It's a Mexico thing

Right before Thanksgiving I put in a work order for my Telmex Internet. It was working but just painfully slow making things difficult for my writing. So I was happy to see the Telmex man working on the wiring in the office and as he drove off I went to my condo to see if it was fixed and lo and behold nothing not even the telephone line is working. 

I had a great week of fishing and we saw some fireworks for the Pacifico marathon that were astounding. I'll tell you what those Kenyan's can pick him up and put him down, very impressive athletes. So the point is I have a lot to report on but it will have to wait until I get my full-size keyboard and computer to manipulate my pictures.... I hope it's soon please stick with me here's a pic of a really nice robalo that was I am awful fun fish.

where reality and legends collide

In the States we all know that if you tell a story enough times people will start to believe it. Well here in Mazatlan there seems to be a happy middle area between fact and fiction, kinda like the Spainglish language and it seems to be embraced by all....when it serves a purpose. For example......last years storms did severe damage to some neighbor building's beach walls and a company was hired ( it turns out without permits ) to fix the walls and then reinforce with tons and tons of huge boulder rip-rap. And guess what they ran into ? Ancient Petroglyths like the ones up at Dimas 60 miles up the coast. So to show they were good stewards of history when the project was finished this sign appeared.

BUT....we got a neighbor who has more time and money than usual and was so taken by the Petroglyths at Dimas that he wanted some of his vdery own and put his crew to work with a Hilti tool....walla, just like real and almost as interesting. Here's one of his good ones and one that you can see is way to sharply cut, lines to straight and just well....no self respecting Mayan would carve something that ugly for people to view for the next 8,000 years. But hey, we got em and by jiminy we're protecting them.

Being on the perfect beach with the perfect companion in the perfect part of my life I found the perfect Cervesa for this quest I'm on . The company is pretty darn good at promotion in the USA but we've never seen this one....it just wouldn't be right hauling this stuff along on a Snowmobile ride in Petersville Alaska eh Crisco ???/

Boy howdy, it's been hot here and the craziest thing is that everyday is exactly and I mean exactly the same, high of 92 low of 70. The problem is that if you hike like we do you have to do it early as it'll crack 90 by 10:00 a.m.. So the other day at 7:00 we hoped the Sabalo Centro and rode to the end of the line and then did our favorite hike up and over the hill of Cerra Del Vigia. It's gorgeous. Here's a pic of the coast as we start up . Mazatlan off in the distance,

It got a little sweaty but me and MPeasy and Connie did just fine. Here's the 3 of us in a selfie and your's truly feeling like a pretty darn happy/lucky/contented guy.

I got it figured....if I ever write that ' miracle ' song I'm going to make a music video on this mountain that MP and Con are headed for. I think it's one of the coolest places on the planet and underlines what we love about Mexico. We're building walls, they're building memories.

And MP's telling Con....." wouldn't the band stand be cool right there ".....

Saturday night we have a routine. Jump the bus an hour and a half before sunset and go to Edgars Bar for music and a couple Tecates. Then it's off to the sea wall in Olas Altas to sunseta and people watch for an hour or so and then off to our favorite place Angelina's Latin Grill for Pizza and an Avocado / Portabello mushroom tower with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar, and a Pacifico or two of course. I was watching the kids loving the new Mazatlan Saltwater Pool when MP's artist eye caught this.....take a pic she said, thats' cooooooool.

1/2 hour before sunrise on Saturday I'm fishing down the beach a ways and see the lights of the fleet staging offshore for the Shot gun start of the Bisbee Billfish Tournament. I held the camera just as still as I could and holy moly , it worked. Finally the flare shoots off and the diesels belch and roar and.....I hope the fishing is better for them than it is for me right now.

Thanks for reading Mile 14.....

Let's talk ahhhh;;;;;maybe.....I know, fishing

There I am with my first consumable of the 2016 /17 season. These Cocanoco get really big and my goal this year is 15 or 20 pounder but I have to say my first nice fish of the year is the biggest snapper I've ever caught from shore. In past years you've seen the nice Corvina and Robalo that Team X has caught off the unique rocks at the Holiday Inn so I went there with the high tide last week and walla. It was really fun, I had 20 or 30 kids sitting on the sea wall and they all cheered when I landed it and then boo- ed when I dispatched it with a rock.  Before all was said and done this guy turned into the most photographed fish in Mazatlan as everybody wanted a pic...very cool.

