Vamos a pescar. Barracuda!

For as long as I can remember, my brother and I have been fishing. We learned the sport from my father and our uncles. We have fishing in our blood.

Today was our last day in Tulum.  We would both be flying home later on in the day.  How did we spend our last morning in Mexico?  Going deep sea fishing, of course!


Two days ago, when we were in Akumal Bay, we stopped into the Akumal Dive Shop to rent snorkel equipment.  There, my brother saw an ad for chartering a boat to do deep sea fishing.  We knew we had to fill our last morning with activity and we had already had our fill of touring ruins and even snorkeling.  So, we jumped at the opportunity to drop line in the Caribbean Sea!

We plunked down the deposit and agreed to meet the boat captain at 9am, which is actually about 4 hours after when you should really start fishing but we're on holiday so we decided to relax.  The fishing trip would be 3 hours so we make it back in plenty of time to clean up and head off to the airport.

This morning, Marty arranged for one of his taxi drivers to pick us up from Posada Luna del Sur and take us to Akumal.  The same driver would go the hotel, pick up our luggage, meet us in Akumal at 2pm and drive us to the airport.  Sounds like a complicated plan.  I just hoped it would all work out.  I put my faith in Marty and his taxi driver.

Our taxi driver, Artenio, showed up on the dot at 8:20a and about half hour later, we were in the dive shop. Our boat captain, Freddy, was ready to go.  We followed him out the shop, down the beach to the awaiting boat.

His fellow crewman, Chino, was already on board and ready to get going.  All the gear and bait was already aboard the boat so the guys fired up the outboard engines and away we went!

Hello water! It was a picture perfect summer's day in Akumal. The shallows were a beautiful turquoise green in color.  The waters would turn to a darker shade of blue as we reached deeper waters.

The sea breeze was great counterpoint to the heat and humidity.  As we headed out to sea, I slathered on the sun screen and found myself a spot to sit under the boat's canopy to escape from the sun.

I captured our entire fishing trip on video and so the rest of the story continues on video.

Luckily for us, the rain started to come down only after we were already boating back to shore.  Miracles of miracles, by the time we set foot on ground, the rain had turned to a light drizzle.  A few moments later, it had completely stopped and the sun was back out.  This is how it rains in Mexico!

Bragging time. As soon as we anchored, Freddy tossed the fish onto the beach and we took a closer look.  Of course, I had to have my brother hold up both fish - that's an obligatory action for all fisherman!!

As we were taking a closer look at my brother's catch of the day, a small group of locals came around to check things out.  The fisherman proudly told them his fishing tale.  He was enjoying the moment!!

In the meantime, Freddy was busy fileting the smaller of the two fish.  We told him that we were giving it to Artenio and that he and Chino could divide up the larger barracuda.  The guys were happy to get the fish and of course, we tipped them for their services.  Without their help, we would never landed any fish!!

With our filets in hand for Artenio, we headed back to the dive shop to change into our swimsuits.  We had a couple of hours to kill before we had to leave for the airport so what better place to spend it than in the beautiful waters of Akumal Bay.

I had a great time this morning.  This more than made up for the disappointment of not getting to snorkel with whale sharks and manta rays and not getting to see a turtle nesting.  I also hope it made up for the fishing trip my brother took in Guatemala which yielded a good laugh for me but barely enough fish to feed a cat :-)

Deep sea fishing with my brother in Akumal Bay.  It was the perfect high note to end our trip on!!