Calendar of events

February: La Paz Mardi Gras (a one week wild party over the Malecon)
April: Holy Week Camping on the beach
            Partida Island Sea of Cortez La Paz Regatta
May: La Paz Foundation Day Fair and Festival (May 1-5)
June: Coyote “300” Automotive and Motorcycle Race
July: International Fishing Tournament Bay of La Paz
August: Felix International Fishing Tournament
September: Independence Day (15th and 16th)
November: Day of the Death (2nd)
                    Revolution Day Mexicana Fiesta and Parade (20th)
December: Christmas Eve (with family) and New Year Eve (with friends)
 

Getting to La Paz

Fly direct to La Paz from Seattle and Los Angeles with Alaska Air, 1-800-426-0333 from Tijuana, Phoenix, Tucson and Los Angeles fly with Aero California, 800-237-6225 or Aero Mexico 800-237-6639.
La Paz airport is seven miles from the city. There are more flight choices to Los Cabos International Airport. From San Jose del Cabo take the bus and be at La Paz in less than 4 hours. The buses take bikes. Car rentals are available at both airports and in the city.

La Paz information and things to do

This quiet, low key Mexican city of 180,000 is attractively located on a large bay on the Gulf of California, 100 miles north of the tip of the Baja Peninsula. La Paz boasts ten beautiful beaches within easy access, a protected bay for cruisers and nearby islands for kayaking, diving and snorkeling. There are countless historical buildings dating back to the early 1800's, a Museum of Anthropology and four universities as well as other schools offering advanced certificates.
Spanish is taught at the University of La Paz and private schools. The city faces northwest and enjoys magnificent sunsets which can be viewed from the beaches and restaurants along the palm-lined malecon (sea wall).

Landmarks ... The airport is approximately 15 minutes from town. The boardwalk that runs along the waterfront is known as the "Malecon" and is where most of the curio shops, restaurants, and hotels are located. Some of the more popular restaurants include Carlos & Charlie's (lively Mexican), the La Costa (excellent seafood), The Dock Cafe (at Marina de La Paz), La Pazta (homemade pasta dishes), Kiwis (on boardwalk), La Caleta (a thatched-roof palapa across from the Los Arcos located on the waterfront), Nuevo Dragon (Chinese). Las Varitas and La Paz-Lapa are two of the more popular nightclubs.

The Anthropology Museum of Baja California, at 5 de Mayo and Altamirano Streets, has a wide display of old maps, mission artifacts, dress and tools of Baja's vaqueros, and cork, leather and palm-fiber crafts. In downtown La Paz at Madero and 5 de Mayo Streets, is the Three Californias Public Library, which contains historical and cultural data on the Californias that can only be found there. A carved mural of Mexico's history decorates the facade of the government palace on Isabel la Catolica Street, and the La Paz Cathedral, on Constitution Square, should be visited.

Overview

While other Mexican seaside communities have been overwhelmed by the desire to service tourists and in the process destroy the special attributes that drew the folks to them in the first place. La Paz has managed to maintain its natural character of a truly Mexican city situated on a beautiful bay, Bahia de La Paz. There are no high-rise hotel complexes blocking the ocean like Acapulco, no commercial port where there once was sand dunes like Ensenada, no abandoned tourist zones like Mazatlan, no bar scene like Puerto Vallarta, no uncontrolled overbuilding like Cabo San Lucas. Fortunately, La Paz remains an undiscovered tranquil city resting on the turquoise Sea of Cortez. It’s brand, clean Malecon in the heart of the city still provide direct access to both beach and bay.

La Paz was discovered in 1535 when Hernan Cortez came and named it Puerto de la Santa Cruz "the Port of the Holy Cross". In 1596, it was renamed la Paz, that means Peace, because of its gentle people and restful environment. The feeling of peacefulness remains today as something tangible and desirable. The city’s economic history began as a trade and commerce center with pearling, and then fishing, creating jobs and international sources of income. In 1838, La Paz became the Capital of Baja California Sur that became a State. La Paz has remained the seat of government since 1838, the Governor resides here as do all State officials. The main branches of both State and Mexican Federal government offices conduct their business here. The government is the city’s major employer creating a relatively solid economy base and a significant middle income level work force. It is a very practical business community with a town that serves its needs. It is this strong economic foundation that maintains La Paz as a Mexican city unaffected by the tourist trade.

