portland...sometimes even talks about this one in her sleep. ;)

The next day we approached the shop and E was sitting out front waiting and ready.  Turned the key and could barely believe our ears.  What was a loud and popping engine that sounded as if it was barely holding on... now purrs like a kitten.  Outstanding.  Lets hope it lasts all the way home!

We got less than a block away from the shop when we ran into Doug and Bonnie.  We had arranged a meeting, but no less exciting to see them!  We all headed back to our place for some ceviche, they setup camp out front and we caught up on each others travels and lives.

Doug and Bonnie spent their first winter on baja retracing our steps, but it now seems we spent way more time learning from them where to go and what to skip as we head north. They are (at least for now) living full time between the van and the sailboat...and have definitely found their little slice of freedom.

We found time between storytelling and tequila to take the dogs for a walk on the malecon, to grab a feast of a meal at el rancho viejo (which was already on both of our not-to-miss in La Paz lists).  It's always so great to see them... and was even better to finally connect on the road in mexico!

We finally had to part ways, them staying in La Paz and us moving north into the desert.  What a fun couple of days in La Paz!