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Old 11-27-2009   #16 (permalink)
Uno
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No bikini pics.... No fish pics... Just a bunch of guys at a hotel. What sort of trip was this supposed to be again?
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Old 11-27-2009   #17 (permalink)
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Pics of a shirtless Don and a kitty cat.

Yup. The makings of a gooooood trip report!!
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Old 11-27-2009   #18 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerak936 View Post
Pics of a shirtless Don and a kitty cat.

Yup. The makings of a gooooood trip report!!
I can see your line of reasoning I suppose. I feel the title is misleading though.
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Old 11-27-2009   #19 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UnoMasMezcal View Post
No bikini pics.... No fish pics... Just a bunch of guys at a hotel. What sort of trip was this supposed to be again?
Yawn this is turning into a chic flick. Not critizing the author just the content....shirtless dudes and a cat stranded in a villa in Mexico with only the inn keeper and the cook for company....zzzzzzzzzzzz.

We need some action
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Old 11-27-2009   #20 (permalink)
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Patience is a virtue!

I SAID he took crappy pictures.

I will be writing the rest with the fish pics next week.

In the meantime, Uno, you might like this clip.

They were out fishing and Seth had a dorado hooked. Well, he has never ocean fished before, just locally for pike and walleye, so he was horsing that fish in way too hard...of course it gets off, but not before you see it jump a couple of times.

The funny part is then Eduardo starts lecturing him on how to set the hook, no horsin' him in....and Don is giving him a hard time ...tells him to turn around because he is filming him, and Seth gets a bit pouty.



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Old 12-01-2009   #21 (permalink)
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Turtle Release

Sorry it took so long, I have the photos from Seth now and will finish the darn thing today.

One evening they got back from fishing and two local boys had shown up to help with the day's turtle release. They released them right in front of the house.

Don and Seth helped a bit too. Loads of cute baby turtles!


















and whew....job well done! Until the next hatching!

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Old 12-01-2009   #22 (permalink)
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Cool!
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Old 12-01-2009   #23 (permalink)
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Now, for Uno and other fishermen, some fishing pictures...

heading out at sunrise....



Yeah, they went a dozen miles out with just one 50 hp motor. The captain had a cell phone though.

Don with a nice Jack Crevalle





and before releasing it...goofy



Seth



And Don and Seth catching their sailfish...they caught three altogether and released all three.









The only fish they kept were dorado/mahi mahi like these ones, tasty.











jumping dorado...




big ship passing by...





The weather was hot and sunny every day, as usual for Geurrero...





and nice sunsets every night.


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Old 12-01-2009   #24 (permalink)
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Outstanding! Worth the wait. Tortugas were a bonus too! Don is my hero.
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Old 12-01-2009   #25 (permalink)
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They had known it was going to be secluded and quiet at this house and it really was. They both said it was a bit TOO secluded, in fact. After the first day they were a bit bored. There was a TV but no English stations.

The first four days were basically, get up, go out fishing until about 1 or so, then come back and have lunch, laze around the pool, then wander down the beach and try some surf fishing. Don was hoping to catch a roosterfish surf fishing but no dice.


When I dropped them at the airport I asked Seth how many books he had brought along...none. I told him that was a bad idea. Luckily Don had brought two and they traded when they were done.



They also saw hundreds (literally) of dolphins one morning. Seth took some video and then accidentally deleted it that night. But he took another clip the next day, there just weren't as many of them in the pod. It is hard to try and catch them on video but here it is!












The second morning about ten or so they were doing inshore fishing and had an interesting experience. They saw smoke rising from behind a hill close to shore. They just assumed someone was burning garbage or maybe some crop that had been recently harvested.

But then they went farther along and saw a lineup up cars on the highway. The smoke was coming from the highway, just farther up and hidden. They thought it was some sort of accident.

The captain found out later that night that a drug cartel had been in a shootout with some federales on the highway near town. Two police were shot, one wounded badly, apparently. Scary.

I have to say this freaked the boys out a bit. Don and I have been to many smaller towns in Mexico, like Sayulita, Barra de Navidad/Melaque, La Manzanilla, etc.
But they were still 'resort towns', really, and we have never felt remotely unsafe anywhere before. But Don said they felt a bit anxious the rest of the trip after they heard about this incident. Especially poor Seth, this was his very first trip to Mexico!

