a 5 peso shirt...and now I know why

What a smokin deal. MP got a 1000 peso genuine soccer shirt at a yard sale for only 5 peso. People in Mexico are passionate about their soccer and you see lots and lots of football shirts...just not this one and especially around here. Seems like when I try to fit in I just don't do it so well. Turns out that this shirt is team America, the most vilified team in Mexico. Round these parts people are all about Team Chivas and for good reason it seems. Chivas is an all Mexican Team and their rival Team America recruits from South America, Europe and yikes, sometimes even the USA. So when I got dressed up to go out for Sunday Marisco's with Slah, Maria and Ernesto well I got a lot of " what the hell are you wearing" from just about every Mexican friend I ran into.....and one point as we enjoyed our brunch a guy with a Chivas shirt was kinda eyeing me. I told Slah that he looked like he wanted to kick my a** ....Slah said,.." he does Jeff ".

Marisco's Fabiano was a special treat. We ran into an old friend from the Vidafel where we got our start in Mazatlan and the food was out of this world. Here's a pic of us and the  cameron, pulpo and calla cocktail that I had.....It's shrimp, octopus and scallop in a nice shrimp broth that is a bit like a bisque and of course I started with a crab tostado which Maria also had. MP had coconut shrimp and Ern the shrimp brocheta and Slah the seafood soup that looked sooooo good. Thanks buddy.

Just give me one more second to go through the culinary week before we get to the dead or soon to be dead fish pics. We were at the market and in the fish area I was drawn to a crowd of women buying at a particular stall. I had never seen this fish so I was curious and asked around, ya know it's my job in life to know and be all things fish....Well it turns out it's like Bacaloa which is a salted cod but of course cod are hard to come by and real expensive here in Sinaloa so the same thing is done with a variety of other fish. These looked like some type of snapper. The next pic is a typical display. Smoked marlin to the left and whole Corvina and fillets to the right....They are the best eating fish in the sea if you ask me.

So for the first time this year I went out on the boat for what was supposed to be an 'easy' day. My buddy Tony's son Matt was on his last day here and they wanted to just go look for fish and find what you find....which around here are usually knarly-rip ya up- wear ya out- Toro. There's nothing 'easy about it when you combine a massive Toro bite and a 30 year old doublea hard fishing guy from Jersey. At one point we had schools of them on the top after locating them with Rapala's and watching Matt cast the topwater and snap the hook into them was a thing of beauty. Here's a couple pics of me and Matt....new fishing friends.

Thank goodness we were using Tony's gear or I would have quit early for fear of ruining mine. These guys are pure power and each one takes 10 minutes. So after catching 20 or 25 on this 'easy' day Matt asked me " Jeff, have you caught enough Toro for one day ? ".... I said " Matt, I caught enough Toro for one day 3 hours ago"....

Here's a pic from Tres Isles, just a few kilometers from home....just gorgeous.

Here's a pic of our friends the Mercuro's as they headed for the Airport. Tony and Little Boy and MP's friend Connie, daughter Courtney and Matt. Varsity level friends....we love you guys.