When we first came down to La Paz, I was sitting on the top deck of the Hotel we stayed in, looking over the Malecon (beach front) I saw this guy in a kayak moving at high speed (or so it seemed) across the bay in an orange kayak. It looked so smooth, with this incredible sunset behind him. My wish that night was a quiet secret in my mind, that I could do this too.

On our way home I told Bill that I wanted an ocean kayak. Of course (in married bliss) he said that I would have to rent one before I got one, plus he was sure that I would be too lazy to do the paddling, due to us seeing one in the City Club that was a 2 seater—in his eyes he would be doing all the work and me sitting in the back on my Lazy Asssss.

When we got back to Las Vegas, I went to the store and bought a snorkeling kit, wet suits for both of us, as I was determined to enjoy the water sports when were in Baja. They were one of the first items packed and ready for our adventure.

It is now three weeks, all the past catastrophes behind us. Susana suggested that we go to the beach and Bill yelled YES… YES (me thinks he needs some time by himself!). I picked her up the next day and off we went. Tecolote is the name of the beach we went to, oh about 20 minutes from down town La Paz. We had intended on going for a boat ride the island “Espiritu Santo”, but there needed to be at least 4 people for the boat to take us out. We were sitting on the beach and I saw on orange kayak. We rented it for half a day.

Out we went into the ocean, not knowing anything about kayaking. We faked it. Rowing away around the beach coves, we found that if we rowed together the same way it worked better. It was SOOOO beautiful, ocean calm, sky bright, sunshine reflections on the sea. We found white sand beaches around the corners, stopped and rested. There was an eel (just a little one), bright yellow fish with black stripes (like in the ocean aquariums) and pelicans, pigeons and little brown birds. We sunbathed (taking in the quiet sounds of the ocean—I cried for the beauty of it all), returned to the shore, ate lunch and found our way back to La Paz

The next day Bill and went to City Club and bought the Orange Kayak—Yes, it was on sale. Discounted due to having no paddles. We found a place open and purchased them separately.

And then the next day Susana and I were off to the beach with the new Orange Banana. It was pretty darn heavy loading on and off the truck, plus getting it into the water. We did it! I was feeling a bit proud of myself, keeping up fairly well with a 28 year old native girl (she did live in the US -San Francisco area for seven years, so there were no problems with the language—THANK God).

Out we went, the wind was up a bit, but we oared even further this time, finding more coves. Susana had made quesidillas for us and I brought the drinks. We had our picnic on the white sands, sunbathed and took a nap. Then we took bags and cleaned up where some people had left garbage, which made us feel good contributing to keeping this beach clean. We were tired, but HAPPY about our time in the Orange Banana, plus I got sunburned due to not using sunblock (I will next time). Oh and maybe take Bill and Aliatt to carry the Kayak--- they can go to the bar and drink beer while we play in the sea.

by Patrice Cherry