Bastimentos Fishing Adventure

Settling in at the beach house in Bastimentos. The daily routine seems to be getting out of bed somewhere around 6am, start the coffee and open up the doors and windows, then head to the deck and watch the waves for about an hour. I know this is sacrilegious, but I’m trying to limit my intake of news to every other day or more. Seems the only thing newsworthy these days is killing; who didn’t do their job; who got punished for doing their job; who got punished for not doing their job; and who has the right, or thinks they have the right, not to be vaccinated. Tired of it!

Here its different. Most people provide water taxi service to and from Bocas or other islands, fish, dive for lobster, or spend their day talking with the neighbors. Not a lot of industry here, very little. Tourism is, was, the main source of income for most of these people so not much to do here since Covid. Some restaurants have survived but quite a few are gone, probably forever. Hopefully in the next year things will begin to recover.

To help with this recovery, me and the Misses decide to give fishing a shot. We booked a charter with “David’s Fishing” out of Bocas for the entire day. John, the guide, and Capitan Mario (his brother-1 of 10 brothers) met up with us at 8am at the Basti boat dock. Their boat is a 27’ Boston Whaler with a 200hp outboard. Should do the trick.

Me and the Little Woman tearing it up

We started on the ocean side of Bastimentos and trolled the entire length of the island with no luck. Matter of fact, we didn’t get a bite all day! Not for lack of trying but the fish were just too smart. We did take several breaks to enjoy a bit of snorkeling at various reefs along the coast. Lots of coral, small multi-colored fish and occasional swarm of tiny neon tetras that seemed to be in the thousands. Anyway, fishing wasn’t good, but snorkeling was great.

Beachfront property

Line fishing from a dugout. Long way back to the beach!

More line fishing

Zapatilla Island

Capitan Mario & John

Somewhere around lunch time we encountered several boats drifting close to Zapatilla island. Most of these boats were manned by young men who, God love em’, were diving for lobster. We pulled up to one of these boats to check out their haul and decided to buy one of their lobster for lunch. Not a bad price, $10USD and the restaurant will cook it for us. Now that’s a winner!

Langoustine

We picked up lunch for the crew so the whole tab, including our lobster, came to $44USD. Damn good lunch for 4 people.

Restaurant Jasmin

Langoustine with chutney sauce (tastes better than it looks)

Shrimp curry with coconut rice and plantains

David’s “UGLY” fish

Restaurant Jasmin

Afternoon went by same as the morning, trolled for a while, snorkeled for a while, trolled some more, snorkeled some more, etc. No fish but that’s OK. Had a great time with John and Mario and enjoyed being on the ocean.

Next adventure is one everyone will envy, visiting the laundromat! Yes!!! Not exactly a laundromat, more of a laundry service. We checked it out the other day when we toured around Bocas. Met this older, yes, older than me, man that provides laundry service at $5USD per bag. He, or his wife when she is in town, washes, dries, and folds your clothes all for 5 bucks a bag. Another great deal!

Done for today. Can’t wait for the laundry trip so more to follow…

Last, here is a little boy who wanted to check us out at the gas dock. He really liked the pictures Collette took of him.

Strike the pose!