Plan The Plan's Planny Plan Part III

Before I began composing this post, I had a look at our planny plans from the last couple of years. I found a few interesting things.  In our first planny plan, we had envisioned visiting Thailand and Vietnam in 2011, after our travels in New Zealand.  This, of course, didn't happen due to the timing of our departure from New Zealand and the weather patterns in SE Asia.  Similarly, in our second planny plan, I had mentioned the possibility of sticking around north America until 2012 if weather patterns weren't favorable.  As suspected, our recent research on weather patterns near the equator has affected our latest planny plan.

We have decided to stick around Baja until October. Despite a small tinge of sadness about not heading into the great unknown of mainland Mexico and beyond, we are very excited about hitting all the places in Baja that we missed over the past few months.  Winter, spring, summer, and fall in Baja!  The real challenge will be securing 2 more 6-month visitor visas.  My research suggests that we will be able to get unlimited 6-month visitor visas, BUT we must leave the country and come back in each time.  That means, we will need to hit the USA border on or before May 1st, as well as on or before November 1st.  Simple?  I hope so.

We still intend to drive the Pan American highway all the way through South America.  I won't even try to suggest a timeline though.

Yet Another Fish Story

by Scott
     
As Heather previously noted, I severely jinxed myself by claiming to be the Domino's of fish tacos. For the first 32 days in Los Barriles, I didn't make a single delivery. That changed yesterday, but not without yet another fish story.

It's very frustrating when you can see feeding fish, but can't get them to take your bait. I went through half the lures in my box before finding one that worked. I caught a slender, hard-fighting fish that no one was able to identify. Nonetheless, after over a month without fresh fish tacos, it was gonna get cooked.

Fishing with a dolphin on a glassy, calm morning

I paddled to the shore, and started cleaning the fish at the water's edge. Luke, a fellow struggling fisherman, paddled up to see what I'd caught. I'd just finished cutting the fillets and had already hucked the carcass out to sea. Thinking he might be able to identify the fish for me, I waded out into the shallow water to retrieve the body. Bad idea. Luke couldn't identify the fish, and while my back was turned, a seagull flew off with one of my fillets!

Finally a fish

It was a pretty big chunk of meat for a seagull, so it only flew a bit offshore before landing in the water. I had Luke guard the remaining fillet while I gave chase on my paddle board. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I figured something would come to me.

Fortunately, I had some assistance. Another seagull flew in to get his share. This caused the original thief to fly further out to sea. Since it was still shallow, I was able to reach down and pick up rocks off the sea floor. I heaved a couple rocks at the seagull, and it flew back towards shore, but still didn't give up my fillet. Then, a pelican started harassing the seagull. I threw another rock and both birds took off, leaving my fillet in the shallow water. Success!

We still don't know what kind of fish it is, but tonight, we're having fish tacos. I'm sure they'll be all the more delicious for the struggle.  

Link to January Pictures