Day 18 - Puerto Los Gatos

Manuel the Pescador

Not long after breakfast we got a surprise visit from a fisherman in his panga. We had a short chat and he seemed like a nice man. His name was Manuel, he was fishing alone, his home was at Constitucion where he had a wife, 5 daughters, 1 son, and a cat. He offered us a choice of two moderate sized fish and two lobsters. We declined the lobsters but picked out one of the fish. We thought that he might appreciate a hot drink so we invited him on board and soon the three of us were seated around the cockpit table enjoying freshly brewed coffee and cookies.

Brenda admiring the goods

He passed to Brenda a bag that he had brought on board and in it was very nice embroidery work that his wife had done. We liked them and you could not find a more genuine gift from Mexico so we purchased three of them at a modest 70 pesos each. I asked Manual about the price of the fish and he said that it was a gift, so I gave him 300 pesos for the lot and he was very pleased. His handshake alone was worth 300 pesos: a hard, leathery, calloused hand that is becoming a rarity in the world that I come from. Soon Manuel was off in his Panga in search of more fish.
Brenda and I then went ashore and enjoyed very much walking on the spectacular red rocks that characterizes Puerto Los Gatos. Brenda then went on to do some bird watching and I climbed to the top of a hill to take photographs of the bay.

Fish from Manuel

Manuel on his way

The red rocks of Los Gatos

After lunch and a very restful nap I stuck my head out of the cabin to see if any boats had arrived. Sure enough, just upwind of us was a catamaran hailing from California. I saw three adults ashore looking around. The catamaran would draw less water than Pachuca and thus be able to get closer to shore, but in their quest to get deep into the NE corner of the anchorage they placed their boat upwind of me with my anchor probably under their boat. Let's hope that either the wind has changed in the morning or our friends have moved on because otherwise I'll have to pay them a visit to discuss my intention to weigh anchor.
The GRIB file indicated lighter winds of about 10 knots from the NW for the next few days and we were hoping to head off in the morning to Mangle Solo at the NW of Isla San Jose, about 21 miles from here.
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