So this port was a struggle for me to find something and here's why...

I found the most beautiful place I wanted to go to, Balandra Bay, and knew this was what we just had to do. I watched video's online and looked at pictures and looking at it, it was the closest thing to what looked like the blue Caribbean water. I wanted to surprise Karl at what the water could look like. 

After deciding on this place, I noticed that Carnival was sold out of this excursion and the task of how to get there began. I would have to book with an outside vendor...which you all know is something I usually always do. However, the reason I wasn't wanting to do that is that is that I was aware that they only allow so many people here during the day. They have two different time slots you can enter, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You only get to stay for one or the other. If you was to do this on your own (say by driving or taking a taxi there), you risk the chance of not getting in at all. 

I also read that if you come by boat, you are not limited. So boat it was! After contacting different places, I found a tour guide (Tuna Tuna Tours) that did an excursion there that also included...get this...SWIMMING WITH SEA LIONS! I knew I had to book that tour. 

We spoke back and forth for quite some time and I finally booked. This tour was to include Ceviche, burritos, drinks, fruit, snacks and underwater videos and pictures of the swim with the sea lions, wetsuits and the National Park Permit to get in. It sounded perfect so we booked. 

The only issue was that we had to find our own ride to the dock they were located at and we would be on a time crunch (so wouldn't be able to take the free bus from the port into town and it didn't go as far as the location we needed to be at). 

I had trouble booking online with the link they gave me. After multiple tries, they finally just told me to bring cash. Ok, I can definitely do that. THEN.... 3 days before we were to leave for the cruise I get an email from them....

Do you think you can pay in cash for this tour?

The thing is that we had to rent another boat because we didn't have availability anymore and they only accept cash.

Um ok, isn't that what we discussed already? Cash...as soon as I answered yes, he emailed back an hour later saying "

I have bad news.

The owner of that boat that we were going to rent just told me that his boat’s engine broke down and he won’t be able to fix it soon.

I could try to get another boat but since it’s high season I am not sure if I will be able to find another one.

We still have 4 spots available that day for the Whale Sharks, Sea Lions and Balandra tour.

Would you like to join us on that one instead?

Regular price is $3,200 MXN per person but since we made the change we will charge you the same price as just the Balandra tour which is $2,200 MXN per person. 

Please let me know if you would like to do this.

WHALE SHARKS...the best excursion we've ever done in Mexico...I would love to do that again and give Karl the opportunity to see them as well. However, the ONLY reason why I didn't book this tour was the time frame. I was afraid we wouldn't have enough time to do all 3 of them. But he assured me we would be back in time. OK...we're doing this!!  I couldn't contain my excitement and even though I was going to make it a surprise for Sakari and Karl, I blurted it out! So another exciting day for us coming right up.

So I'm going to back track to yesterday, while in Cabo, for SOME reason (because I NEVER do this) I decided to check my email. I noticed an email from Tuna Tuna Tours. Hmmm, what could this be? I get this notice:

We are supposed to have bad weather tomorrow (very windy) starting at 10 AM approx., so we will try to only do the Whale Shark part and not do the Sea Lions and Balandra part. Is that ok with you?

Please let me know if you are still interested.

This brought on more questions from me because if the weather is going to be bad...how are we going to be able to swim with whale sharks?? I told them I was confused because we would be further out in the ocean...wouldn't it be more windy out there than at the sea lions close to shore or in an enclosed cove like Balandra Bay?  Then I ask how much the tour was going to be since we were only doing the whales now.

Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to go out tomorrow, it seems like they will close the port due to high winds.

I will confirm with you later, once they give the official announcement.

Then a mere 11 minutes later I get this...

We will have to cancel the tour, I am sorry.

They just announced that the port is closed.

 Well crap....what do we do now? I'm a planner and have no plans for this port now. The only thing we can really do now is take the free bus to town and .... walk around? How boring is this going to be?  Needless to say, I was very disappointed. 

Coming into port:

This is by far the strangest looking port we have been to. It looks like they just picked a spot that had nothing there and said "Hey, we will make this a cruise ship port".

We could see the buses coming in for all the cruisers to use to go into port. Most of them looked like tour buses.

We were off the ship by 8:30 to head to the buses. Will you look at this water and weather? Does it look like it's bad? Does it look windy? I'm really left wondering about what they said about closing the port. However, others on our roll call had stated that Carnival even closed their tours here. I think it was a bad call myself...if that was true.

