November 4, 2018 - Driving sucks

This morning we left La Paz. Taanya, Erin, and Pete by plane, and Ken, Anita, and myself by rental car. Getting the car was an adventure in itself. We walked down the malecon to the rental agency, but arrived early, so had to wait for the car to arrive from the airport, so we walked the rest of the malecon.

The benches on this part of the malecon were an older, white painted, cast iron style: very colonial in appearance.

Back in the office for 10am, it was time to start filling out the paperwork, which took a full half hour, between my lack of Spanish, the rental agents' lack of English, and the car still not being there, to say nothing of the mandatory insurance that doubled the rate.

After checking out, it was time for the real driving to begin. Driving here is unique. Stop signs are more treated as yield signs, and the speed limits, well, if you're close to them you may cause an accident. Additionally, I had to laugh out loud as they changed from 80km/h, to 110km/h, and then to 60km/h, all within a few hundred meters.

Most of the drive was just tedious once we were out of La Paz. We generally went Northwest, until we began going Northeast, and the main changes were the amount of drought evident around us (although, is it really drought in a desert?), until we got to an area with extensive irrigation growing corn, oranges, and a few other crops.

The last 45 minutes into Loreto were worth it, though, as we escaped int the Sierra Gigantes and the road around the sides of the mountains, sometimes cutting through ridges, and bursting forth onto the sea side. This part was truly one of my favourite drives, and one that would be awesome on a motorcycle.

We borrowed bicycles from our accommodation to go check out Loreto. The first stop had to be to find air for the front tire of one of the bikes, which we'd already swapped a bike with loose handlebars for. Once this was done we rode on and, well, went shopping. I needed a better sun hat, and my sunglasses had been lost at sea. I got a pretty nice hat and pair of sunglasses for 300 pesos - less than $20 Canadian. I likely could have bargained down, but it was a fair price, and far less than I'd pay back home.

Shopping for groceries was an adventure, which we did as dusk was about to fall, having also ridden the malecon. It was so neat to see the produce that never makes it to Canada (cactus fruit, for example), and to buy produce that is grown relatively close. I can justify eating bananas and other tropical fruit here!

One thing that has shocked me is the amount of property and business owned by non-Mexicans. It's like a second colonization, as people with money buy vacation properties, or buy businesses to service other people with money who are on tour, and then providing positions of servitude to locals. Is this the selling of the resoureces of the country, as much as occurs in Canada, where companies (owned by rich people) gain more and more control of our natural resources?