International Workers’ Day

SUNDAY May 1, 2011 – La Paz, Baja la Sur, Mexico

El Aura Restaurant 4th floor view

Exhausted from yesterday’s traveling, we sleep a bit late and awaken to a day of blue sky and sunshine; luxuriating in the sheets as only holiday-ers can, stretching and yawning, enjoying coffee in bed. “Ahhhhh, all we need is brunch and a Sunday New York Times,” I believe I must have at least thought if not said.  Sunday? Suddenly we remember:  our room comes with a Sunday brunch buffet!



May Day Parade



Sunday brunch buffet at the El Aura Restaurant on the 4^th floor of the Hotel 7 Crowns is divine. Even a vegan can find something under the lids of the stainless steel warming trays. The waiter sits us at a table in the sun on a balcony that seems to jut out over the Malecon below. Across the harbor are distant mountains and headlands and beyond the Sea of Cortez, or the Gulf of California. A stiff breeze keeps things cool while above the ever-present scissor tail birds soar silently above, never flapping a wing.

After coffee and fresh orange juice, we begin to register a grand cacophony of sounds rising up from below. A parade is just starting right below the hotel!



May Day Parade

Leaning out over the balcony, just below, teenage girls colorfully dressed in skirts and blouses are playing ratty-tat-tat on their snare drums as they sorta march down the street. (Hey, I was a baton twirler, so I know MARCHING when I see it!) Following behind, different groups, each dressed in their own color, take turns shuffling past, chanting and singing a union motto (I guess). Some wear yellow, some white, red, or black. A few groups are preceded by vehicles with entire stereo systems strapped to the top of the car broadcasting speeches (I guess) through ear-shattering speakers.  The parade stretches up and down the Malecon as far as the eye can see. 



May Day Parade





Today is International Workers Day, which is celebrated around the world except in the USA, which started the whole thing.

Back for seconds at the buffet table while below, the workers shout their slogans and wave to friends watching from the sidewalk. About an hour of people parading past down below our 4^th floor observation in the restaurant, and just when you think it can’t get any noisier, groups of green, then yellow, then red and white dump trucks and taxi cabs roll by, horns blaring, honking, amplified shouting.

May Day Parade

Finally it’s over and seems very quiet as I enjoyed a double espresso.



Rainbow Hawk



Much later that same day as evening turns into night we find ourselves in a short but wide alleyway with a few restaurants and some trees. This is home to a long-time gringo resident, Rainbow Hawk who sits at his white apple laptop and informs us that Osama Bin Laden has been ‘eliminated’ by US Navy Seals in Pakistan. At first we think he means President Obama!