I could attribute everything to my blonde hair or say the inhalation of salty Cabo air made me do it (yeah, right).

For years now, I’ve had a notion in my head that I was going to love the “experience” of deep sea fishing. I heard it was fun and I heard the best, biggest catches are in Cabo San Lucas. Imagine my excitement when I was planning our trip.

I thought to myself, this is IT!

My big chance. I can’t wait to experience deep sea fishing in Cabo… in style… on a luxury yacht… wearing my favorite bikini and sexy coverup… sipping my skinny margarita and tanning while the boys reel in a huge swordfish we can enjoy for dinner.

I know this sounds a bit hypocritical considering I try to make compassionate choices but you all know I do still eat fish. I probably eat fish 5-7 times a week. Every time I try to avoid it, my energy drops and my diet just feels off, you know what I mean? Beans and nuts just don’t work for me by themselves. And a quick catch of a fish in the wild is WAY more humane than how the dairy farms and slaughter houses treat the mammals people eat. Yuck, it’s horrifying. So the more compassionate protein choice for me when necessary: fish all the way. 

Do I make sense at all?

WOW.

SO… remember that swim up bar from the first part of the Cabo blog? The fantastic swim up bar with magnificent sea views? Well, I made friends with the bartender, Raul (who BTW makes the best fresh strawberry margaritas ever). As we conversed, working on my rusty Spanish, a conversation about deep sea fishing developed. He told me about his friend, Javier, who had a large fishing boat.

My moment had finally arrived. I made the call, confirmed via text and boom, we were all set up.

6AM THE FOLLOWING MORNING:

Slightly sluggish from the previous night’s skinny margaritas and mouth watering sashimi dinner, I awoke, dressed and packed our towels. I was all set to go, adding a few finishing touches like bracelets, rings and hoop earrings to my outfit when Anton stopped me.

“Baby,” he says in that super scientific, pragmatic tone, “what are you doing wearing jewelry? We are going deep sea fishing and I can assure you, you won’t be needing those.”

This should have been my first clue and reality check, but it wasn’t. In fact, I think I blocked out his muffled laughter. It was 6am and I wasn’t prepared to argue.

Palmilla beach is really beautiful, even in the dark. As we approached our captain, I couldn’t make out our yacht: I assumed it was on its way. And that’s when reality hit me. Real reality, I mean really real and my eyes popped open for the first time. Was it a boat or was it a dinghy? Big? NOT AT ALL. On a positive note, the boat’s color was my favorite: blue. I looked at Anton for help, a sign that we shouldn’t go.

That’s when he ushered me into the boat, “Everything will be fine,” he says.

Suddenly all these thoughts started going through my head. Was this for real? Were we going to drown on my vacation of a lifetime? Was the huge swordfish or marlin we were preparing to catch going to drown us because it weighed more than our boat (so dramatic LOL).

Javier told us the best catches are 3-4 miles off the coast, so guess where we headed?

YEP.

That’s when I decided to check out: siesta time on the bottom of the boat’s floor. Only I couldn’t sleep. I’m guessing it was the hard boat flooring or rocky waves and dangling fish, YIKES.

The next thing I knew, a boat of 5 guys was pulling up, with bloody bags of fish in their hands. “Oh great, this is it,” my brain told me… “they’re going to kidnap us, kill Anton and sell me as a sex slave in Colombia.”

Can we say DRAMA QUEEN MUCH?!

Javier was buying bait. YAY! I wasn’t going to be kidnapped after all. Thank God.

As it turns out, Javier is this super sweet, local family man. We spoke Spanish the entire time and in just under 6 hours, we hooked two small local tunas. We even took some decent photos to document this experience. Good enough for me, we took off at full speed for the resort.

The best part? As we approached the beach and waved toward Javier’s friends, we were told to “hang on.” Full speed ahead and straight for the shore, we flew up onto the sand in our fishing boat (since I survived to tell the tale, I can now safely call it that) just like the scene in The Glass Bottom Boat, (my favorite old Hollywood movie starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor).

Javier filleted our catch in about 45 seconds, I gave him a big hug and we headed for the resort. We dropped our fish off at Aqua by Larbi restaurant and asked them to prepare it for our dinner reservation that night.

6 HOURS LATER…

Fully recovered and much more relaxed after a half day in the sun on my cozy lounge chair, we walked to Aqua. Given the most exceptional table, we dined outside by candlelight on a manicured lawn, directly overlooking the cliffs and sea.

Breathtaking. Unique. Unbelievable.

The One & Only Palmilla knows how pamper their guests. As you know from part I of my Cabo blog series, I highly HIGHLY recommend it as my fave resort south of the border!

The chef came out to greet us, inquiring how we would like our fish prepared. I chose sashimi, Mexican caesar salad with seared pieces of our fish and a grilled portion with vegetables. OMG. AMAZING. By far, the best fish I’ve ever eaten.

Perhaps it was the experience? The gratitude for surviving the day? The effort we put into literally “catching” our own dinner? I think it was a little bit of everything.

THAT’S A WRAP…

Although my deep sea fishing experience was absolutely NOTHING like what I dreamt, it has become one of my most memorable experiences. Am I excited to get into another small boat for 6 hours chasing and trawling for fish? Probably NOT. But I would not change the slightest detail about our experience. Javier was a gentleman, a true fisherman, a great captain.

Did this experience help me in my vegan venture? Honestly, yes and no. Maybe our fish were too small so it looked like they just went to sleep when they came aboard. I didn’t feel as guilty as I thought I would :(. Now if Javier had clubbed the fish to death or the fish had jumped all over the boat trying to escape I’m sure I’d have had a fit and saved them. Clearly I have WAY less empathy for fish than I do for mammals. I don’t want to be a hypocrite- I ate the fish so I can’t make a fuss about catching it, right?

I will always remember our little boat, painted in blue and the final dash we made onto the beach. For me, this is what travel is all about. Yes, it’s great to stay at a luxury, five star resort, but, how much eating, drinking and tanning can a person really handle? I prefer my luxury hotel with as many colorful, local adventures as possible.

(But yes, I’ll definitely try the One & Only’s luxury boat the next time we head to sea to compare adventures, LOL. Why not?:).

I hope to inspire YOU ALL toward your own exciting, unique adventures in the very near future!

xx Shanna

 

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