November 27th & 28th - Down on the beach

It continued to rain on Friday so we spent the day reading and went out for dinner with friends.  We had fish and shrimp tacos at 12 pesos each.  Chiles rellenos at 85 pesos and garlic shrimp at 115 pesos plus the usual margaritas and cervezas.   The only photo I took was of the completed banyo.

You can see it in the background above under construction

Finished.  Who could ask for more?

Today, Saturday, I spent most of the morning on the beach surf fishing.  There was a huge amount of small fish being chased by larger fish all jumping just off the beach.  The seabirds were also feeding in huge flocks - pelicans, gulls, cormorants, egrets, shorebirds, terns, etc.   

Snowy Egret

Our neighbours also saw 2 whales about 50 yards offshore further down the beach.  They were probably humpbacks also pursuing the small fish.  Mexicans were fishing on the breakwaters and also from shore so I thought I would try from shore as well.  I hooked a large silver fish but he disappeared on the edge of the surf.  Silver fish were jumping steadily about 20 ft out.  Next came what I believe is a yellowtail jack or some member of the jack family.  I was considering keeping him for bait but he was grunting and we took a selfie together and I just couldn't do it.

Jack

I'm of course holding him way back.  (Karen you might recognize the shirt)

Another small puffer

I stopped fishing around 10:00 and gave my bait to a guy from our rv park who was trying with bacon.  I met up with other park folk on the beach who had met a Mexican (Marcelino) who was on his way to our end of the beach to fish for oysters, octopus and langosta (lobster).  Marcelino said he would show us how to fish for these.  His nephew Gustavo also came along.

Marcelino above with the equipment he needed - a skewer with rubber tubing and a slingshot like pouch which he used to shoot into the lobster's head, a long skewer with a hook on the end for octopus and a mallet with a chisel for oysters (all displayed above).  (click on the photo to enlarge)

Marcelino and our friend diving for lobsters, oysters and octopi

The langosta varied in size and had no big claws

The catch

Marcelino spent about an hour and a half in the water.  He was under more than above water.  

There were small clear jellyfish in the water too so he did get stung.  Our friend lasted about 20 minutes.  I borrowed Cam's flippers to Marcelino which made him very happy as he could really move with them on.

The final catch

Oysters 

Marcelino offered us some oysters but we declined.  He said he would eat them with some lime and hot sauce.  We then shared some ham and cheese sandwiches, cerveza, pepsi for Gustavo and me, as well as some candy I brought for Gustavo.

Later Cam and I went into town and bought some bait fish for tomorrow morning. We truly enjoyed experiencing the bounty of the Mexican coast with the wildlife and people today.