Where locals go

Where locals actually go

Paceños do not spend their weekends on the tourist end of the malecón. Here is where the city goes when it is off the clock, and when it matters to show up.

Markets and the daily eating

Mercado Bravo, the main downtown market a few blocks back from the water, is the everyday center of gravity. Families buy fish, produce, and tortillas here in the morning, and the fondas inside serve a cheap, honest comida corrida among people on their lunch break. Come mid-morning to early afternoon for the food; the market winds down by mid-afternoon. Order whatever the fonda has ladled up that day, and a fresh agua de jamaica or horchata to go with it. The taco and lonchería stands scattered through the surrounding grid are where the real daily eating happens: fish and shrimp tacos at midday, carne asada and adobada in the evening. Follow the plastic stools and the queue of locals, not the signage.

Cantinas, mezcalerías, and the craft scene

Younger paceños drink in the low-key bars, mezcalerías, and small craft-beer spots on the streets behind the malecón rather than the marked-up waterfront terraces. There is a genuine, growing craft-beer scene in the downtown blocks, and a couple of old-school cantinas where the beer is cold and the botana keeps coming. Nothing rowdy; this is not a party town, and the crowd leans neighborhood-regular over tourist. Evenings, after about 8 pm, are when these fill.

A day off, the local way

When paceños want the beach they often skip the famous ones. Plenty head to the string of smaller coves along the road north, or drive out to the beaches on the Pichilingue side to swim and grill with the family, coolers and carne asada in tow. Weekends are for that. Then on Sunday evenings the whole city converges back on the malecón for the paseo: kids running, couples walking, ice cream and elotes from the carts, the sculptures lit up. If you want to see La Paz being itself, be on Álvaro Obregón at dusk on a Sunday. There is usually something informal going on near the kiosk.

The parks and plazas

The plaza by the cathedral downtown is where the daytime city sits in the shade, and where you will catch the occasional band or civic event on weekends. It is not a sight, it is a place to do what locals do: nurse a paleta and watch the town go by.

What a friend who lives here would tell you: eat inland at the market and the taco stands, drink behind the malecón, and save the waterfront itself for the walk, not the meal. For the specific dishes and stalls, see food.