Shrimpless in Lo de Marcos

The sea was dead calm this morning. Cali and I took a chair and sat on the sand drinking our morning tea. Juan came and sat a while then said something about paddling his kayak out to the shrimp boats that sat off the far northern end of the bay. I said I was in for it and got my paddle board ready. It took me about half an hour of sitting around waiting to figure out that Juan wasn’t coming back so I paddled out on my own.

There’s the shrimpers off in the upper left

It took about a half hour to reach the shrimpers, no more than a mile and a half at the most. As I neared the boats, I realized that I’d left my camera stashed behind my kickboard by the bar. S@#$&. The water around the boat was filthy with trash and the dead fish that they’d thrown out of their nets. Flocks of birds were scrapping for the cast offs as a rainbow film of oil or gas floated on the surface. The crew looked at me suspiciously as I approached. I asked of they wanted to sell some shrimp and they weren’t too sure about it. Near the boat, the swells seemed to rock a bit more refracting off of the hull. Keeping my balance was work and from about a foot above the waterline on down, the ship was covered in razor sharp barnacles. Floating precariously in the midst of the chum, I decided to abort the mission and said thanks and see ya then stroked my way back to cleaner waters. I did a nice long paddle back to the south end and returned to the beach to rest for a few minutes.

It was such a beautiful day, I just couldn’t sit around so I grabbed my snorkeling kit and swam out to the rocks off of the point where we surf. The water was four to six feet deep with a slightly more forgiving bottom than the point at Chacala but our surf zone still has a few nasty urchins waiting for the unwary. I was greeted by lots of colorful fish as I slowly kicked out to the rocks letting my fins do the work.

There were some cool looking blue fish, box fish, butterfly fish, sergeant majors and some cryptic fish camouflaging themselves on the rocks and frilly seaweed. The wave action was really light and the visibility was decent. I swam around for a while then made my way in past the sand where a few stingrays were loitering just to remind me to shuffle my feet.

Don’t tread on me!

Don’t tread on me, either!

I sat in my chair near the Paraiso oldies occasionally attempting to appear sociable but never quite clicking with anybody. I went back to my little patio and typed up a post and spent time with my scurvy old dog. I read a little more ‘Breathing Under Water’ and got in a little nap. As five o’clock came around, I got in a quick shower then pedaled on over to the Wednesday afternoon AA meeting in town. Not as big as Sunday but it was good to spend time with the folks who came out.

Afterwards, I was all stoked to go to Sahuayo’s for tacos only to get there and find them closed. I rode into the centro to the only ATM in downtown Lo de Marcos only to find it void of cash. I went to a taco & pizza joint on the corner of the town square, one that PJ always liked to eat veggie pizzas at. I sat overlooking the street while munching on some tacos. Some old Turk had parked his fancy lifted golf cart with the shiny rims across from the restaurant and the cable guy backed into it, so there was drama to watch over dinner. The tacos were good, but after Sahuayo’s, I’m spoiled.

On the ride back to Paraiso, I stopped at the estero to check out the birds and turtles. A pair of egrets were sparring for dominant position in the tree. A night heron was tucking himself in among the branches and a large turtle chased off a couple of his smaller rivals.

I arrived at home in time to catch the end of the sunset. I sat out on the steps at the beach. The residents were all off doing something so it was peaceful and empty. Nancy came out walking Bruno and stopped to chat a while. Tomatino’s had a full rock band laying down some beats a few doors over and the sound was carrying through the still air. I went to check on Cali and take her for a walk.

Tired and slightly sunburnt from a full day outside. Time for a quiet night. Sending love to everyone at home, especially my beautiful wife. Wish you were here.