Well that was a much needed 6 days of vacation. After the first day the time just started FLYING. Soon enough it was like, "well, tomorrow we go home. Back to work, back to reality".....bummer.
I last left you off telling y'all about a fishing expedition we booked.
If you know me, you know I hate guided tours. Pay a ton of money, wait around on other people, wait around for transportation, hiccups along the way, and guides who just regurgitate the same spiel day in and day out. I just don't like what everyone else is doing apparently. So instead of shelling out 500-1000 USD a person to go on a guided tour of the Marietta's Islands, I asked our Air BNB host, Tom, who has lived down there for 17 years, to find us a local, native, fisherman to take us out.
We only wanted to do some fishing, see the islands, and be out for 2-3 hours. Well, we got way more than we bargained for!!!
We boarded the boat around 7am, the sun hadn't even peeked over the mountain tops yet, but the sky was a soft amber. Simply breathtaking. A comfortable 65 degrees and that soft breeze you can only get on the coast, salty air filling up your nostrils while seagulls and pelicans soar the sky. I was in heaven.
We expected to simply tool around the bay, trolling for anything that would bite. But our captain had other ideas. He started slow towards the islands, probably knowing what we were about to see, which was something we hadn't anticipated....
WHALES!
Humpback whales to be precise. According to the locals I spoke with, there are even more this year since Covid knocked out a lot of the big boats that hold tours to see them.
The momma whales come in to the security of the bay to raise their babies. We must have seen over a dozen of them all over the place. One was even heading right towards our boat, I thought it was going to hit us!! Scary and exhilarating at the same time, luckily it didn't or I probably wouldn't be here to type this.
THEN, on the way to the islands, what's this?!? A massive pod of dolphins. I'm talking at least a hundred of them.
I can't for the life of me figure how to embed this sweet video of the dolphins swimming and jumping, so unfortunately this was the best I could do.
https://www.facebook.com/1385289636/videos/10225541713794784/
After all the whales and dolphins, we finally reached the Marietta's Islands. From land, it looks like just one big rock, but once you get out there, it goes on for miles.
Smoochy-smoochy brother!!!
We thought that was as far as we would go, like I said, 2-3 hours is all we wanted/needed. But no. These guys brought us more than 10 miles out to sea!!! At one point, all you could see was the last remaining island, no coast line, no shore, nothing but waves until Hawaii.
One of the last, tiny little islands had one more surprise for us...I thought it was just a dark spot on the rock, but instead it was a huge Sea Lion, 3 of them, basking in the sun out in the middle of no where.
I would have loved to have seen how they actually got up that high on the rocks, lol.
We trolled for a big Tuna for another 20 minutes or so, until our captain decided it was time to guarantee we didn't leave empty handed. He stopped us in a spot a little closer to shore and threw out a weighted line with 3 hooks holding squid for bait. Let it hit the bottom, and wait for a bite. Mind you, this was all done by hand. No poles what so ever. I didn't have the technique down like these guys did as my bait kept getting eaten, lol.
But once they had one on, they let me reel (pull) it in, haha. I had never in my life seen these fish before. After catching about 10 of them, we finally headed back to shore after almost 5 hours!!!
Did I mention the cost of this expedition yet??? No?!
Well that might be the best part. Other tours wanted 500-100 USD per person!
We got this one of a kind, once in a lifetime opportunity, for get this, a hundred bucks a piece. HAHAHAHA, you literally can't beat that. We got so much more than we asked for that we gave them a huge tip. They were happy and so were we.
Don't forget to feed the birds!!
You'd think that would be the end of this little story, wouldn't you? Welllll, you'd be wrong. Not only did they bring us out to catch the fish, they wanted to cook them up for us too!!! OMG, this couldn't get any better....or could it??? Hahahaha, yes it can because one of the guys took me to catch some fresh oysters, right off the gotdamn rocks!
We literally used a chisel and hammer to pry these off the rocks at low tide. Unbelievable.
Bottoms UP!
Doesn't get any fresher than that!
Thanks to Mauro for getting the grill going, we were ready to feast!
Fresh caught oysters, grilled fresh fish, homemade Mexican salsa, grilled beef from right up the street, throw it all in a taco shell and you're living la vida.
The next highlight of the trip was heading to a city 20 minutes north of us known for more of a party atmosphere.
SAYULITA
Definitely a lot more people and more touristy, which is the complete opposite of Punta de Mita, where we were staying.
We checked out the beach ---
Checked out Sayulita Brewery, which was awesome because they actually brewed something other than light beer, like this Hazy IPA. Could have used some more hops, but it was a nice change of pace from Corona, Sol, XX, etc ---
That young lad in the middle is Harry. He bartends at a local bar on the beach near our Air BNB. He graciously accepted our invite to show us around Sayulita.
It also helped to have him speak to the legal cartel that gave me a proper Mexican shakedown on the way there. Apparently I was speeding, even though 2 other cars flew past me in the left lane as I was being pulled over. A quick 20 dollars later and we were on our way, lol.
We got to enjoy the town and even listen to some great street music at a local bar ---
The next day was our last full day. So I wanted to eat my face off and enjoy as much of Mexico as I could ---
Calamari WITH the tentacles, yum!
Tuna tar-tar, gimme some!
Can you go to Mexico and NOT have a margarita? I don't think so... ---
Tom wanted to show me a secluded beach not many people know about. So we headed there and just had some great conversation. Mostly about crypto!!! Haha, when I told him it would be sweet to buy a building and start a restaraunt, he asked me "oh yeah, how early into BTC did you get and how many did you buy", lol! I was taken a back a lil bit because it caught me so off guard. I didn't expect him to know about BTC or crypto in general. He even knew about Steem/Steemit, so I had to fill him in on Hive as he wasn't aware of what happened.
We headed back to our place after some great convos, in the hopes of his buddy, Patrick, bringing back a big Tuna for all of us to enjoy.
Well, we didn't get the Tuna. But he did come back with a HUGE Red Snapper!
You think this was Patrick's first time fileting a big fish like this? Think again!
After Mauro had the grill fired up, we were in fish heaven!
This last night was probably the best night, imo. Sat around a table with some great people, discussing crypto, philosophy, life, and everything else under the sun...and moon, while eating amazingly delicious food. I feel like this is the life for me, and hopefully soon enough, it will be.
Huge shout out to Tom & Patrick for their hospitality. Or should I say 
Thank you all for taking the time to follow me on this trip.