Puerto Vicente Guerrero was VERY poor. In Mexico you get used to seeing sign of poverty but this was extreme and very sad. There were squatters living in huts on the beach, litter everywhere and beggars all over town. The situation and the people seemed pretty grim. We like to go to 'real Mexico', but-this was just a little TOO real. I sure hope that things turn around for them there. People seem to think the border states and the Baja are the only places with drug related violence in Mexico, this is not so.

Before the police/cartel incident they had booked the captain for fishing Thursday morning, too. They did not have the house after Wednesday morning so they had to go into town and get a room. The captain warned them to not walk around town at night.

Don asked him why and he just said it was not safe, not much other explanation. When they went to dinner they saw their waiter do a line of coke in the kitchen after he brought them their menus, like it was no big deal, right out in the open. They also felt very unwelcome and nervous that whole evening in town. Don said he has never felt like that before, anywhere. Needless to say, they took the captain's advice and went to the room and played cards until they went to sleep.
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Old 12-01-2009   #26 (permalink)
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After they went out fishing with Eduardo one last time Thursday, they came back to the hotel, cleaned up and packed up and the manager met them there to give them a ride into Zihua.

They stayed at a lovely little hotel on Playa Madera in Zihuantanejo bay, called Casa Adriana. It was only about $70 a night. They didn't have reservations but Don and I have been there before and he knew which hotels he wanted to get a room at on Madera, they found one here, it was the second place they went to.

Nothing fancy but clean and the views are spectacular. It had a fridge, microwave, sink and hammock and table and chairs out on the balcony, kind of neat.








nice pic of the messy beds...






Seth took a pic of Don out swimming in the bay Friday morning...




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Old 12-01-2009   #27 (permalink)
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Thanks Uno and Erica! I will tell him, Dana. I think you guys would get along really well!


another view from the balcony...







Seth had to have his photo taken with a couple of guys from the military base by the main pier...





and here he is making a duty call home to the wife (so Don said anyway)






The first evening they were there they went downtown and there was some sort of parade going on.






They took a water taxi over to Playa Las Gatas Friday afternoon to do some snorkeling. The town was VERY quiet, they were almost the only non Mexicans vacationing there right now.









Las Gatas is a pretty little beach with nice light sand and it has an offshore reef supposedly made by a Zapotec king for his daughter so she could have calm waters to swim in. Or was he Aztec or Toltec? Anyway, the snorkeling out by this manmade reef is pretty decent. Seth had never snorkeled before and he loved it.



okay, that is about it....some other pics I missed...






















Zihua bay at night...




and flying home...



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Old 12-01-2009   #28 (permalink)
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Great report Maggie . Thanks for taking the time to post it. Too bad Don didn't get a roosterfish, I guess that's a reason to go back again .

I can't believe that he went during hunting season though, he must really love to fish.....

Tim
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Old 12-01-2009   #29 (permalink)
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great report! (the first half did kinda suck tho)


that first pic of turtles surprised me, i didn't have the proper perspective and thought they were in cereal size bowls on a table and was thinking, 'that ain't gunna work'

pretty cool to do that though.

i felt nervous just reading about that night in town. glad all was ok.

i got some deer jerky from friends for christmas...early but they're not close by...i think i read somewhere you were an expert on the stuff. anyway, would you say its an aquired taste or what? and do you end up swallowing the stuff or just gnaw on it til it is un-gnawable ? seriously, it isn't doing much for me.

thanks
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Old 12-01-2009   #30 (permalink)
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Tim, he just got his mule deer buck this past Saturday morning. It was the last day of muzzle loader season here.


Paul, yeah the turtle release was cool, he said. They are so cute, how they just KNOW they have to go as fast their li'l flippers will haul ass to the sea. We did one at the hotel we stayed at in Manzanillo too last February.


As for the jerky, maybe they just don't make very good jerky? Maybe that is why they gave it away?!
Good deer jerky tastes pretty much like good beef jerky, really. We use this stuff and do it in the oven.

This is the stuff we use, Hi Mountain, either original blend or Inferno.

Hi Mountain Seasonings :: Jerky Cure & Seasoning Kits :: Inferno Blend
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