The Mexican restaurant breakfast is sumptuous. Meet or fish with beans, rice, and tortillas. Together with it we drink fresh fruit cocktails with promising names like Dracula, Vampire, V8, or Osteoporosis. The mercado in La Paz is not only a place to take ones breakfast that lasts the whole day. Here we buy fish from the fish dealer, chicken from the poultry man, or pork and beef from the pork respectively the beef butcher. We get fruits and vegetables from the produce stand, cheese in the dairy corner, and oven-fresh flour or corn tortillas in the tortilla bakery. And if not sure, we can try everything before buying.
La Paz is with 200,000 inhabitants Bajas third largest city, very Mexican, friendly, clean and pleasant, and therefore popular with many American expats. Bill and Barbara, two early retirees from Texas, show us the mercado, the five kilometres long malecón, which is the promenade that shall be the worlds longest one, the Plaza Constitución with Jardín Velazco park and the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de La Paz, built in 1861 by Dominicans as a replacement for the original Jesuit church from 1720. This was burnt down 1734 in an Indio revolt and finally abandoned 14 years later. The historic governors mansion and the cultural centre with the Galeria de Arte Carlos Olchea are worth visiting as well.
Bill and Barbara talked to us at the beach of Bahia Constitución and invited us. Together we study Mexican kitchen. There was fish fillet with mango salsa yesterday, and today we decide for enchiladas. People drink wine with it, beer pure or Cuban (with lime, English sauce and Tabasco), or margarita. Or everything. Hic.