La Manz Beach Day

Iris and Linda at the beach entrance.

Iris met us outside our casa on Gomez Farias and we all walked a few yards to the taxis and hired our driver. Today is a La Manzanilla beach day and we all are ready for a little food, cards, and relaxation.

We loaded in and our driver immediately got on his phone and started driving. I guess he had to report into his taxi command center but for the first few miles, all he did was mess with his phone as he drove. Distracted driving is rampant in Mexico.

Colorful umbrellas were everywhere. 

When we reached the main beach access in La Manz we exited the cab and paid our fair. We were looking for our favorite restaurant, Pedro's. We walked to the beach and looked in both directions. Not spotting the surfboard in the sand we then walked back up to the main street and headed deeper into the town business area.  Within four blocks we spotted the sign for Pedro's and went in and found our seats.

We were greeted by everyone as if we had been there every day. Pedro does such a great job of making everyone feel like family. We ordered breakfast and our day began.

Fishing and a following of pelicans.

The rest of the day was filled with fun conversation, cards, food, and drink. The Bay of Tenacatita was teeming with fish and the birds were going crazy. We spent much of the day watching fishermen chasing schools of fish while pelicans dive-bombed the coastline.

We stayed until about 2:00 PM and then walked to the tiangue and quickly looked around. Most of the vendors were closing up, so we basically spent our time talking to our vendor friends. We found a taxi driver in full siesta. Iris woke him up and he drove us back to Melaque. It was a great day

La Manz beach life.

Net fishing in the fish frenzy.

Buying last-minute trinkets.

I might open a Seahawks gear store here.

Fishing With Gerardo

Sunrise over the water is always beautiful.

Five o'clock... I rolled out of bed and got my gear together for a day of fishing. There was a seat open on the boat, Hakuna Matata, with Captain Gerardo Kosonoy and I got an invite to get out on the water. 

We met at Barry Urquhart's house and Gerardo picked us up. By 7:10 AM we were motoring out of the Barra canals and into the Bahia de Navidad. The air was cool, almost cold, as we sped out across the water.

Setting out the five lines we fished.

Gerardo was heading out to an area where I have fished many times under his guidance. About three miles out of Barra, we set out five lures and slowed to about 9 knots. Our day of trolling had begun.

The four clients, Barry Urquhart, Jeff Cheek, Dave???? and myself flipped coins that set our seats in the catch chair. I was third in line so I sat up with Gerardo and chatted about fishing as we scanned the horizon for good signs. We look for birds, debris, long lines, and current lines. Over the years I have become very aware of these things to look for, all of which draw baitfish which in turn draw predator fish.

Fish on! A sailfish tries to shake the lure free.

Gerardo found a great current line that was full of debris and we started following it. All along this line were pieces of floating wood, seaweed, coconuts, paper, and plastic. Under each piece of flotsam was a teaming community of small fish, crabs, sea snakes, and other living organisms.

Since we were looking for the big fish, we pulled our lures through the current line in hopes that a predator would see the movement of these colorful lures, follow and attack.

The sailfish has given in and is ours.

At 10:10 AM we had a strike and a hookup. Jeff was the first chair so after Gerardo set the hook, he took over and the fight began. Behind the boat, a pointed head broke the surface. Jeff had a sailfish on his line. As he reeled it in we pulled in the other lines and Gerardo prepared to land it.

After about 30 minutes the fish was near the boat and we got our first look at its full length. Gerardo estimated it to be about 7 feet long and 65 pounds. This is considered a medium-sized fish. Jeff decided to keep it and our captain pulled it on board and administered the club. Gerardo calls his club the Priest and our friend John Sutherland calls his club Gramma's Hammer. Whatever you call it, it gets the job done.

With one fish in the boat, we continued on. Ahead Gerardo spotted a log and we pulled the lures past it hoping to get a hit. As we went by the water teemed with baitfish. Around the log were two huge turtles feeding off the growth along the wood skin.

Gerardo and Jeff with the prize.

We stopped alongside the island of life and proceeded to fish for live bait. As we caught the little baitfish, sharks started swimming around our lines. Soon we were catching sharks along with the small baitfish. Gerardo told us that sharks were good to eat, so we kept the next seven we caught. This was a very fun experience and something I had never done on the open ocean.

