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Costa Rica, One Big Fish Story
My fish story begins in Searcy, Arkansas. It was October 6, 1990, the day I know I made the best decision of my life, I married Mary Margaret. You might think that is the fish story and you would probably be right. How did I pull it off? I still do not know. I got lucky! The fish story starts the day after as we headed off to Costa Rica for our honeymoon.
We woke up early and had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. It was a beautiful day and we were off to the airport and the first leg to our journey. We stepped onto the plane and the skies turned dark, very dark. We took off in this little plane towards Dallas. To say it was a bumpy ride would be an understatement. The plane would drop, then drop, then drop some more. My drink and several others hit the ceiling. I saw the pilot getting sick. It was bad and I started making deals with God. You know we made it because here I am writing about it. We landed, stepped off the plane and kissed the ground. Oh, and we left our brand new, very expensive, once used at our wedding, purchased just for the trip, camera on board. We did not even think about it until we landed that night at midnight in Costa Rica. All of our wedding pictures lost. Did I tell you that my aunt very graciously video tapped our whole wedding? It was so sweet. About a month later, her son taped a football game over it. In other words, there will be minimal photos in this post. 🤣
The fish story is just beginning!
The next day we had to catch a public bus super early in the morning. We were off to the jungles of Costa Rica. We boarded the bus and I showed the bus driver where we needed to get off to meet a taxi cab. He smiled. We drove a few hours and then we transitioned to dirt roads. We came to two dirt crossroads. The bus driver smiled and said here. There was a language barrier. We got off. The bus drove off and I thought to myself, "We are in trouble. Taxi drivers do not work in the jungle." We waited! Sure enough, just about the time we really started worrying, here comes a taxi. He took us to a tractor and we spent a few hours being driven into the jungle. It was pretty cool.
We spent a week in the jungle at a biological reserve. There were monkeys overhead throwing fruit at us. There was a big scorpion on our wall just outside our room. There were huge cockroaches, snakes and colorful tiny, little frogs. There were crazy guests that put out bright lights to bring in the bugs at night to take pictures of them. They were in heaven as all of those bugs crawled all over them. The bugs were beautiful. There were gorgeous blue butterflies floating in the air. There were BULLET ANTS! Our guide said they were named that because, if they bit you, it hurt like a bullet hit you for about a week. It was the jungle! On the other hand, the jungle was filled with the magnificent. Just passed those bullet ants was one of the most spectacular waterfalls that I have ever seen.
Did you notice that this post might be over 500 words. 🤣 I am still just setting up the fish story!
We had so many great experiences on this trip.
There was the white water trip that I may have been talking too much as the guide was giving instructions. He decided to teach me a lesson and THREW ME IN THE RAGING WATERS! My wife freaked. I thought it was the funniest thing ever and enjoyed my time in the water.
We visited the top of a volcano. It was beautiful!
We bought a new camera.
We ate at great restaurants. I ordered Ceviche, took two bites and thought, "hmmm, that does not taste right." I was sick, real sick and two days later we were traveling to El Tortuguero and, as I promised Mary Margaret, some of the best, world class tarpon fishing in the world. To get to El Tortuguero, we had to ride a small boat through a canal system. Remember the Ceviche. I was very worried. Somewhere along the line, we stopped in the boat for lunch, right next to a small crocodile. Our guide said he was like a pet and be sure to feed him the left overs. Well, I was sick so I thought, "here you go Mr. Crocodile." He knew what was coming and jumped out of the water, mouth gaping and snapped his jaws shut inches from my hand. Remember the Ceviche! Without missing a beat, a fellow traveler says, "I missed the photo. Do it again!" My reply, "Umm, OK, that would be a NO!
Finally, THE FISH STORY!
We were on the water very early and we were getting fish on, but tarpon have these really bony jaws and they are not easy to land. We fished for half of the day with several fish on, but we did not land any of them. Our guide suggested that we go in for lunch. By the way, I felt good by then and I did enjoy lunch. We went back out for round two for the day, then the magic happened. I hooked a big one. The line went tight, the rod bent and the fight was on. Several times the tarpon broke the surface and danced in the sunlight. Its silvery scales glinting in the sun. It was gorgeous and every fisherman's dream. And yes, I landed it. I turned to my wife and said with a huge grin on my face, "Get the camera out!" She simply said, "After this morning, I didn't think we would catch anything so the camera is in the room." My life flashed before my eyes! In my mind I said, "Who have I married." Thoughts of annulment danced in my head. Then I saw her cute, little smile. My heart melted and I threw the tarpon back for some other lucky angler. That was just about 32 years ago and the story gets better every time I tell it!
Did I ever get a picture with a tarpon? You betcha! This one was caught in St. Martin. Of course, this one is a baby compared to the one I caught in Costa Rica...trust me!
"Five foot two, eyes of blue
But oh, what those five foot could do
Has anybody seen my girl?"
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