Take El Banco or the Bank. I always say “they’re bigger at The Bank”. Located 50 miles north of PV it’s essentially a few sharp peaks, similar to a Stalagmites coming up from an underwater mountain range. The peaks of these Stalagmites are about 60 ft under the surface of the ocean. You need electronics to find this location so you know where you are. Once there hovering over or trolling the area will produce at times world record competing Yellowfin Tuna, Black and Blue Marlin among several other gamefish. We’ve seen some huge Dorado boated from this location as well. El Banco is primarily a summer fishing ground. Seldom do you hear much about El Banco outside of the warm water days unless it’s an El Nino year. Those coming to Puerto Vallarta in the winter months looking to target Marlin, YF tuna etc. will be disappointed to hear that they’re all “vacationing” in Costa Rica!
I was sitting in front of my shop the other day enjoying my view of Marina Vallarta and some locals came by. We started talking about his fishing day and he mentioned how when the Captain of the boat saw him with bananas, and the captain “flipped” out. He continued how the captain wouldn’t allow them on the boat because they were “Bad Luck”. For as long as I’ve been around the rumors of Bananas on boats would result in bad luck fishing days. I think I was about twelve years old when I first heard of this “fishing tale” from friends and family. As the story goes, bring Bananas and bad luck follows, something is going to happen. Seems pretty silly right? Bananas, the easy “peel and go” fast, healthy food. Perfect for fishing trips and besides that, I like bananas! But there are people who go to extremes on this like no banana bread, banana cookies, banana chips and the list is endless. Now you may think this is silly and I did agree, more on this later in the article. But the superstitions foundation is a mystery. After some research, what I learned is in the following paragraphs…
Pulled over by a Police Officer: Ok, so you rent this car, you’re driving down the street cautiously but things are different here. Sometimes you make left hand turns from the right hand side or the streets are not marked at all and you have to figure this out as you go along. So this serious looking police officer in his best English informs you that you did something you can’t understand wrong. This is when not understanding Spanish is your friend or enemy, depending on how you use your “ignorance” …. Now you can be stupid which is believable. Or you can act like you know something. Me, I can talk with these guys and remedy the situation. You couldn’t, so you do this…
People always ask me what it’s like to live in Mexico? Mexico is a pretty diverse place and I’ve only really lived in Puerto Vallarta, for better or worse it’s been fun. Being in the Sportfishing business I work with many visiting tourist looking to go fishing. Now we have a couple of boats, but I also work with many boats in Marina Vallarta. Many of the Captains and Crews become friends and with time are almost family. Once you get away from the “tourism leaches” the people in PV are incredible. Famous for being nice people, the “Pata Saladas” or original locals will do anything they can for you with a smile.
Living in Puerto Vallarta for as long as I have, I’ve seen many changes. I remember when Puerto Vallarta was a “small” town on the Bay of Banderas. Things always change, but in reality Puerto Vallarta is still much the same, without the hotels. You may say, “without hotels”? Yes, you see when I arrived to PV all of the hotels were located in the downtown area. People would go to breakfast in El Centro / down town, leaving the several nice hotels for a brief while. Now the hotels had restaurants naturally, but food was “extra”. And for the most part, you got gauged, but you bit the bullet because it was “there” and convenient. Most people would agree that breakfast and drinks around the pool had its “cost”. People would walk around and shop at the many unique “tiendas” or shops in English. The town was always in a constant state of movement. The town would literally “breathe” with tourism as the cities “life giving breath”. That was more than ten years ago. Puerto Vallarta still has some hotels, but nothing like the “good old days”.
When I used to live in the USA I was always told they had the best medical care in the world. And that you couldn’t find better medical care anywhere for any price. I believed it, didn’t questions it and paid for malpractice insurance, which is 75% or more of your medical charges. That alone is a whole article in and of itself. I see that as a good and bad thing, good you can get “insured” medical coverage and top notch medical care. But if you think about it, if these doctors are so good, why do they need such expensive medical coverage?
Yesterday I posted an article designed to inform and enlighten you on the “in’s and out’s” of a Fishing Charter Business and all the complications. Mexico as a third world country does it’s best to insure your safety and that boats comply with the laws. The simple fact, like the United States, laws that aren’t enforced are only laws when there is an incident or situation where the law was clearly broken. Of course as a vacationer or tourist what you don’t know, will hurt you.
Written by Stan Gabruk Introduction: I wrote this article last year for a local publication last year and thought it’s good to revisit this article and remind folks that we’re coming into High Season for Fishing. Most people assume our high season is in the winter. Tourism likes the cooler weather, fishing favors the hot […]
Written By Stan Gabruk Before I start this article, I have to say the latest travel warning posted by the United States surprised me. I expected them to warn the world about Covid-19 again. Put the fear of god into you travelers, but that’s not the case at all. In fact the U.S. Travel […]
