$5 Lobster, Arturo & Ocean Fishing

I remember telling Tyler that we couldn’t do a 3 hour fishing trip with the girls in THAT boat in THAT sun. I thought I had told him to ask if we could just go out for 1 hour, then Arturo could take us back and Tyler could go out for the other 2 hours.  Somehow that never got asked…I really need to learn Spanish better.

We met Arturo the day before.  To eat at his restaurant, you stop by his house to order a few hours before you want to eat. If not, he might not have any food or even be home at his restaurant to feed you. We had ordered lobster…5 dollars a plate lobster! Abby whined the whole way…”Nooooo.  Not Lobster!”  We told her she loved seafood (she does!) and that she would love this. And to not whine or she would hurt Arturo’s feelings.  When he brought in the plate of food to her, you could tell she was trying!  She looked at it with hidden disgust and fear and said, “OOOOOhhh, yum!”  Then, when he went back inside she said, “Oh man. Yuck.”  He was only back inside for a second and when he popped back out she saw him and said, “Oh, I mean YUM!”  She ate it and loved it.  But who could blame her.  They look intimidating! Those lobsters!

The day before, the girls and I had walked out during low tide to check our Arturo’s blue fishing boat. He would go out every day at 8am, then come back at 11am and leave his boat in the water! We wondered what he was thinking, but soon knew, when at 2 pm it was sitting on the sand safe and sound. He would grab his lobster catches for that day and head back to his place. That is when we set up to check out the fishing boat. Hmm that thing…all of us…fishing out in the ocean!

Sure, we’re in Panama.  Let’s do it.

Funny thing: we caught NOTHING.  Well, Tyler did get one bite but it was so strong it broke his line right in half. We didn’t fish with poles- just a line with a hook on the end. Sometimes they were trailing behind the boat.  Other times, they were thrown out with some cut up fish on the hook.

The adventure was worth it though and the girls were troopers.

This is when I caught another memory I will save forever and ever.

Cameron and Abby were squished up on both sides of me just starting out over the boat at the ocean. Cameron’s face was one of pure calmness. Her cute little head was poking out of that bright orange oversize lifevest.  Her hair was up in a ponytail and she had those beautiful curls on the back of her neck. They bounced every time we went over a wave. Her bright blue eyes matched the sky. I just remember looking at her and the ocean air.

That was worth the 3 hour fishing trip in the sun, even with catching not a thing.

Soon, I will tell you about our 4 hour trip to a remote island to walk through the jungle. Hey, I have about 44 bug bites on just one leg to prove it!

And if you wanted to see a video of our failed fishing trip, you can just click here. The ending is quite uneventful because you no…no fish.

Tags: panama

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