Today the girls and I went to the north end of Pavones (about a five minute walk from the south end of Pavones), where the fishermen come in on Saturdays with their catch. It is a tough living for them. They go out for 4-5 days at a time in open air boats that are maybe 25 feet long with a crew of 3-4 guys. They sleep in the bottom of the boat on small cot-sized bits of old foam rubber.
When they come back on Saturdays, they sell their catch out of a small ten by ten foot concrete shed that has a hose, a big hanging scale and nothing else. This is where people who have local ceviche restaurants come to buy whatever happens to come in. Locals, ex-pats and adventurous tourists can also muscle their way in but it is chaos.
So the girls and I stood around on the fringe of the chaos trying to figure out the lay of the land. Eventually we came across our soon-to-be new friends Gabriel and Anyiah. Gabriel is a fellow Canadian who lived in Costa Rica for a number of years but now just spends the winters here. He knows one of the fishing boat owners and took us under his wing to help us get two beautiful red snappers and a local white fish.
We had them filleted on the spot and carried the fish home in a couple of plastic grocery bags.
Dinner tonight was fish, cilantro coconut rice, green beans, carrots and mango. All local, fresh and delicious!
Buenas Noches.