Fishing

    I signed up for a Fishing Expedition for 2:00. We got back from the cave tour around 11:30, we relaxed with the Australians and Rebecca until lunch at noonish. We were in the middle of lunch around 1:00 when I realized that I hadn't bought my hat or any souvenirs. I left for the village, which took around 15 minutes. The big hat stand that was there on Saturday wasn't there, so I wandered a little until I found a nice grey hat. It cost P150. Dad and Rebecca had taken all of my small bills so I was forced to pay her with a P500. She had to go to a neighboring stall to help her get change for my bill. I was about to leave when I remembered that pearls were really cheap here, so I found a bigger tent and looked for a long pearl necklace for my Russian grandmother in Boston. I found one with irregular pearls, i.e., they weren't perfectly spherical. It looks like they have spherical bases, but there are layers built up on one side of the pearl so they become ellipsoidal. That was P250. I asked how the vendor knew they were real, and to show me, she pulled out a lighter and put one of the pearls into the flame. She said that a fake one would have melted. She also rubbed two of the pearls together and showed me that there was powder created. For an additional P150, I also bought a clam shell covered in mother-of-pearl, with little pearl bits stuck to the shell. When I showed Rebecca, she said that it would make a good soapdish. 

     Gilbert was my fishing partner since I was the only one signed up. The boat had to go back to the village to get their knife since the day was Sunday, the day of rest. The Philippines are heavily Catholic. I was told to wait on the beach when it started to rain. First lightly, then crazy heavily. I thought to myself that getting the hat was a great idea since now my face was safe from the rain. I hid behind a large sign under a tree and avoided getting utterly drenched by the rain. Dad ran out with an umbrella, gave it to me, and ran back. Before he went, he suggested going back to the lobby to look for Gilbert. I followed his advice and in fact, found him there. With the fishing trip came free soft drinks or something, but I didn't bother. Gilbert was there with the cooler of a couple drinks. We dropped off the cooler near where we supposed to wait for the boat. The rain decided to pick up again and we hid under a hut filled with Filipinos celebrating a birthday party. 

     The rain eventually stopped and we got into the boat. On the boat was the captain, a former Daluyon employee. He quit because the pay wasn't good enough to support his family. He had two assistants, and a child. I think that the kid was his son. The kid had toenails painted a orange/pinkish color. I asked Gilbert why this was, he teased the kid a little, and replied that it was native art. We sail out for a good while since the rain made the water choppy and not fish friendly. We had to relocate 3 or 4 times because the water was to rough. 

    I thought that the fishing implements used were pretty neat. While we were sailing out, the captain was expertly tying fish hooks to fish line wrapped around a large wooden donut. The outer sides were cut out so the line could be easily wrapped around it. To act as the weight, at the end of the line, he put a 2-3 inch piece of rebar. Near the end were two hooks. We used squid as bait, and at one point fish filets, but more on that later. 

     Fishing with rebar is harder than it looks because you can't tell if the weight is a fish biting or just the rebar floating in the water. I got no bites. Gilbert got one bite and no catches. The three other boatmen caught plenty of fish. The only time I got close to catching a fish was when the captain felt two fish on the line and gave it to me to pull up. Back to the fish filets. The captain caught a dead fish. It was freshly dead. I think that it had just bitten the hook when a bigger fish bit off it's lower half. That happened twice. So, one of the helpers filleted up the fish and used it as bait. 

     I am actually kind of glad that we went after it rained, because the view from the boat was fan-diddly-tastic. The clouds had sunk below the tops of the mountains and were kind of floating among them. It was awesome. I didn't want to take to many pictures because I didn't want to seem too touristy to the boatmen, but I couldn't resist. 

    By the end of the day, I'd say we they caught about 15 fish. I thought that I would get 5 and the boatmen would split the rest among themselves, but they gave them all to me. I asked Gilbert what the fish would be worth in the market and he said around P200, which is quite a bit in that area. We took them to the restaurant to be cooked for dinner. We asked for them to be cooked traditionally. We got the big meaty fish grilled, and the rest fried with a sweet and sour sauce. It was easily the best meal that we had had at that restaurant. We felt bad that we only ate 6 or 7 fish, so we asked that the rest be taken back to the kitchen to be shared among the staff. The manager said that the staff had already eaten, but hopefully someone had at least one.