Although there is tourism, it is mainly nationals who come here to enjoy the water, the nearby islands and the isolation of the desert. The Japanese come just for scuba. The tourist industry of La Paz is involved in a unique chicken and egg situation that has stifled growth in this area. There are only one thousand hotel rooms available in the city. The airlines that already service La Paz won’t add more flights, nor will other airlines be willing to come in, because of the limited number of quality rooms. On the other hand, hoteliers and developers are reluctant to build since there is such limited air access and no guarantee more tourists can reach La Paz unlike Cabo San Lucas which has flights arriving all day long from all over the place. The economic future of La Paz is, therefore, heading away from traditional tourism; only ecotourism is being singled out as a potential growth industry.

This impasse in the tourist industry should be viewed as positive for those who are considering La Paz as a retirement location in that the city should remain relatively unspoiled for some time. There are plans now in the works to promote La Paz as a retirement location instead of a tourist destination. The powers that be would rather see people come here to live. Already on the drawing board are residential Marina site communities and a proposed golf course with home sites to accommodate the anticipated rush of retirees.

For now, La Paz maintains a small town feeling, its streets seem uncrowded, its pace unhurried, even though its population is 180,000 plus and growing. Its culture can be said to be centered on the water, the beaches and the surrounding desert. Its totally romantic natural beauty, including spectacular sunsets, entices and captures foreigners. Unlike some other Mexican retirement havens, La Paz has no gringo ghettos, even though there is a concentration of Americans at the Marinas. The foreigners live everywhere, all around the city in neighborhoods where most of their neighbors are Mexicans.

Many foreigners used to arrive on boats and stay forever, while others stick around for a year or two and head off to parts unknown. Over the last seven years, there has been a noticeable growth in the foreign population ranging from older people living on social security to retirees who have bought nice comfortable houses to younger folks end entrepreneurs that participate actively in the local economy.

Housing is available everywhere. La Paz is still experiencing a stagnant buyer’s market. Modest, comfortable houses can be found in the $50-80,000 range many with three bedrooms and two baths (approximately 25% of the market are in this range). More attractive, larger houses can be found in the $90-150,000 range (which makes up over 40% of the market). There are also extraordinary, large expensive homes available in La Piedra and Fidepaz. There are condominiums in Marina Palmira, La Concha and some cheaper comfortable apartments downtown. There are lots available everywhere even if central location and view lots are demanding higher prices. Property taxes are still very low at $100 per year for a nice single family home.

Rentals can be found in single family houses, as well as in apartment building and condominiums with prices ranging from $350-1,200USD per month some including maid service. Apartments include stoves but ovens are a rarity. There are bay view condo/apt available at 1,200USD per month. From November through April, rentals are at premium and hard to find. Of course at the Marina, there are live aboard cruisers paying slippage fees by the foot.

Utilities are still quite reasonable. $10 for water, $20 for electricity that in summer months can go up to $100 due to air-conditioning. The climate refreshes in October when it goes from ninety during the day and eighty at night to eighty day and sixty night which is ideal. Propane can run $40 for a three hundred liter tank that last for months and runs stoves and water heaters. Most people living here drink the tap water which is legendary good even though bottled water is available everywhere.

One advantage of living here is the affordable maid service. It’s dusty here even with most of the city having paved street. Most foreigners have a maid who works at least one morning a week. There are no formal Maid Services, so reliable people are found by word of mouth.

There are four major supermarkets. Two CCCs (pronounced say-say-say) which carry everything found in U.S. supermarket including deli items, Aramburo which is supposed to stock the best meat in town and Ley a new big supermarket with all Mexican specialty from mainland. There are many Oriental restaurants, so short grain rice and dried shitake mushrooms can be purchased. There is a significant Asian population in La Paz, their history tracing back to the Chinese who built the U.SS. railroads and then headed into Mexico, migrating into the Baja Sur. There are also public Mexican markets such as Mercado Madero, a tin roofed building where you can buy produce, meats, sea foods, fresh juices, as well as, hats, belts, blankets and flip-flops and the Mercado Bravo, famous for its seafood and its little restaurants with all typical Baja dishes. There are also street vendors that come around the neighborhoods selling fresh produce and plants.

There is a municipal bus service. They have used buses brought down from the States. There are jitneys, small vans that runs specific routes. There are lots of taxis whose reasonable prices are fixed by law, but you should still ask before the ride what they will charge.

