Tag Archives: mexico

Incidente en el Pescado de la Bahía de Banderas

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Hola, mis interwebs amigos.   I have a very sad tale to tell you.  I like to call it the Incidente en el Pescado de la Bahía de Banderas, or The Fish Affair of la Bahía de Banderas.  It also explains my insane love of snorkeling.
 
See, it all started with my love of fishing.   Why do I love fishing, you ask?  Well, you know the feeling you get when you hop in a spaceship and fly to a mysterious planet and, upon landing at said mysterious planet, you find these creatures who are sort of edible and not very sentient really, and you’re hungry, and you pull out your trusty lasso and lasso yourself one up?  And then you combine that feeling, with the feeling of being struck momentarily blind, as if someone slapped a bandana over your eyes, and you had to stick a pin in some picture in just the right spot, and you do, and you take the bandana off and see how awesome your sixth sense is?
Well that’s why I love fishing.  Because it feels like that.  It’s like your blindly delving the depths of a strange world and finding little living treasures.  And then you kill them.  Yay!
 
Now imagine, if you will, that you’ve spent your life delving these strange little worlds, and finding these treasures, but they’ve always been only so big.  There’s no real struggle, no life and death battle between you and the fish; pretty much if you hook it, it’s a goner.  At least, I thought, if it was a bigger fish there would be Glorious Battle, right?  Huh.  Silly me. 
 
I was determined to experience that struggle.  So I go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and I charter a fishing boat.  My trusty fishing guide, Miguel, takes us out to the beautiful Bahía de Banderas, or Bay of Flags.  I see dolphins!!!  And a WHALE!  (No really, I did!)  But we are hunting fishable fish, my friends.  Oh yes, the kind you spend 20 minutes reeling in, and then you LAND that sucker, and you take a picture! 
 
I really, really hadn’t thought this out very well.
 
Of course first, we had to find the fish.  That proved to be no problem at all, though.  You just scan the horizon and look for birds flocking.  Drive your boat to that location.  Look in the water.  Fish.  Seriously, the water was BOILING.  With FISH.  It was like some crazy fishy orgy was happening right there at the surface of the water, hundreds and hundreds of huge, silvery bodies all flapping and churning and going just…well…fish orgy, just picture it, right?  We set out lines, and starting trolling around.
 
WHAM!  FISHONFISHONFISHON!!!!
 
I start reeling in for all I’m worth!  Lean forward, reel back.  Lean forward, reel back.  It was a BIG fish.  I remember the first moment I caught a glimpse of it, it was like some beautiful silver treasure was flickering in the water, coming in closer and closer, sparkling in the sunlight, a silver glimmering jewel.  And I had it caught!  I thought about how I’d reel it up, and catch in a net, and hold it up proudly, its silvery skin sparkling no less than my smile.  It was beautiful, how this would end in my head.
Right.  Not so beautiful, actually.  Miguel, my trusty fisherman, snagged his bailing hook when I pulled the fish near the boat, and stabbed my poor defenseless fish IN THE SIDE.  He then commences to haul the poor thing up outta the water, a giant silver creature flailing with this giant hook stabbed into it, and hands it to me so we can take a picture.
  
Yeah, that's about right. Funny, seems much smaller than I remember.

Yeah, that's about right. Funny, seems much smaller than I remember.

 
Um.  What? 
 
So I stand there, dumbfounded, smiling like an idiot.  Meanwhile, inside my head, I’m in shocked disbelief.  I ended up taking a very small portion of the fish, and giving the rest to Miguel, who assured me it would go to people who needed it.  And the filet that I kept?  Well, I took it to the hotel where I was staying, and they grilled it up for lunch the next day with a lovely pilaf and steamed vegetables.  And I couldn’t eat a single bite of it.  The thought of it made me ill.
 
Once again, like I’ve said so often before…I am a dumbass.  I mean, how did I think this would end?
 
Well then.  During this same trip, I discovered snorkeling.  Which pretty much puts the whole love of fishing dilemma to rest, because now I have the gear to delve those mysterious environs without requiring any pretenses of killing or eating things.  I mean really, I don’t like eating fish all that much anyway.  And I’ve never seen anyone go fishing for eagle rays, or puffers, or jellyfish, or any of the other hundreds of amazing things I saw. 
 
So farewell, fishing gear.  Goodbye, tackle and smelly salmon eggs and wiggly rubber worms and hooks which I have accidentally lodged in myself and others.  All I need now is my snorkel and mask, and I can explore those murky worlds and experience all their wonder face to face.  Now, I just hop in my spaceship and travel to those mysterious planets, and just enjoy the treasures that live there.

Been kinda quiet…

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Been kinda quiet lately, I know. Not much of anything going on…we tend to hunker down and hole up in the winter, and don’t get out much. Several friends have had babies, and that’s wonderful for them. Not so lucky here however.

Our dog is getting worse…his lung cancer is back with a vengeance, and its’ almost getting to be a death watch. We went to the vet on Sunday, and only after extensive blood tests would they give us any antibiotics for his very phlegmy cough. He was feeling quite a bit better once we started that medication (on top of the two he’s already taking), a bit more energy, which is great. Before the vet, I would’ve said a month tops…now it could be a couple weeks, or 4 months, I can’t say. As long as he’s eating well, all should be fine…he has lots of treats to work through.

All in all things are low energy for me. I’m loaded at work, more so than many of the poeple in my team it seems. Of course, the more competent you are, the more work you get; and the less competent, the less work you get. Nobody gets fired in the government, no matter how little they do.

I’m just counting the days to Mexico. To hell with this place and everything in it.

The start of the blahs.

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In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been feeling a bit unmotivated about posting as of late. However, it seems to have permeated every facet of my life the past few weeks. I don’t seem to be motivated to do much of anything. It’s been bothering me quite a bit – I don’t see myself as the kind of person who sits around all day long watching TV or playing on the computer. But that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and I hate it. I don’t mind being a couch potato for part of the day. But all day? That’s just not ok in my book, and yet that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Meanwhile my garage project is still unfinished, there’s shopping to be done, trees to buy, presents to wrap, lights to hang…the list goes on and on, especially with the holidays coming up fast.

So I think I finally figured out what’s going on: I have started experiencing the winter blahs. Yes, I know it’s still fall. There’s no snow. It still hits the mid-50s during the day. The sun still shines occasionally. However, it still feels like winter is standing right over my shoulder, towering over me in a most threatening manner. The leaves are all gone, and it’s dang chilly at night. Times like these, I wonder if my mental well-being would be more suited to a locale which experiences more sunshine than rain, more heat than cold. Like…Mexico. Then I can run around with a jacket on when it’s 70 degrees in the wintertime and say “My it’s so cold today!!” and smile, just like the locals. I’ll get nice and tan. I won’t own a car. I’ll eat lots and lots of huevos rancheros, and go horseback riding. I’ll have picked up enough Spanish to get by in about a month, and I’ll be fluent in six. I’ll open up a little computer school, and teach basic computer skills and web development and stuff like that. I’ll buy myself a little villa, with a cook and a maid, and I’ll pay them decent wages, and I’ll have heated tile in the bathroom.

Well…someday.

Thanks for coming along on my little dreamboat trip. I feel a smidgen better.