War of the appliances

and we're losing. Remember when we just got here how pleasantly surprised I was when we got into the house and everything worked... Well, It's like that guy you bump into in Vegas that tells you he hit a Full House for  $1300.00 and the next part of the story starts with the ' but then ' as he tells you how the money disappeared. It's the ' but then ' that'll get ya. So the first war casualty was our wonderful water cooler that leaked 6 gallons into the house one evening and now it's our high tech washer / dryer combo deal that is gonna take some lettuce to replace. Basically things here on the salty warm just rust away, sometimes quickly. This deal is gonna cost 4 figures and do you know how much Pacifico beer that is.....mucho that's how much. And oh....it has to fit into that closet space where the plumbing is that's exactly 2.12 cubit's deep. Finding this thing here at Mile 5014 is gonna take magic.

So Ernie shows up and I go to his place that first morning to fish. We did our usual cast-retrieve-complain-cast-retrieve-yawn routine for several hours . Ern put's his Lamiglass away and I see a bit of a boil so I cast long and I have to say with outstanding accuracy and walla, hooked up. Now Ern tells me it's most likely just a Toro and low and behold that ' justa Toro ' turned into a nice snapper, my second consumable. Thanks for bringing me the luck Ernesto. and the second pic is ' justa' Toro....tricked that guy on a baby blue Line Stretcher lure, man I love the name of that lure.

For me the joy is in the chase...it never used to be that way but now I know the way. I cherish ALL parts of the chase so it was ultra cool the other day when these porpoises / dolphins came by and one chased fish right onto shore in front of me. I wish my pic were  that good but getting the shot is soooo difficult, you gotta be ready for the totally unexpected and who does that ? It was impressive. Now I've seen Spinner Dolphins and grew up on Flipper which I think was a Bottlenose variety  but this guy was HUGE, easily a 1000 pounder. At first I thought Killer Whale but I clearly saw the face so if any of you know whats the biggest Dolphin in the sea please let ol number 003 know, O.K. ?

MPeasy and I made our way up the beach 3 miles for Sunday breakfast and came across this sight. It's obvious that a Sea Turtle had waddled ashore last night and left eggs and then returned , the tracks were clear and just us noticed. It's amazing how durable mother nature is that people walk over the nest unbeknownst and I'll bet the occasional 4-wheeler or pick truck goes over and it doesn't hurt a thing. As we talked about just that the Tortuga watch man came along and noticed it and did nothing more than put a Vulture feather on it so he could find it again and monitor when they hatch.

The week before I saw the fruits of the turtle effort. I think these guys are supposed to hit the h2o at night just like their moms so these little guys were a little late . But as you can see, they were perfectly healthy and their were no birds picking them off like I've seen before...so if you haven't seen it before let me introduce you to the next generation.

Friday I made room in my schedule to play music for an Art sale so wish me luck...if ya don't put yourself out there you'll never know eh ?

P.O.A.

Prisoner of air conditioner. Even the locals agree, we're still waiting for the pleasant ' cool' winter months in Mazatlan Sinaloa Mexico. The temps have fallen from the 90's to the 80's but that darn humidity remains the same. I ain't complaining, well not to much, but we'd sure like to get out and do more things in the middle of the day but right now the routine is read a book, listen to the hum of that wonderful min split we have and then rally around the pool about 2:00 p.m.. We love to go downtown for cultural submersion but it's just to hot and it gets kind of confining .

So today marks our 2 week anniversary of MZT arrival, That means 14 days of fishing an hour before sunrise and then casting for at least 2 or 3 hours everyday and then mind you more casting whenever it feels right or I'm playing with a new rod and reel set up. The score ? Three Toro and one snapper. The snapper was a gift. I was talking with Alejandro and we were speculating about all the possibilities of why we seem to fishing on the Dead Sea when something jumped on my castmaster 3 feet from shore....we both laughed pretty good. Have any of you Kenai people ever not been able to catch a Humpy ? If that's happened to you then you know how the Pro's from Dover southern division are feeling.....it's a rough go. But what I tell my customers all the time when the fishing is slow is that means only one thing....it will get better...unless it stays the same of course.

 Now if you're reptile that 92 degrees Weather Underground tells you ' Feels like 127'  is just right. In fact it kinda energizes these guys. This one lives in the trees on the middle island of the 4 lane and he brought traffic to  stop as he explored the fast food store across the street. A nice man put his hand up to the traffic and he was so anxious to get home he ran faster than I've ever seen an Iguana run. I told the man " well done, nicely played"  and he just said that everybody just wants to live another day...

Sunday was the day we first had below 90 temps so me and MPeasy jumped the bus and rode to the end of the line down by the Faro. Then we hikes up and over the hill into Olas Altas and then onto North Beach and up to the Hotel Hacienda for breakfast buffet. Right now the exchange rate is at 18 peso to the dollar and the buffet with fresh squeezed O.J. and made to order omelets as well as menudo and my favorite beef lice was 119 peso a person, $12.50 for both of us....and oh, we were the only Americano's there and they took best care of us. My pacer app told me that morning we hiked 3.5 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes...