 Here is the pricing for Taxi's if you want to use them. But, why would someone pay $40 to go to La Paz downtown where we can pay nothing on the bus? Ok, I get it, it's private but really?

Maybe I should have inquired about the trip to Balandra Bay for $25 to see if they would have taken us there.

It was 9:40 as we walked out of the building to the bus. The bus they put us on was like a regular transportation bus you find in the city. However, they did have the luxury tour buses as well. We just didn't get one.

So after hitting up the beach (the first stop the bus takes you to), we caught the bus again and headed into town to have a look around.

Along the way we would see the statues at the Malecon.

We were off the bus by 11:15am so it was a very short ride. We started walking toward the Malecon 

They had so many beautiful statues along the Malecon.

At this point we found a line to take pictures with the LA PAZ sign. We knew we had to have ours done. 

Once we got up there, I handed Karl my phone to take pictures. There was a guy standing there that was taking pictures for everyone and wanting tips. 

We knew we wanted Karl in the picture as well so we did end up handing my phone to the guy standing there. He snapped several pictures and handed it to me and wanted his tip. Me, being the frugal photographer I am, decided I wasn't handing over any money until I reviewed the pictures. I looked at them and showed the hubby and we were completely shocked at what he had taken...like seriously shocked. He probably took around 10 photos and this is just an example of what he did. 

Us not looking at the camera, us girls with ours hands up because our hair was blowing, walking up to the sign, deciding where to stand and switching positions, Sakari with her hand across her face, it was a mixture of a hot mess! I said, "I'm not paying for that crap are you kidding me"? We didn't have one good picture. I wonder how many people he does a day and just snaps pictures without people being ready and gets paid for it. Let this be a lesson...check your photos first before tipping someone to do a crappy job!'

We decided to move on and continue down the Malecon.

If you need to stop and use the restroom, this is the place:

We had went down so far and decided to do a U turn and head back on the opposite side of the street. There was a lot of closed and broken down buildings along the way. We made it to an area with little stands and turned down the street. I had heard people mention there was a farmers market and I wasn't quite sure if this was what they were referring to or not. They did have a lot of fresh produce but nothing we could have purchased. HOWEVER, Karl was complaining about being hungry and he managed to stop at a few of the stands for a "taste test". LOL

We continued on and the hubby found a skate park. Of course he had to stop for pictures to show his buddies back home. 

We passed several restaurants along the way to see what they had to offer. They were all very crowded and expensive. I'm now feeding a family of 4 this trip and had to consider that. We just decided to head back to the ship instead. 

When we had gotten off the bus earlier in the day, I put a marker on my phone to know where to go back to get back on the bus. 

There was quite the line at the bus stop. It wrapped around the side of the building and down the street. 

I had Karl and Sakari hold our place in line while I went across the street to take a picture of the line. When the line moved, and they weren't paying attention to us, we ducked behind a large truck and moved positions, then watched them trying to figure out where we went to. lol

The line did move rather quickly and we were inside the building in 13 minutes according to my time stamp on my pictures. 

Now this is a working bus station for people living there. They had to buy tickets to where they were going. 

I just find it odd to know we are getting this for free. The cruise line must have some type of deal/contract they worked out with La Paz to get the cruise ships to come there for them to make money and free bus service must have been in the deal. 

Now when we were waiting in line, the hubby had to use the restroom. He told me it was free. Once we were inside, I noticed this:

It looked like you had to pay. I ask him how he did this. He pointed in the opposite direction and said "Those ones are free"...um, ok. Those look like handicapped bathrooms to me. He said "oops". 

The line was still going, even after getting out of the bus terminal and the buses were lined up out back. We managed to get a nice cozy coach bus for our ride back to the terminal. 

We were pulling out of the terminal at 1:02pm.

I took some pictures on the way back of...more statues of course. 

Notice the rocky beach area. They said the tide had been low and exposed all the rocks.

There's a lot of cacti along the way as well. I always find it so interesting to see cacti in the area when there's the ocean near by. I just always picture them to be in the flat desert...like Arizona. 

It took 25 minutes to get back to the port entrance. 

Here is a map I had made so that I would know where to go IF I had done the tour with Tuna Tuna. They were located a little bit further than where the bus drops you off at but will show you the distance of the Malecon to the cruise port.