Current Time in La Paz, Mexico

La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur, standing on a wide sheltered bay on the eastern side of the Baja peninsula, facing the Gulf of California. Desert hills of cactus and thorn scrub come down almost to the shore, and the water in front of the city shifts between turquoise and deep blue. The climate is hot and dry, with very little rain, long brilliant summers and warm, agreeable winters that draw visitors from colder countries.

Around three hundred thousand people live in the city and its municipality, making it the largest settlement in the state and its administrative, commercial and educational centre. Government, tourism, fishing, port activity, agriculture in nearby valleys and marine research together support the local economy.

Europeans first landed here in 1535, when Hernán Cortés attempted to found a colony on the bay and named it Santa Cruz. Water and supplies were scarce and the settlement failed, as did several later attempts, and a permanent town was only established in the early nineteenth century. Its name, meaning peace, was chosen for the calm waters of the bay. La Paz grew wealthy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from pearl diving, and the black pearls of the gulf were famous across the world until disease and overfishing destroyed the oyster beds. The trade left its mark on the city's architecture and on literature, above all in John Steinbeck's short novel The Pearl.

The heart of city life is the malecón, a seafront promenade several kilometres long, lined with palms, restaurants and a series of bronze sculptures celebrating the sea, where families walk in the evening to watch the sun set behind the water. Behind it lie the cathedral, a shaded main square, the regional museum of anthropology and history, small galleries and craft shops.

The greatest attractions are natural. Balandra beach, with its shallow lagoon and famous mushroom-shaped rock, is regularly named among the most beautiful in Mexico, and nearby Tecolote looks across to the rugged island of Espíritu Santo. That island and its neighbours form part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing for the islands of the Gulf of California, and boats take visitors to snorkel with a large sea lion colony, to kayak among red cliffs and to camp on empty beaches. Whale sharks gather in the bay in the cooler months, and grey whales come to the lagoons on the Pacific side of the peninsula, a few hours away by road. Jacques Cousteau famously called this sea the world's aquarium.

The Autonomous University of Baja California Sur and several marine research institutes give the city a strong scientific presence.

An international airport, ferries from the port of Pichilingue to Mazatlán and Topolobampo on the mainland, and the transpeninsular highway south to Los Cabos keep La Paz well connected.

La Paz is popular as a relaxed desert seaport with extraordinary marine wildlife, a place that offers the beauty of Baja California without the crowds of the resorts further south.