Gone Fishing

We got in the boat and looked for Timon, my gardener. To what end I don't recall, my notes are sketchy.

We looked for the Jaguar, a local school teacher who lives on Bastimentos and runs a hostel. He's a cool guy. Bastimentos has no roads. One end of the island, Old Town has two sidewalks. One ends at the point, which heads out to open water and the other up the hill to trail that will get you over the top of the island to the open Caribbean. The sea is too rough to dock there so the only way you get there is dock on the bay side and walk over. In any event, we missed him as he wasn't out of school yet.

We hopped accross the bay and snorkeled at Hospital Point.

We returned and walked up the hill to the highest point on the island to a destination had nearly reached before without knowing it. It's a give shop called “Up the hill”. Up the hill we went, past the end of sidewalks, on muddy coconuts, through mud, down more trails to arrive at a store than must have had an inventory of less than $100. It was a few shelves in front of a house. Some coffee, earrings, chocolate, that's about it. I won't be back.

We returned to the hostel and met with jaguar for a scheduled fishing trip. He enjoys my company and takes me fishing for only the price of gas. It's a deal both ways.  He doesn't pay for gas at all, I pay for less than I would in my boat and we get to hang out and enjoy each others company.

First a casting need is used to retrieve a couple of gallons of sardines. These are tiny fish, we'd call them minnows back stateside.

 Bucket on board, the five of us, Jaguar and his neighbor boarded the boat. It's 22 footer with a tiller outboard and five bench seats. We were each handed a spool around which some monofilament line had been wound with a hook and sinker attached. This is the local style. No fancy casting reels. We tooled around from spot to spot catching pan sized snapper. For every keeper there were three throw backs but you could catch a fish a minute.

An afternoon with some friends at the Garden of Eden and a return home. A pleasing, quiet day.