La vida es como una caja de chocolates: Gone fishing.

I am currently working on the new post about Tikal, but in the meantime I figured I would throw this in the mix. Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go Sailfishing with some new friends who were in town from The States and Honduras. They were all Florida Gators, and anyone who knows anything about Ohio State football knows I should have thrown them off the boat, but in the heart of good sportsmanship (and the fact that they paid for the boat) I gave them a chance. We went out off the Pacific coast of Guatemala, which is the capital of the world when it comes to sailfishing, on the Fat Cat.

A couple pieces of information were relayed to us on our 20 mile trip out to sea by John, the boat owner. One was that it was not currently sailfishing season, so we should not get our hopes up too high for catching a Sail. I was not discouraged. The second was that there is a tradition where he used to live in the South Pacific, where you are supposed to rip out the heart of the first fish caught on the day and eat it while its still beating, then drink a beer. I thought he was joking.

Well, we got out there, cast our lines, and a couple minutes later I had a monster on my hands. It was an epic battle, and at times I felt like Santiago (Old Man and the Sea reference), but after only 20 minutes and a huge blister on my index finger we were hauling a 150 lbs sailfish over the side of the boat. What a big and beautiful beast. Fortunately for me it is illegal to keep them, so luckily I was not forced to eat its heart, and after taking some pictures we gave him back to the ocean.

Then we caught our first Bonita (part of the tuna family), about a 30 pounder. Next thing I know John hands me a beating heart and a beer, and since I'm not one to wimp out and have always been such a big fan of Silence of the Lambs, I took a big bite and started chugging. It was surprisingly tastey and ironically not very bloody.

It was a great day. We caught about 10 Mahi-Mahi and two Tunas. The two shipmates filleted some of the fish right there on the boat, then busted out the premade soy sauce/wasabi mix, and we ate sashimi 15 minutes after catching the fish. It doesn't get much fresher than that. The rest of the fish we brought home and had a huge fish buffet; grilled, baked, fried.

You can check out the Fat Cat's website at: http://www.guatemala-sailfishing.com/