Our secret fishing spot

O.K.....maybe not totally secret but certainly not for tourists! This place sits about 2 miles south of Todos Santos, of course on the Pacific. It is a cove, although the word “cove” seems like a small word to describe it. It is a place where boats of fisherman, 3-4 in a boat, leave in the morning and come back around 2:30 or 3:00 with a boat filled (hopefully) with fish. There are many cool things about this. First of all there are no tourists there. You may find a local, or two, wanting to buy fish from a boat, but this is not a place you would read about in a “Mexico for Dummies” handbook. Secondly, the drive off highway 19 is, of course on a dirt road, but it passes some old sugar refineries. Todos Santos was at its peak when they were processing and selling sugar cane. This went on for decades until the water mysteriously dried up in the 50’s. Now Todos Santos is on a resurgence, of an “artisty” kind, and the old refineries sit silent and brooding. They are brick and magnificent. Thirdly, you will find hundreds of pelicans and gulls at the cove. They swarm around like flying rats, waiting for a piece of fish that may be thrown away off a boat. They have no fear and because of this you may find one or two dead on the beach, run over by a truck, or a boat.

How could a bird be run over by a boat?? Very good question. The cove I mentioned is huge. In fact the boats seems minuscule inside the cliff on the south side. The only way for a boat to come ashore is to “ride a wave”. So what often happens is a boat could wait for a ½ hour for the right wave to ride into shore. When they find that wave they “GUN IT” as fast as they can and shoot up on shore, with the propeller spinning in protest. This is the time a pickup truck, old and rusty, will hook up a rope and pull them far enough off the shore that they can get out and harvest their catch. This whole process will cause the death of a bird or two on occasion.

This is where my Mom and I come in. Besides the fact that we waited and watched the hovering boats coming ashore, we were fascinated by the “culture”. Unfortunately, there is an unstated law there. You do not bring your camera and happily snap pictures. When you are there you have stepped into these people lives. You respect this, and them. Yes, you can photograph the birds, the boats, even some of the activities, but what I really wanted to capture was their essence. Their faces. Their clothing. Their being. This would be wrong. So instead we snapped a few random shots which I will share with you, while waiting to choose our fish.

The process of finding the right fish begins with us first choosing a boat, and hoping they have what kind of fish we are looking for. We could also ask around for a specific type of fish. I do not know the language well enough to do this part, so we picked a boat and got what we could.

We ended up with a 10 pound tuna that the guy filleted for us on the spot; throwing guts and bones to the pelicans. For three of us we have enough fish for 4 meals...cost $12. We also bought a 5 lb squid, that they reach inside and pulled the mouth out of, for $4. Fresh fish! We also did this when the Ya Ya’s were here and for $20 we got an ahi tuna and a red snapper that 8 of us ate for two days.

These Mexicans are poor. They are also NOT supposed to sell the fish like this. Whomever their catch actually goes to does not allow this. Casually, and calmly we make our deal. My Mom was beside herself. Seeing the boats roaring to shore, the huge fish and all the birds...it so totally cool.

So for the last two nights we had fresh fish caught by people who live and die by the sea.

Such is life in Mexico.