After a while, we pulled in the lines and set them up with hooks and then put on the live bate. We pulled this bait slower than we had pulled the lures. Gerardo headed us back along the current line and we motored on.

A little better photo of Jeff.

Gerardo cleans one of the seven sharks we caught.

Taking us home.

This photo is for Caroline.

The First Few Days In Melaque

Dec. 27, 2019 - The morning started out a bit cloudy and the humidity was very noticeable. Linda did her run and I stayed around the apartment enjoying my coffee. Our casa is becoming a lot more user-friendly. This morning we met the owner of the complex and found out that the gentleman that we had been dealing with is no longer our manager.

My little devil selfie from my walk around the town.

The owner, Juan Carlos, had moved into the lower level apartments. I think he stays in one of the units and his daughter is going to reside in the other.

This new arrangement has taken place in typical Mexican fashion. We are just peripheral to the transactions and don't need to know what was taking place. Linda feels a bit bad because she has been sending emails requesting information on how to get things fixed, to the previous manager. He has vaguely answered, but never mentioned that he no longer represented Juan Carlos. Now we know who is in charge and things are getting taken off our TO-DO list.

(Since the writing of these first few paragraphs, our original manager, Rogelio, visited us last night, Jan. 1, 2020. He is now managing a complex over in Barra, but will still be our contact when Juan Carlos is not in town. It was his choice to take on that new position because it separates him from the owner's father which makes his job less stressful. Juan Carlos is the son of the original owner who Rogelio works for. It's very complicated.)

New Year's Eve dinner with Jacquie and Grant.

Juan Carlos is very nice. He said that he works for Hewlett Packard but I could not understand what he does exactly. He said that he represents the company when it deals with other countries. I imagine that sooner or later we will have to pay the rent that we owe on the apartment. Again, typical Mexican fashion. We are more concerned about payment than they are.

Mid-morning I went out and did some shopping. Linda gave me a little list and some pesos and sent me out the door. She walked over to Las Palmas and watched folks play volleyball.

I walked the streets of the town meeting locals and greeting them, enjoying their smiles. The town is filling up and we are looking forward to the new year.

Looking toward Chicken Beach on New Year's Eve.

Our Christmas was very low key. We had dinner with Larry and Maggie at a relatively new pizza place and enjoyed their pepperoni pizza immensely. We will probably make the eatery a weekly stop during our stay in Mexico.

Las Palmas beach bonfire.

Jan. 2, 2020 -  Last night it rained most of the night. The clouds came in during the late afternoon and the downpour started about 6:00 PM. Earlier in the evening I hooked our computer up to the large flat-screen TV in the apartment and discovered that we could watch NetFlix over the internet. I had been surfing FaceBook earlier and noticed a couple posts mentioning a show that had just come out for viewing on this channel. We didn't know anything about the documentary except that it had caused several of our friends to binge the entire show in one sitting. With the downpour of rain, we settled in and started watching. Wow, three hours later we had completed our binge and were sitting shaking our heads. The show was very disturbing but was so well put together that once we started we couldn't stop. Good thing it was just three hours long, or we would have probably still been watching it. If you are interested in the name of the show, leave a message or PM me and I will fill you in. The title of the show contains words that I prefer not being in the blog.

Night shot from our rooftop.

The New Year came in with a bang down here. We went out to dinner with Jacquie and Grant and then walked over to Las Palmas for their annual beach bonfire. We all hung around for a while and then walked back to our casa and up onto the rooftop seating area to watch the new year arrive. Both Linda and I were tired so at about 11:00 PM we went down and went to bed. At midnight everything broke loose. The New Year was welcomed in with more loud explosions than we had heard in a long time. Linda and I agreed to try and make 2020 another wonderful year together.

Worst fireworks photo ever.

This morning the two of us walked down to the autobus terminal and chose our seats on the bus we will be using to travel to Puerto Vallarta in two weeks. Between now and then I plan to go fishing with Barry Urquhart. The calendar is starting to fill and our Mexico adventure continues to fill our lives. I'll try to keep the blog up to date, so take care and we hope you have a happy start to 2020.