11 small observations from my trip to La Paz, Baja California Sur
Short vignettes on whale shark tattoos, roller blades, papelerias and assorted other topics
Happy January!
At the beginning of this year I was able to spend some time in La Paz, Baja California Sur and found it to be a magical place few people I know have visited. In the same vein as my post on from my trip to Europe last year, below are a series of observations from my trip.
Before I go into them, I’m assuming most of you don’t even know where La Paz is so let me tell you about it:
La Paz is located in the state of Baja California Sur in Mexico. It’s a few hours drive from the much more touristy Los Cabos and is more of a working town. Many people that own businesses in Los Cabos actually live there with their families, and I met lots of people that had moved there from all over Mexico given its high quality of life. The city has been growing super fast for about four decades and it’s actually one of the safest cities in all of Latin America. Multiple people I met mentioned that when they moved to La Paz in the 1970s there was only one store whereas now it’s now a really nice mid-sized town of 250,000 people. Since the town is on the Baja peninsula it’s almost like being on an island in terms of proximity to large metropolis: it takes 18+ hours to drive from La Paz to Tijuana for example, and you have to take a ~8 hour ferry if you want to go to the Mexican “mainland” by boat (although that’s more of a cargo route from what I can tell).
As for what there is to do in La Paz, since it is situated right next to the Gulf of California (aka Sea of Cortez) it is blessed with incredible nature: it has immaculate desert beaches (some of the best in the world) and incredible sea life – we were able to swim with whale sharks and take a boat to snorkel among sea lions. With the entire Gulf of California next to the city, there are countless other opportunities to explore.
Okay, with that preface, let me talk about some small observations from the trip:
1. Whale Shark Tattoo Tourism
La Paz has many large ecotourism attractions but the main one is swimming with whale sharks. It was a surreal and stunning experience to swim with these large agape, gentle giants. Aside from the experience though, one interesting thing that caught my eye though was the number of tattoo parlors that had whale shark tattoos.
Some quick googling later, it also seems like “tattoo tourism” is a growing phenomenon. From “The Rise of Tattoo Tourism: The New Way Millennials and Gen Zers Plan Vacations”: “Young travelers now have a new angle when booking a vacation: Secure an appointment with a famous tattoo artist in a far-flung location and return home with the ultimate souvenir.” Here are various other examples I found showing famous tattoo artists from around the world.
2. Roller blades and little cars on the malecon
La Paz has a large, 5km+ boulevard along its waterfront (aka malecon) and the number of joyous rollerbladers was higher than I’ve ever seen; tons and tons of people rollerblading to and fro. Most of the rollerbladers I saw were locals, but similar to tattoos, it seems like traveling to global rollerblading locations is also a niche phenomenon (e.g., “best places in the world to rollerblade” and “wow you're a well traveled rollerblader!”). The Malecon also has numerous “little cars” I’d never seen before (video below) - these seem more geared towards tourists.
3. Great coffee, gelato & pizza
Great coffee, pizzas and gelato can increasingly be found in tourist destinations everywhere and La Paz is no exception. Downtown La Paz has amazing spots rivaling the best I’ve been to in San Francisco – many of these restaurants opened just in the last year. Thank you Instagram, globalization and food-loving entrepreneurs for spreading this goodness.
4. Street sticker art
I’m sure this is common all over the world, but the stickers I saw in La Paz really stood out to me. I didn’t know the term “sticker art” until I googled it once I came back, but I found this practice made certain otherwise boring streets of La Paz, much more interesting. Placing stickers in the “monotone in between” (like an electricity meter) turned bland routes into scavenger hunts for me.
5. Beaches filled with shells
As we were walking down the malecon in La Paz we happened upon the small little patches of beach next to the city. Looking down we found ourselves surrounded by shells – tons and tons of shells – you just walk and get a handful anywhere you go. (Below is a picture of a few of the shells from a morning haul.) I was curious if this was “world-class” level of sea shell collecting and it turns out it’s not close - Sanibel Island in Florida seems to be crazy good for shell collecting. That said, it was still a wonderful experience.
6. Capsized boats from the latest hurricane
In the waters around La Paz there are numerous capsized boats from when Hurricane Norma hit La Paz in late 2023. A number of the boats are on their sides and stranded near the malecon. And yet, it seems nobody has moved them because they are waiting for insurance payments. Not sure why this you can’t move them before the insurance, but it seems this is a pre-requisite (or at least it was the standard answer was when I asked people). I was curious about the insurance aspects of this and apparently to avoid this it’s common to have latitude limitations go by time of year within boat insurance policies (more at: “For those that insist on heading to Mexico before hurricane season ends end of October.”)