Money Exchange Locations ... Most hotels will give you close to the bank exchange rate. Stores will accept dollars and credit cards on most purchases and give a reasonable rate of exchange.

Every hour shuttle buses run from the bus station downtown to the most popular beaches: La Concha, Balandra & Tecolote. Deep Sea Fishing, windsurfing and other activities can be organized through major hotels and travel agencies. 

Medical care is perceived as adequate. There are seven hospitals including a Military hospital and the Centro de Especialidades Medicas (aka the Purple Hospital) near Fidepaz with a twenty four hour emergency room. The doctors in La Paz are said to be very capable but there are not enough who are bilingual. An office visit to a doctor is 200-300 Pesos. There is an acupuncturist and chiropractic services available. There are several Mexican style health stores which carry herbs, vitamins and tonics and make fresh, delicious juice drinks.

The boom has yet to happen but all ingredients are in place to make La Paz one of the most desired retirement locations in Mexico: easy access to the U.S.; the sophisticated amenities of a Capitol City; the affordability and availability of housing; adequate medical care; a utility infrastructure geared for growth; immediate access to the Sea of Cortez and Baja desert for exploration and play.

La Paz is an undiscovered treasure.

Did you know that?

• Everyday on the Malecon, the seaside boulevard, between 6.30 and 8.30 loads of people are walking; same thing in the evening
• La Paz is the purchasing center for the entire State of the Baja Sur. Everything that come in from the mainland comes in here first and is then distributed all over the State.
• In 1940 all the Mother of Pearl oysters died and nobody knows why
• Steinback came to La Paz and you can read some novel in its book “The Log from the Sea of Cortez”
• Eisenhower and Truman came to La Paz for fishing and duck hunting
• Jean Jacqeau Cousteau, came to La Paz for his movies on the marine life of Sea of Cortez and used to own a house here
• The actors, Bing Crosby and Desi Arnez built their first hotel in Baja at Las Cruces near La Paz
• Once produce from the Mainland, now local ranches and farms produce tomatoes, lettuce, organic vegetable including peppers and squash for California market and even ostrich are being raised as a cash crop.
• The Teatro de la Ciudad presents a variety of programs including classical music concerts. The Teatro has no advance schedule and you’ll have to find out what’s on through the local Spanish newspapers
• There are  some extraordinary plants in the Baja that you won’t find anyplace in the world such as the elephant tree, the creeping devil or galloping cactus and the boojum tree (Cirio).
• Many Paceños, La Paz natives, are descendants of mainlanders who sailed to La Paz to avoid the political turmoil of the 19th and early 20th century Mexico.
• Aerocalifornia is based in la Paz

Pearl gathering in the New World goes back at least seven thousand years. When the Spanish found Indians along the Sea of Cortez coast wearing pearls and pearl shells as hair ornaments in the early XVI century, they quickly added pearls to the list of exploitable resources in Mexico. Finding the source of the luminescent, milky-white spheres, the oyster beds, became a priority of marine expeditions off Mexico’s west coast. Only particular mollusk varieties within the family Pteridae, found only in certain coastal areaa off East Asia, Panama and Baja California can form pearls.

La Paz once was the sight of the biggest mother pearl industry anywhere in the world. Even when an oyster doesn’t contain pearl the interior of the shell is valued for its rainbow luster, which is known as Mother of Pearl. This kind of oyster shell is very dense, very durable. Beginning in 1533, with Cortez’s explorations into the Baja, the Spanish galleons began arriving to harvest the oysters. This continued into the 17th and 18th centuries, even thoough pearling activity was restricted to illegal harvest due to the objections of the Jesuits to secular exploitation of the peninsula. By mid-19th century, following the secularization of baja Missions, the Baja pearl industry was revived by armadores (entrepreneurs) who hired yaqui divers from Sonora to scour the shallow bays, coves and island shores between Mulege’ and La Paz. By 1889, the world pearling industry was dominated by Compañia Perlifera de Baja California based in La Paz.

The Mother of Pearl industry was a great source of wealth and commerce for La Paz. As the shells were used for buttons and hairpins. The pearl itself was of good quality and was also highly sought after. Interest in Mother of Pearl continued into the 1930’s when a plague of unknown origins wiped out the oyster beds, and the need for shells was replaced by plastic, ending the industry forever. When snorkeling today some oysters can still be found. They are a protected species and can not be fished at all.
 

Links for more info on La Paz and Baja
www.baja.com
www.trybaja.com
www.bajanet.com