Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Heart of Marina de La Paz

One of the special places in the sea of Cortez is the city of La Paz. First visited by Hernan Cortez in 1535, it is now the capital city of Baja California Sur. For cruisers, the hub of activity in La Paz is located in its oldest floating marina, Marina de La Paz, the second oldest floating marina in Mexico. Founded by the Shroyer family in 1983, its day to day management is handled by Mac and Mary's oldest son, Neil.

The marina is a well designed and well maintained facility that caters to the cruising community. It is the most centrally located of all the marinas to the downtown area of La Paz, close to many businesses and services that cater to visiting cruisers. The majority of the floating docks are planked either using Ipe or Trex. Each slip has its own power tower, allowing for either 30 or 50amp service, potable water and a weatherized plug-in for Internet service (there is also WiFi service available). Within the secure compound of the marina are a full service restaurant, a small tienda, a service that offers help with documents (visitor visas; park passes; TIP's; etc.), a yacht brokerage, a dive shop and a general yacht maintenance service. The marina also provides and maintains clean shower rooms with a second story multipurpose room for meetings, classes and special events. In addition to being supportive of the larger community of La Paz, the Shroyer family also sponsers Club Cruceros de La Paz providing a club house, lending library of both books and DVD's, and an outdoor meeting place for cruisers who are visiting La Paz. The club provides information and support to the cruising community, as well as, outreach events held by the club to benefit the needy communities in the larger La Paz urban area.

While the heart and soul of Marina de La Paz are the Shroyer's, the individuals who provide the day to day service and support of the marina and keep it running also deserve special attention. There is a dedicated team of employees, without whom, Marina de La Paz wouldn't be the special place it is today. The following are photo's of some of the dedicated, professional and friendly support staff. I apologize for not including all the staff, including Mac Shroyer, but those who have been included are the people you most often see.

Mary Shroyer, matriarch of the family business, and angel to both the cruising and La Paz communities.

Neil Shroyer is the day to day operations manager and overseer of the marina. In addition to his marina duties, he maintains an active role in local marine and harbor business. If anyone has a problem to solve, Neil is a valuable resource to consult.

Cyntia is one of the bubbly, cheerful office managers, who keeps track of the residents of the marina, assigning slips and parking places.

Adriana, the other happy co-manager of the marina office, shares duties with Cyntia.

Yolanda rounds out the cheerful and helpful office staff at Marina de La Paz. Three more helpful, cheerful woman are hard to find and they're all here at Marina de La Paz.

Javier is the head watchman in charge of security at the marina. He's there day and night.

Marco is also part of the security team at Marina de La Paz. He generally works evenings and weekends, along with Javier.

Maria keeps the showers and rest rooms spotless and is always cheerful.

Joel is a great boat mechanic. In 2008, he managed to change our raw water pump, which is not located in a great spot for maintenance.

Antonio (Tono) is a work boat pilot and all around jack of all trades.

Abel is another jack-of-all trades when it comes to boats and also manages the fuel dock.

Martin primary responsibility is maintaining the desalination operation at the marina.

Omar is one of the more recent employees at Marina de La Paz. As with the rest of the staff, he's cheerful and helpful to anyone who needs or asks for assistance. His current duties include dock maintenance, including woodworking, electrical and painting.

Ernesto is part of the security team, working the graveyard shift.

Lupe, while not an employee of the marina, provides propane pick-up service for the cruisers three mornings a week.

One of the regular dock visitors who looks for maintenance work is Jacob. He enjoys talking and can be a hard worker, if hired. All the people walking the docks looking for work have to be approved by the marina before being allowed to solicit work.
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3 comments:

Mid-Life Cruising! said...

Until we decided to cruise, we'd never heard of La Paz! Reading cruising blogs has definitely been a great lesson in geography.

La Paz sounds like such a beautiful place, and we hope to get there someday. Looks like a great crew at the marina, and how nice of you to honor them! Have a great 2013!

Anonymous said...

What about Carlos Water Works ?

Neophyte Cruiser said...

This was a big oversight on my part. Carlos Waterworks provides a variety of services including bottom cleaning, diving service, boat repairs, mooring rentals along with other repair services. Carlos Solis is the owner of the business. He is very knowledgable and quite helpful.