Gone Fishin'

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I'm a couple of days behind on updating...Wednesday was "Mike's Choice." He wanted to go fishing and we were lucky enough to find a boat that would take us out for a half-day of fishing AND snorkeling, which usually don't go together. I've never been trolling, and it was really nice. The boat was fairly small (26 feet?) but very nicely maintained. Neither the captain nor the first mate spoke much English, but they knew what they were doing with fishing. Within the first hour, we caught five dorado/mahi and the big prize: a tuna! I was very proud of both girls for holding down their breakfast as the fish were hauled overboard and quickly put out of their misery and consigned to the cooler. They didn't even really flinch much at the cleaning process. In a bizarre way, it's kind of fascinating. And, as Nora said, it's much more humane to fish and then eat what you catch (or give it away to the crew to feed their family). We kept some of each kind of fish, and will have grilled mahi tomorrow night after our all-day excursion, and perhaps bring the tuna to a restaurant on Friday for them to cook. Very cool. The second part of the expedition, bottom fishing for grouper or snapper, yielded nothing. And, it was strange, but we encountered jellyfish goo on Kate's fishing line...both of us managed to touch it, and the closest I can come to describing it is contact with fiberglass--a fiery itching that will drive you mad.

After the fishing, the boat stopped at a beach for us to do a bit of snorkeling. The beaches here take some getting used to because we're used to the Caribbean and these are darker and rockier. Water shoes would have been very helpful, but only Mike brought his. After all, they are ugly. Kate and I donned our snorkel gear while Nora worked on her tan, and we began swimming out. About fifty feet from shore, I noticed a stinging sensation on my legs, and asked Jose "Are there jellyfish out here?" "Si." Crap. We high-tailed it back, and both of us had multiple encounters on our legs. Probably not stings, but certainly brushings. Yuk. That was it for the beach.

Back at the house for the afternoon, and a dinner at Coconuts bar in Coco. The girls keep thinking that pizza in Costa Rica is going to be edible, and Mike keeps trying to order beef, but the cows are too skinny. The $6.99 all-you-can-eat pizza buffet was cheap, but not particularly spectacular. Oh, well, an early day tomorrow--an all-day excursion of zip-lining, horseback riding, tubing down the river, and more mud treatments.

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