Reflecting on my time in Cuba with Georgio Fuentes Captain of Hemingway’s Pilar

During the Pandemic Costa Rica has seen a resurgence of exotic wildlife …and lots of big fish

I have always made it a habit, especially when I travel in the “third world” to seek out the oldest person I can find and start up a conversation. I have found that is how I can get the true flavor of an area. One of my highlights of this habit was when my boss at the time kept a boat in Havana, Cuba.

Being a huge fan of Ernest Hemingway I had to visit Cojimar, where Hemingway kept his boat the Pilar. I was standing in the restaurant la Terraza, one of Hemingway´s hangouts, admiring all the old photos from his era. It was before the lunch crowd and the bartender fixed me a mojita and struck up a conversation. He asked if I was a fisherman, and said he remembered Hemingway from when he was a small boy. We chatted about old fishermen and the marlin they caught from small skiffs.

The bartender then told me that Gregorio Fuentes, Hemingway´s captain only lives a block and a half from the restaurant and if I wanted to meet him just go to the corner, turn right and I will see a small celeste blue house with yellow trim. “Just knock on the door, Gregorio won´t mind.”

I did and to my surprise I was invited inside. We sat and talked about fishing, Hemingway, and how he lived to be 100 years old. I stayed about 30 minutes. For the next two years, my job put me in Cuba once or twice a month. Each time I went and saw Gregorio, usually staying around an hour each visit. My last visit was in 1998 just before I moved to Puerto Jimenez to create Crocodile Bay with Robin Williams.

Gregorio passed in January of 2002 at 104 years old.

In the later part of 1998, I was in Golfito, Costa Rica checking on what services were available there to support a fishing operation. I saw a small hand baited sign that said ¨bait” and wandered inside. There I met Norton, a man in his 80´s, who moved to Golfito from the Caribbean when he was 10.

He started telling me stories about the Golfo Dulce, where we were building Crocodile Bay. He said as a young man no-one knew the ocean. They never left the gulf and caught marlin, sailfish, dorado, tuna, giant cubera snapper, and huge tiger sharks. At Rio Esquinas he caught snook to 80 lbs.

I thought to myself, Man, this guy´s stories have more stretch than monofilament fishing line!

Twenty years later, I believe every word he said.

While Covid-19 has made prisoners of many of us, nature is having a free for all. Jaguars have been seen freely roaming the beach in the middle of the day. Deer walked the beach in Manuel Antonio, the most visited National Park in the country, Tapirs are wandering out of the deep jungle and wild pigs have been seen walking the beach in Puerto Jimenez. Fish have been no exception. The ocean is no different.

Sailfish have been caught as far up inside the Golfo Dulce as you can go, A black marlin was taken inside the gulf and also several dorados and yellowfin tuna. The few private boats going outside are seeing lots of tuna, marlin and raising double digit sailfish. Probably a combination of with most restaurants closed in the country, the commercial fishing pressure is almost nil, and an El Niña is present and has cooled the water down making for happy fish.

Post Covid Fishing

In my entire life, I have never passed so much time without being on the water. When the country opens up, it is going to be crazy out there. What a great lesson in how nature rebounds as our daily activities are limited.

Orcas have entered the gulf for a pass through. I have seen them near shore before but never in the gulf. A small humpback visited the Coast Guard dock in Caldera. Acres of tuna are cruising a couple miles off the beach. The most surprising is the number of sailfish that are still around. They usually migrate out by now.

The same story all along the Pacific coast. Boats out of Quepos, Herradura, all the way to the Nicaraguan border are seeing fantastic numbers on the days they go out. The border lockdown has travel to Costa Rica limited so days on the water are few for many charter boats.

Recently out of Carrillo, the Sickafoo released a marlin they estimated at 900 lbs. Marlin numbers have been great and not that far from the beach.

I am hoping for positive things to happen and open the doors of Costa Rica to tourists again. It is going to be epic out on the water. Makes me want to fish full time again.

Note (some photos supplied by friends Jose Brenes and the Amateur Fishing)