I try to be optomistic. But this year it was so unusual that all our electronics were working so perfectly I kinda sensed something was due to go awry. Well ever since we got here our Telmex internet service into the condo has gone from high speed to snail pace. It's a lot like the old dial up days so doing this edition of Mile 14 has been painful and has taken two days...but hey, what else do I gotta due anyway. This morning as I fished I sensed something moving under my feet and got video of  30 or so freshly hatched sea turtles going to sea. I'd love to show you that video but that is waaaay beyond what we can do right now, sorry. They're just cuter than heck so I'll post it as soon as the Telmex guy comes and fixes it, He's suppose to be here sometime between tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and February. Guess I'll just relax, have a Pacifico and watch the sunset.

The next best thing to fishing and catching is ????

Fishing and NOT catching of course.

I'll tell you what, if my Minnesota friends think they have to cast 10,000 times per Musky well then they're tailor made for the fishing here in the surf casting mecca of Mazatlan....this little Toro I finally caught yesterday morning only took 7800 casts. Yikes, I actually thought I had a snapper as I hooked him where a snapper should've been ( how's that for guide speak ? ) but when I got him to the shore it was a nice Toro but not what I call a ' consumable'. I really don't know what's going on, the fishing for me anyway is slower than I've ever seen it although people tell me it,s not bad and Stewart actually caught a nice Roosterfish yesterday.  One thing I see is that the beach is changing right now and washing all the sand away from the rocks which should help the fishing and clear up the water eventually. And it's hhhhhoooootttt out and my endurance is just now getting there....But hey, the joy is in the pursuit, here's a pic of my 1st, last and only fish so far.....and no Lockwood , it ain't a file pic,

The evenings here are just magic. Once it cools down to 80 or so and the sea breeze kicks in our deck is just fantastic. We've barbecued almost every night on our new Weber Q. This thing is amazing. MP bought it at the end of last season and I've never seen a grill work so well. It's one of my failings as I man, I'm a horrible barbecueist, I've ruined more 8 dollar steaks than anybody in the world....and chicken, forget about it. At home when I barbecue chicken MP pre- bakes the fat out in the oven and then asks, please just get it brown. Well the other night with the combo of ultra fresh Mexican pollo and the new barbie I cooked from scratch and walla....the best ever. No flare ups , no " give me the spray bottle"....Here's a sunset pick from our porch at Mile 5014.

Mazatlan is going through a building boom and I'm a thinking that we have actually made a good real estate deal buying in when we did, But ya never know around here what can happen and as far as owning on the beach through a bank trust you really have to wonder what you really own and what the future is ....but....thousands of Americans and Canadians do it so it must work. I kinda worry about USA-Mexican relations. Without getting too political I'll just say that anything could happen and have it effect me and MPeasy's little slice of paradise. Then there's this.....development just seems to be kitty wampus around here. Buildings are built in front of other killing there view. Buildings are put in with no new sewer capacity and it's added later. So how would you like to be the guy who bought these extra expensive end units in a very exclusive condo building just to see a new building squeezed onto a narrow lot that you never would have thought possible....and setbacks ? zoning ? nope. I took this pic out fishing the other morning and those two buildings are really really close and the new just kills those poor folks view. It's Mexico .

Just to build my karma and energy I'm ending this edition of Mile 14 with the last Guyo I caught from the beach. These guys are in the neighborhood and I'm going to get one. I brought down my rod building stuff and fixed the big Lamiglass that I need so from here on out I'm locked and loaded. When I catch I won't wait a week...as they say in the newspaper business we'll print a ' special edition'.....see ya then.

It's so hot ....

I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking. 10 minutes from the airport I asked Rueben to stop the cab for an 8 pack of Pacifico and when I left the cab my glasses instantly steamed and I stumbled into the store like I didn't need the Pacifico....And let me tell ya, it's wonderful to be here. At our house even though it's 90 degrees the ocean breeze blows through and it's really not bad, AND for the first time in a few years the air conditioner works and all our electronics are good to go. I'm typing this Mile 14 with the help of a new Telmex wireless router and the speed is incredible, sorry Alaska Communications.

How's that for a forecast ? Basically every day is the same, now that's something you don't see in Alaska where we say ' if you can't see the montains, it's raining . If you can see the mountains, it's going to rain.'

Thanks to my good buddy we got to enjoy the First class service with Alaska Airlines....they got it goin on.  Our flights were on time in a pleasant as it can be 18 hours our lives have changed. Looky here, they even wrap the real utensils with nice paper napkins.

I must be getting a bit older as for the first time in years I almost slept through my first morning to fish. We went out the night of our arrival and had shrimp tacos and ahhhhh,,,,Pacifico. Well I woke up in the morning and it was light. Yikes. That NEVER happens. So that fishing tide went poorly and this morning I kept my skunk intact. I might have caught a fish with more casts but you know me....I ran into an old friend and B.S.'d more than I fished.

So you know I'll be on the lookout for the stuff you just don't see in the 49th state like these ultra cool barbecue's on sale at the new Soriana store. I wish I had more to blog , I really need to keep this short as I have a lot to do....need to go get my guitar at Slah.s house, need to spool up the Stradic I brought for Alejandro, need to get over to Posada Branta Negroe and let Deb know we're in town, gotta get some smoked salmon to Gilberto, gotta.....well none of it is really earth changing or even too important AND it's a wonderful way to live. Hope ya come back...