Fishing on the Parlama
This is the Parlama, an oversized "tiburonero" outfitted as a sport fishing boat by our friend Dennis Wheeler. He came to Guatemala with the Peace Corps as a volunteer 35 years ago and stayed on afterwards. His restaurant the Doņa Luisa in Antigua is world famous among travelers.
This was our second fishing trip with Dennis - the first one ended prematurely when the tractor driver was refused access to the Naval Base and we found ourselves tractorless. The boat sat 15 feet from the water, but dry as can be! As my friend Clark commented it was as if someone had stolen Christmas. On our second trip was much more fruitful! The dispute between the tractor-men and the base commander was resolved and the special aquatic tractor released us and the Parlama into the Pacific - our joy at that moment was limitless.
Here you can see us underway on a calm sea. Clark Golden is piloting while Dennis deploys a fishing rod. We spent several hours hunting for birds, currents, or floating debris. Twice we discovered floating logs which we marked with a yellow plastic float so as not to loose the location. After marking the logs we'd drive past with our lures and hook into the Dorado (yellow dolphin) that congregate underneath. Parlama, by the way, means "sea-turtle" in Spanish. The parlamas are plentiful in these waters and we sometimes mistake them for the floating trash that we covet so much, especially when a bird is sitting on top of the turtle - always a big disappointment. Here's Dennis holding up one of his catches.
These fish are spectacularly colored - bright yellow and blue while still in the water and they fight like fish twice their size. They swim in schools and when we hooked one, dozens of others followed and swam in a feeding frenzy around the boat turning the water into a beautiful display of flashing colors.
We thought we were going to fill the boat with Dorado but after catching 3, the school left the area and we went back to hunting for more floating logs. Here's yours truly with my first Dorado. I also learned to skin and fillet these fish, but I'll need a lot of practice before I'll be of any use at it as it's a lot more difficult than it looks.
Dennis is a Dorado-fishing fanatic (he considers Sailfish to be pests in his search for the almighty Dorado) and he easily converted me on this trip - it really lived up to the stories (which had sounded too good to be true). Thanks Dennis!
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