07/19/2008, Anchored in Albuquerque Cays, Columbia, South America
It was a very good day. Rebecca even got a big one! Picture of that someday too!
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07/19/2008, Anchored in Albuquerque Cays, Columbia, South America
We have been at Albuquerque Cays for a few days now. We are really enjoying it here. Yesterday, we went ashore to the one acre size island which is thickly forested in coconut palms. The Colombian Navy has an outpost here as a presence to discourage all other Central American fishermen from working the reefs. We wanted to ask about spear fishing regulations in this area. The Colombian Navy has 13 men stationed on the island. The Comandante told us turtles are the only thing protected here. There are a lot of turtles here- we see at least 2 per day while we are snorkeling. Little ones and big ones!
Yesterday we went spearfishing in the afternoon. Our friends Roger got his gun out for the first time ever- it was wrapped in plastic till yesterday! A beautiful wooden speargun, about 4 feet long. Patrick could not go in the water because his sailfish wound from the trip here was still swollen and open for infection. In 8-15' of water Roger and I shot and shot, but nothing let us get too close. Norma snorkeled and identified lots of fish. We all went in Rogers dinghy, and Patrick was the Boat operator for the day. On the last reef of the day, I spied my very first lobster. Normally I see what I think are lobster antenna but it always turns out to be twigs. . But I knew there was one there, when I saw perfectly symmetrical antennas. I could not go in from the front to get it, because there was a tall coral head that I would likely hit with my skin and get coral burn from. I called Roger over to show him, hoping he would brave it and get him. He didn't see the lobster, and thought I was crazy. He swam away. But I knew there was a lobster there- and since Roger wasn't going to get him, I had nothing to lose in trying. SO I went down and shot him from the other side of the hole, hoping to chase him out the other side so Id maybe have a chance to get him running across the sand. Instead he turned around and showed me the larger part of his antenna. When I swam back down, I could see his tail now sticking out of the front of the hole in plain view. I dove down, the whole 10 feet, and had a clear shot of his tail, So I aimed as close to his head as I had a clear shot for and pulled the trigger, I had him! He was shaking around trying to get off my spear, but I pulled him out of the hole and to the surface of the water. I had to swim about 100 feet to the boat, which I did as fast as I could. I am always nervous about a shark coming and stealing my catch from me. Believe me, I would give it over gladly, but I just terrorize over it coming up and grabbing it and taking part of me with it. Fortunately there were no sharks around, and I got it back to the boat. Norma and Patrick were in the boat cheering me on! I put the lobster in the boat, catching my breath, all excited. And it wasn't even small- finally a legal, decent size meal on the end of my spear. Patrick took it off the spear and I wasted no time going down to find another. That was the only one there, and my lobster was the only catch of the day. We had a nice lobster dinner!
We promised the navy guys that we would take one or two of them out snorkeling today. We woke up and of course it was pouring rain. We knew they were really excited to go, so we went over the minute it stopped raining. Roger took one guy in his dinghy. Patrick and I took another person in our dinghy.
We asked where the biggest fish were, and they took us to spots that had barely any fish. We tried reef after reef and there were only grunt, which are never large, and a few angel fish. This was no different than the reefs Roger and I snorkled on the day before. Then Patrick took over, and decided where we would go into much deeper water. The very next reef, both Oscar and Patrick agreed there had to be lobsters - langustas - there. Patrick's foot was still very swollen but squeezed it into his fin. They dove down and for a long time found nothing. Then Patrick came back flashing the OK signal. Then the extended forefinger thumb signal to hand him his spear gun. Then the antennas signal. I knew we had dinner! From 25 feet of water, Patrick came up with a huge lobster, the lobster fairly mutilated from the fight. Patrick told Oscar to follow him. There were 3 lobsters in the hole. Patrick would get the next lobster and from that Oscar would know where to dive to spear the third lobster. Oscar took my gun and followed. Next thing I know, Patrick is back with an even bigger lobster! I could not get the spear out of that sucker, so Patrick ripped it out of the lobsters body, and swam away in a flash with his gun, arming it as he went. But he came back soon, and said that the third lobster had moved out of the hole into a clear sand area. Oscar was so proud that he got that third lobster. I shot pictures of Oscar bringing it back to the boat, all excited!
Soon, Roger and his crew came over, and were delighted to see that we had a solid dinner for the night! They took their Navy guy back, Herman, and we continued on with Oscar to another reef. They did a lot of diving and found no more lobsters. The only fish worthy of shooting at was a Strawberry grouper. Patricks spear shaft did not fully penetrate the fish, and he managed to get away. Oscar and I looked on as the fish swam deep inside some rocks never to be seen again. With our 3 lobsters we headed for shore. Oscar wanted to give us a regalo (present) of the lobster. In Spanish he explained he couldn't go back with one lobster without everyone wanting a bite. So we diverted to Brick House and cooked it there for him so he could eat the whole thing himself.. Oscar had a complete dinner with salad, potatoes, lobster with butter and garlic sauce. We returned one happy Navy guy back to the island as the sun was going down.
We then went over to Sea Fury where Roger grilled the lobster while basting with garlic and butter/olive oil. He made a creamy. Cheesy potato dish, and I brought salad and homemade salad dressing ( learned from Roger and Keith a few days ago). We ate like Kings, and retired early. Tomorrow is another day! After dinner Patrick and I returned to Brick House where Patrick took the soggy, bloody bandage from his still swollen foot., disinfected the area and applied more antimicrobial cream. We are watching closely for infection.
Before leaving Albuquerque Cays, we stopped at the only other island here. It is another small sand island covered in coconut palms and inhabited by fishermen who spend a week here then return the 45 miles to San Andreas to sell their catch. They don't fish the reefs anymore. Their catch comes from 300' depths outside the reefs. They bring up odd looking red fish with very large black eyes. The fish are sold as "red snapper". They also catch Barracuda which is a popular fish back in San Andreas.
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