Day 6
Today was an easy day. We spent most of it looking around La Paz on motorcycle and on foot. Quite a nice town. You need to be careful when traveling around town and the surrounding area. At one point we did get stuck at a Sand Bar. 
One of our missions today was to find a guided fishing trip We scoured the town and finally ran into Hector. He's a talker. A good salesperson too. Before we knew it, we were all signed up for a fishing trip the following day. We also met his sidekick, Poncho. Poncho speaks pretty good english that he learned while working in the U.S, until immigration changed his address. Hector explained that Poncho loved to speak english to americans and wondered if it it would be okay if Poncho tagged along to help out if any translation was necessary. Sounded like a good plan.Dinner was a few beers, a few tequilas and a couple of margaritas along with some fresh made Chili Poppers.
We needed to run to the store, just a couple of doors away, to pick up beer for the next day's activities. Beer, apparently, isn't sold until 9:00 in the morning and we would be long gone by then. The store, being a 24 hour facility, would be open in the morning so we could pick up ice, water, food and what not, necessary for our trip. At 10:30, we leave the restaurant and head over to the store to buy the beer. No one mentioned to us, that they stop selling beer at 10:00 in the evening! What to do...?
We had become friendly with the guy at the restaurant, Xavier, who was bartending and hailing customers in off of the street (since we had fallen prey to his tactics earlier). Back to the restaurant we go and express our desperation to our “buddy”. A couple more tequilas, and he comes up with solution! He will sell us the beer we need, at a small but “has us over a barrel” profit. Give us a cooler for a not quite so small deposit; and make our trip the experience we had been anticipating. Perfect!Day 7
Up and all ready for fishing at about 6:15 AM. I dash off to the store, while Peter lugs the heavy metal Corona cooler, fully laden with beer, across the street to the water's edge.
The store, being a 24 hour store, locks it's doors at night to prevent robberies and such. Okay. They do have a small window in one of the doors, that allows you to communicate with the clerk and make the necessary transactions. Okay. My spanish has allowed us to stumble our was through Baja thus far but now it was being put to a test. What are the words for 2-coffees, a bag of ice, some sandwiches, miscellaneous snacks and a couple of large waters? Hell, I don't know either! Using the translator app. on my phone as fluently as possible, I finally manage to get 2-coffees, a bag of ice and a couple of sandwiches. I forgot about the water and I gave up on the snacks.
Off across the street I go to meet Peter.
The gang, Hector and Poncho, shows up the there is a fishing boat idling just off shore in the low tide. We'll have to use the pier to get on board. Hector knows a short-cut. Under the pier we go, ducking to avoid all of the concrete structure. We then climb up onto some of this structure to finally arrive at the walk way. Still hauling the cooler full of beer, hot coffees, sandwiches and ice, while climbing, Poncho decides to help me by dumping my hot coffee on me. This lightens the load considerably and makes access to the walk way a breeze.
Hector collects our money, we hop on the boat. Peter, myself, Poncho and our guide and captain Raul Martinez Castro a.k.a. Chito, are off on our adventure!
A short ways out but still in the harbor area, Chito sets up a couple of fishing poles with multiple hooks rigs with a weight at the bottom and we start fishing for our bait. Mackrel in this case. This is a little bit fun but our goal was larger varieties of fish. We finally have a few in the bait well and we head out.
Poncho cracks open a beer.
Our next stop is along side a small local fisherman's boat 15-20 minutes down the shoreline. This boat is carrying two locals with fishing nets and a live well full of sardines. It seems we were expected to pay these two and additional 200 pesos for all of the sardines we need. Since we paid Hector handsomely, and there was no mention of paying for bait in addition to the fishing trip, we decline and Poncho actually helps us in convincing Chito to take it up with Hector, later.
Poncho cracks open a beer.
The boat now fully loaded with all of the bait we need, Chito gives some of our mackrel to another guide boat. Did we upset matters by not paying for the sardines? Off to the fishing grounds we go!
Poncho cracks open a beer.
A while later we reach the fishing grounds. Three poles are rigged with some huge colorful squid jigs and we start trolling at a pretty good clip.
Poncho cracks open a beer.
It wasn't too much later, while Peter and I are kidding each other about who's better at the art of having someone else rig poles for us, bait our hooks and take us to the promised fishing land so a fish can jump onto the hook owned by the captain/boat, that Peter's fishing pole doubles over and suddenly it's game on!About 15 minutes of a gigantic tug of war, through shear relentless determination, Peter lands a 6 foot Marlin! Big fish! There is no denying Peter is the lucky, highly skilled, bugger of the day.
Poncho cracks open a beer. In fact, Peter and I crack open a beer and Peter's efforts are fully christened. We aren't sure of the weight of the boated trophy, but it's big.
Poncho cracks open a beer. In fact, Peter and I crack open a beer and Peter's efforts are fully christened. We aren't sure of the weight of the boated trophy, but it's big.
Lines back in the water, off we go at about the same trolling speed.
Poncho cracks open a beer.
Poncho cracks open a beer.
Not all that much longer, Poncho cracks open a beer. About the same time my pole develops a similar arc to that of Peters hard fought meal in waiting. This time I'm fighting a sailfish! A scrappy rascal he is. My forearms screaming, the fish is finally boated. 6 and about ½ feet of sleek water breathing missile. Not as big a girth of the marlin but a fighter just the same.Poncho cracks open a beer.
As Chito changes our lures to live bait and slows the troll down considerably, we notice that Poncho hasn't been attempting to be helpful in the same manner that was never of any real benefit in the first place. His unsuccessful attempts are even more so now. In addition, his never ending terrible “songs” and relentless babble are even more difficult to try to understand or ignore. Poncho cracks open a beer.
Before long we are boating Durado. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, a total of 8 Durado are captured. Good fighters and they seem to bite in waves. Often there were two or three on the lines at the same time. Poncho cracks open beer after beer. His symptoms do not improve.
Needlefish are also hitting the bait but if hooked, are shaken loose. It's fun to watch them skim along the surface for extremely long distances before disappearing below again.
We spot an Orca or two, rare in these parts, while trolling. We also spot the odd Durado jumping and shark finning.
Around 2:00 in the afternoon we call it a day and decide it's time to vamanos. Poncho cracks open a beer.
On the return trip, we spot a sea turtle and watch flying fish gliding just above the water.
The temperature has been well over 100 degrees since shortly after the sun came up and we are fully baked, tired, thirsty due to the lack of water and probably a little hungry because our sandwiches had been consumed well over 7 hours before.
Poncho cracks open a beer.
It occurs to us that Poncho has consumed most of our beer and the signs are quite apparent. As we motor on he tries to add wondering around the boat in addition to what he thinks are songs and the loud, incomprehensible mumble that has become his sermon. Poncho cracks open a beer. After repeatedly telling him to sit down, shut up and no mas cerveza, Poncho cracks open a beer. This time, it is grabbed from his hand and tossed into the water. He either gets it or his will power has become waterlogged.
A couple more beers and I'm sure we'll be done for the evening...
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