Ocean Fishing Fun (or The Inevitable Seasickness)

I really love the ocean, but the ocean does not love me.  I found this out my first visit to Hawaii when we were out on an eight hour ocean cruise on a very windy day.  So, when Josh expressed interest in Haku tours "Day with a Fisherman" tour, I wasn't quite sure it would be a good idea, but I thought what the heck.  That's what seasickness pills are for!  

We arrived at the Muelle de Pescadores, the fish market and pier of Chorillos with Edwin, my friend that runs Haku tours.  We wandered around to see the bustling market filled with every kind of fish and shell fish and some things that I was not sure what they were.  There were hundreds of people eating lunch, selling food and trinkets and cleaning fish, as well as fishermen bringing in the mornings hauls.  There were also a crazy amount of Pelicans!  They were everywhere, waiting for scraps, so of course we got some fish to feed them.  They were savage and relentless and hilarious!  They really are funny looking things!

We wandered out on the pier, to meet our fisherman, Mr. Portugese.  There were more vendors and people with fishing poles, other people jumping off to go swimming and more people just standing around enjoying the beautiful weather.

We boarded our tiny little row boat and met Mr. Portugese, he is just the cutest little guy, who spends his days out on the ocean, fishing mainly to feed his family and hopefully catch enough to sell the extras for a few soles.  

We headed out, and I felt okay for a while.  I had taken Bonine for the first time, which I was told is better that Dramamine so I had confidence I would be okay, but I soon found out it really doesn't work so well for me.  Luckily I had packed one Dramamine just in case, but there was still about an hour of not being sure if I would make it!  

Josh got the job of steering the boat for the day, I was a little jealous.  I guess I am a girl so I just got to sit there and look pretty!  haha

We went for about 30 mins, until we got to the spot to drop the net.  It was 80 metres long, a lot longer than we were expecting, but we really weren't sure what to expect at all.  It took a long time for Josh to get it all out in the water,  Oh, ya, that was his job too.  More sitting and suntanning and looking pretty.  

We waited for about 20 minutes, and started pulling the net in.  By this time I was NOT feeling fantastic so I just pretty much sat and stared at the horizon.  I did however notice that there was an awful lot of tiny little fish in the net.  Like, a lot of an anchovy kind of fish.  That is the best name we could get out of Mr. Portugese.  Apparently delicious in Ceviche, one of my favorite dishes.  

Then the fun part.  Trying to get the fish out of the net without ripping them in half.  Josh and Edwin took a little practice, but they rocked it.  I once again looked pretty, and was sick and staring at the horizon.  Mr. Portugese then told us he would take us to look for sea lions along the rocky shore.  I was a little excited, but mostly sick and wanted to curl up in a ball.  The guys continued to take the fish out of the net for about two hours, as we trolled the coast and didn't find any sea lions.  I was a little sad.  When we were about at our farthest point away, the Dramamine started to kick in.    Then about 20 minutes later, when we turned around and the waves were hitting the boat more, I felt sick again.  I felt better when Edwin was starting to turn a little green too.

At one point we actually ran out of fuel and Edwin said that we had to row back to shore.  I almost cried.  Luckily he was just being mean, and there was some extra gas that Mr. Portugese siphoned into the tank.  No wonder he was so happy.

We got back and I kissed the ground.  We had caught over 15kg of fish.  This is the little pail that we decided to take home.  What the hell would we do with 15kg of tiny fish?  haha

We went back down the pier and took out fish to a couple of ladies that were charging us 10 soles to clean them for us.  I was pretty glad since I was quite sure it would take me all day to do it, so I likely wouldn't do it at all.

Despite the seasickness, and Josh's awful burn, it was really fun.  It was quite amazing to be out on the ocean on that tiny little boat and to imagine that this man had probably done this everyday for 50 years. Another fantastic tour and we had a delicious dinner the next day!