A MEXICAN CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR

Last evening and night Arlene and I joined a group of about 120 yachties and landbased Americans and Canadians who took a tour of eight Mexican homes where we met the familes and celebrated Christmas with them. Each family served cookies, pastries, chicken, punch, chocolate and fine liquor. We ate a traditional Mexican dinner at the last house. I don't want to say the house was huge, BUT, all 120 of us sat at tables on the enclosed patio surrounding the pool and there was still empty space on the other side of the patio.

The tour was a typical Mexican event. Well intentioned with helpful people in good spirts. The tour came off, at least to a Gringo, as chaotic and disorganized but great fun. Our transportation was on two school buses that were proabably abandoned by some US school district in 1971. Our yellow bus had big signs on it declaring "POLICIA". The white bus didn't have any markings. We all met at 3:30PM in a square in downtown La Paz, only to find that there were 20 more people than seats on the buses. This event was sponsored by the Lions Club so one of their members volunteered their 1973 Volkswagen Microbus. Eventually two other private vehicles were recruited and away we went.

But, only as far as the foot of a really steep hill leading up to the enclave where we would visit our first house. The hill was too steep for the buses to ascend so we were told to walk - UP cobblestones, 1/4 mile, in blazing sunshine andn 80 degree air temp. We had been told to dress up for the occasion so I was wearing my miserable, rotten, dress loafers with slick leather soles. Great for climbing a 10 degree cobblestone hill. But not as bad as heels and skirts worn by some of the women in the group.

The house was interesting, straight out of Southern California, but with more Christmas decorations inside the house than many small US villages have on their streets.

The next house was in old downtown La Paz on a steep side street. Here we encountered a major delay. It seems that the next door neighbor to the first house we visited was Rebecca, a US citizen living in La Paz. She took pity on some of the elderly women in our group and offered to drive them around in her brand new Ford Explorer. As we approached the 2nd house the white bus stalled, rolled back down the hill and smashed into Rebecca's brand new shiny, Explorer grill, knocking off the bumper. Then the bus bumper and the Explorer meshed and the bus wouldn't restart. So our bus went around the block, pulled up behind the Explorer, at right angles to all the traffic on the Malecon, effectively blocking the north bound exit to downtown, at 5:15 PM.

And, there we sat, enjoying the sunset, listening to the horns and watching the police. The bus and Explorer were disengaged and the Explorer found to be driveable. Eighty minutes later we continued the tour. Several of the houses were quite small, probably less than 1200 square feet under the roof and you can imagine trying to get 120 big people into such a small place. Each house, no matter how small or how new, had a wonderful outdoor patio, fully enclose and usually full of plants and a small pool or fountain.

Each house was unique and very interesting, The thing I found fascinating was the small, cramped kitchens with no views, no windows, and no way to communicate with the rest of the house. It appears that the cook is not to be included in family activities. The other interesting architectural feature was the number of small, seperated rooms. The open floor plan is not evident, except in the first house which was identical to many we have visited in Southern California or Florida.

We arrived at the last house at about 9 PM and had dinner about 10 PM. That is the normal Mexican dinner hour. We arrived back at our Marina at about 11 PM.

At least this year the bus returned us to our Marina drop off. Last year the bus driver left the tour guide at the last house. No one on the bus spoke enough Spanish to get the driver to the Marina. So, he just drove around downtown for a while, stopped, opened the door and said "Aqui". Everyone had to walk about a mile back to the marina.

On Wednesday afternoon we went exploring for internet sites and other interesting stuff. We found a great street vendor next to an internet site. He was serving Cerviche from his cart. He had two small tables setup in the shade of a tree. There were about ten Mexicans eating there so I decided to try it. He sold me a 20 oz bowl of great Ceviche for 30 pesoes ($3.33). It was fantastic and more than I could eat.

Later in the evening we dinghied over to the commercial dock and walked around Old La Paz to see the street festival and lights. The original Cathederal was open and had it's Christmas lights on it the sanctuary.

It is now Friday afternoon, 82 degrees, bright sunshine, and a light NE wind. Just about perfect.