So having caught this guy I suggested to my friend Bob that we be there the next morning as I really hadn't fished very hard to catch him and I figured we were onto it.....nope, nada..... But as Bob and I headed up to the beach to go home we come across my friend Jesus and what's he got on the line ???? you guessed it, about a 35 pound Rooster fish. Jesus had it real close to shore and I figured it was on it's way to the fillet table when we hear 'ker snap', busted line, the fish wins. Jesus just smiled and gave me a high five and then went for another lure. Here's a pic of him with it on and if you enlarge the 2nd photo you can see the Guyo in the lower left pretty darn good.

Only once before have I seen so many roosters crashing bait. The water would explode at my feet with hundreds of little fish trying to get away while the Roosters literally momentarily would get beached, Many times they had 1/2 there bodies out of the water.....the problem is that when they're in this attack mode they are almost impossible to catch because they know real from plastic. I had one on that hit a white topwater but he spit and that's as close as we came. When the dust settled I was wishing Id dropped the rod and taken a video for you, it was crazy....way worth the price of admission. Here's the bait they're on, it's not their usual meal of mullet so if any of you know what that is please holler, I'd like to know.

The Rooster fish are all over Mazatlan, the water's warm so I expect to catch a good one real soon. It's identical to this guy I caught yesterday but a little larger....aren't they just the most gorgeous creatures ?

Every boat fisherman knows that getting wet is a bad bad deal, But, if you fish the surf you better enjoy the elements. This morning it was good for surfers but kinda bad for fishermen, I took several ' over the bow' as we say. Sometimes the natural rhythm of the fishing keeps you away but other times you look up and ooooooooohhhhhh noooooo, just try to stay in one place so you don't get knocked down and smile through it.....that's what I do.

I gotta get done with this blog because it's headed towards sunset and we don't miss those babies. Most nights there's 3 of us now that fish Toro and celebrate the end of the day. Here's a pic of my buddy Bob with a typical Toro. It hasn't been red hot but each evening we catch 10 or so between us.

And here's my friend Dave the Bum , the 3rd member of our nightly ritual. He's got one on the beach and as you can see he's posed a fish or two in his life.

It's a little warmish

And that's no joke. The jet age is a wonderful thing, I took this going away pic at Mile 14 about 5:00 p,m. and it was 36 degrees . A short 24 hours later snapped this pic, it was 93 degrees and as you can see the humidity has us all fogged up and we've been kinds fogged up ever since we got here. This is the earliest we've ever been to Mazatlan and I guess ol guide #003 under estimated the weather....but it's a wonderful problem to have.

MP has a gorgeous new kitchen. Custom cedar cabinets and concrete counter tops with a really cool one handle faucet, we're waiting on one more counter top and then I'll post a pic. Prior to this project I would have called b.s. on you if you told me that termites could eat your particle board cabinets until they literally fell off the wall, but it's true and only one of the challenges of ownership in hot and humid Mazatlan. the first few days here you spend battling the gremlins that visit while you're gone, the corrosion of both the saltwater environment and the humidity is astounding....At mile 14 it would drive me nuts to have this all going on but here....well. it's just normal. Here's a short list of my projects.....
1. The air conditioner is broke again....but it did work for the first day thank goodness,
2. My internet router wouldn't power up....took a while but I realized the surge protector corroded out.
3.Our water cooler leaked a 4 gallon puddle overnight.
4. The slider wouldn't slide.
5.Our fridge is making a really weird sound....kinda a warning sound I think.
6. And the strangest is that after I cleaned all the co-ax connection of corrosion and got the TV working only half of it works...and you know me, it's the left side.

A buddy of mine told me to quit sniveling 1/2 broke is better than 3/4 broke.... I told him ya know when you're watching Fox News 1/2 is more than enough. And oh, it's election day so the busted TV is gonna put a weird twist on a weird election, I'm gonna need a few beers for that deal.

By now you've noticing that something really important is missing from this blog post . It's true, I ain't had a single tug on the line yet and I worked it pretty darn good this morning. The beach is so quiet that i anybody catches it'll be me. But I did get ya fish pic....how's about these dry sardine snacks that have different seasonings on them. They're real crunchy and really really fishy tasting so you go for a nice little dip in salsa picante and wash em down with a nice cold .....Pacifico , of course.

Stand by for fish a bit larger,