Viva La Vida

Viva La Vida sits on Paseo Alvaro Obregon, the Malecon that runs along the waterfront in La Paz, Baja California Sur, and covers the morning and midday end of the city's eating rather than its well-known seafood dinners. The kitchen is built around two things: tamales and juice. The tamales plate at roughly $7 for two is the item the restaurant is best known for, made with well-worked masa and fillings that rotate through chicken in green salsa, pork in red, rajas with cheese and sweet versions with raisin and pineapple, steamed in corn husks in the standard central Mexican format rather than the banana-leaf style of the south. The green juice at about $5 and a long list of licuados and combinations draw on Baja citrus, beetroot, nopal, ginger and greens, and the chilaquiles verdes near $10 are the substantial breakfast order. Egg dishes, fruit plates, wholegrain sandwiches and salads complete a menu that leans health-conscious without becoming restrictive. Prices are low and portions are honest rather than oversized. The setting is a bright, informal room with large windows onto the Malecon, painted walls, plants, wooden furniture and a cheerful noise level of local families, office workers and morning regulars. Service is quick and friendly, dress is casual and no reservations are taken. There is no alcohol programme; coffee, juice, licuados and aguas frescas are the drinks. Hours run 7:30AM to 6PM Monday through Saturday with Sunday closed, and the room is busiest between 8AM and 10AM when La Paz eats breakfast before work. The waterfront location makes it a natural first stop before a whale shark trip in the winter season or an Espiritu Santo boat departure, both of which leave from the Malecon area, and it is walkable from every hotel along the promenade. The Malecon position means the room catches the morning light off the bay, and the front tables give a view of the promenade as La Paz starts its day, which is a large part of why local regulars keep the same seats. Tamale fillings rotate through the week rather than following a fixed list, so asking what is available is more useful than reading the board.