Saving Fish from Drowning and there are no "bad days" in Zihuatanejo

We've been busy the last week with playing "tourist in our own town".  We are happy to be showing our longtime friends Daryl and John around.  They`ve joined our other Canadian friends Sue and Paul and we are relishing having 4 of our friends here to play with.  We've been to beaches, shops, restaurants, and wildlife refuges where the sights, sounds, smells, music, colors and people have provided the much needed contrast to grey (or even white) cold, empty streets back in Canada.  John has summed it up with "there's life everywhere"...every home, every store, every car, every cafe is a virtual feast for the senses as our little town goes about the business of life in the tropics while preparing for Xmas.  The sharp contrast with our lives back in Canada can be overwhelming but to our friends it has provided for some wonderful experiences and memories.

So yesterday, we arranged a deep sea fishing trip with John, a keen fisherman, and Daryl on our friends Mike and Dee's boat,  The Huntress.  We met Mike and Dee when we first moved here 5 years ago and we`ve always felt good about our choice of their boat and their committment to `catch and release` in order to sustain the stocks in our ocean.  Captain Francisco is the friendly, smiling Mexican professional boathandler, fisherman who makes the experience so wonderful. 

This is our fourth time on the boat and I was a bit concerned that the day might be too long, too uncomfortable or even a bit boring if the fish weren't out there...cause as everyone who goes fishing knows, you can't always count on them biting just because you throw out a hook....or in this case, 6 of them with a huge variety of bait, lures, depths and equipment to attract the variety of gorgeous fish that live in the warm, blue depths offshore. 

But the fishing gods were with us and immediately we caught a beautiful Dorado, then 2 sailfish and the final strike was the largest fish of the day...Francisco told us it was a Marlin by the way that the fish wiggled back and forth at the end of the line 50 feet or so behind our boat, but on further examanation and after seeing it's amazing beautiful top fin that opened into a full fan 5-6 feet in length, we were told it was a very large and very old sailfish (Pez Vela). 

John had to use all of his strength to reel the magnificent fish close to the boat and we all waited hoping Francisco could successfully get the large hook out of the fish's gut in order to release it back into the ocean.  This wasn't easy and the fish seemed to be likely to not survive.   But after what amounted to fish CPR, a combination of holding it`s bill and speeding the boat up so it was forced to `swim`and Francisco gently moving it`s head in a swimming motion back and forth across the wake at the side of the boat, he picked the moment to release the fish, who sat with it`s fin sticking straight up in the air and then quickly emerged into the `blue water`with a look of thanks in it`s wise old eyes....saved from drowning and left to live as all things so beautiful should be. 

Gracias a dios for people like Francisco and all of the other people who seem to live in harmony with nature that is around us here in our beautiful home by the sea.  

  

But we are soon to take a little holiday from our holiday and head into the mountains to give Daryl and John a taste of Michoacan and our favorite shopping destinations of Patzcuaro and Quiroga and the chill of high altitude in Mexico.  Que vaya bien...may we travel safely and well!