7. Harumi Fujita - world’ foremost expert on indigenous peoples of Baja California Sur
Off the coast of La Paz is the Isla Espíritu Santo - a large and protected island that is home to amazing wildlife. Apparently, it is also an important archaeological site as it was lived in for many thousands of years by the indigenous people that lived in Baja California before the Spanish arrived. One interesting footnote from this is that the world’s foremost expert on these pre-classical people is a Japanese researcher that has lived in Mexico for 40+ years called Harumi Fujita. From Wikipedia:
Harumi Fujita […] is a Japanese researcher of Mexican archaeology, who has specialized in pre-classical period of the northern states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. Her research has shown that fishing cultures had arisen in the area at the end of the Pleistocene period, indicating an occupation from at least 11,000 years ago. In a cave shelf known as the Babisuri Shelter, radiocarbon dating indicated the area may have been occupied 40,000 years ago.
Harumi Fujita was born in 1954 in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan and was raised in Sapporo until her fifth birthday. Because her father was a student at the University of Michigan, the family, which included a brother and her parents, moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan for two years, where Fujita began her primary schooling. Returning to Japan, she completed her secondary studies and attended Hokkaido University. After her graduation, Fujita moved to Israel to study Hebrew and met several Mexican students in her classes. Living on a kibbutz, she became interested in archaeology, visiting various sites during her two years in the country. In 1978, she moved to Mexico City and enrolled in archaeology classes at the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (ENAH).
Fujita has been in Mexico since the late 70s and is now the world’s foremost expert on the topic. She seems like a fascinating person.
8. Why is it called the Sea of Cortez?
The Gulf of California is also known as the Sea of Cortez. Why? In a later part of his life, Hernan Cortez spent time on the Pacific Coast near Acapulco trying to find Northern Passage and “promised cities full of gold.” His first two expeditions failed having likely been killed by the native people of Baja California, but then Cortez leads the third expedition in 1535 and arrives in La Paz (seemingly the first European to reach this region). In 1539, a fourth expedition by Francisco de Ulloa reaches all the way to the north of the gulf and names the sea after Cortez. These same expeditions also call this territory “California” after a fictional story of an island ruled by a Queen Calafia.
9. Amazing papeleria
La Paz’s zocalo is a small town square. Among the stores that line its sides there is a small paper store++ (papeleria in Spanish). The store probably hasn’t changed much in a few decades and is an ideal model for what a great papeleria can be: it has all types of paper, pens, notebooks, toys, books and anything else you need. You can buy a giant multiplication table for 8 pesos ($0.50) for example. There are walls of papers and different types of cardboard all for just a few cents. This type of store no longer exists where I live in the Bay Area - no store is this cheap and comprehensive. It makes you feel you can make anything.
10. Smoke to keep away flies
In many restaurants we visited the staff had a little pot with herbs on fire to generate smoke to keep away bees and flies. No two restaurants had the same mix but some standard ingredients included rosemary, lemon and cinnamon. Does it work? Well, it seems like insects hate smoke. When I asked a lady making one, she said it does a great job keeping away flies but wasps seem not to care.
11. Great Mexican Sushi
Baja California has amazing Mexican Sushi. Core ingredients include all kind of chiles and also cream cheese (aka “queso Philadelphia”). When I was a kid in Mexico City I only recall the “Philadelphia roll” had cream cheese but based on the what I tried, it seems this ingredient has seeped into almost all special rolls. Doing a little more digging, it seems that Los Angeles / Los Cabos also has pushed the boundaries on Mexican Sushi and there is a lot more I need to go try. I enjoyed this quote from the Vice article on Mexican Sushi, “At its core, [Mexican Sushi] employs a spicy, crunchy, tangy, and creamy flavor-bomb approach, not unlike Mexican food in general. It stands in stark opposition to the romantic, Japanese, "less is more" school of thought that makes sushi chefs like Jiro Ono look all the more admirable. […] The cuatro quesos roll—filled with queso fresco, cotija, Monterey jack, and cream cheese slathered in chipotle mayonnaise—immediately stands out. Not a single roll had any raw fish, but all of them included cream cheese.”
In case you can’t tell, I was enchanted by La Paz. It was a little oasis. It is also blessed by a small airport and no direct flights to the United States, which makes it harder to get to and helps avoid the growing tourist mobs that descend on Los Cabos.
It was also nice to see that La Paz has been managing their increased tourism thoughtfully. The boat guides we met all mentioned that as tourism has grown they now have much stricter quotas and regulations to manage volume at the main attractions. The local government manages volumes by permit and WhatsApp. For example, only a few boats can go to the whale sharks at a time and the most popular beaches have daily quotas and special entry time-slots.
Even though this trip was only a few days it was absolutely worth it. Traveling is always an eye opening experience.
Until next time…
If you are back in the Bay area, you might enjoy the stationery/paper shop in Japantown.