A great Belizian lodge in a great American newspaper.
The New York Times ran a piece in their travel section on El Pescador in Belize. I’ll be close to there in about a week when I’m down at Caye Caulker, but I have some fantastic memories from El Pescador including my first (only at this point) grand slam, my first (only) permit, a great trip with my friend Shane where we persevered through horrid weather and a great trip with my wife for our honeymoon.
Honeymooners, Belize, 2012.
The Gray Lady has dished out some good stories on the Gray Ghost over the years. While searching for some bonefish nuggets I found this story from Howell Raines from 1994 all about Christmas Island… Pursuing the Bonefish Across a Watery Desert.
Albula vulpes, “the gray ghost of the sand flats,” is one of the most lied about and lusted after fish in the world. Catching one is not as hard as devotees like to pretend, but it is hard enough.
See… that’s nice.
I knew Sam Sifton had made a journey to Los Roques and I had been patiently waiting for his article to appear in the e-pages of the New York Times travel section. Sam, as you will see, has a knack for writing, which may answer the question you may ask “How does someone get a gig writing for the NYT?” While he normally is writing about food and the culinary intrigue of the Big Apple, we are fortunate that Sam also happens to love bonefish.
A little sample…
It was warm enough to pad shirtless up to the tiled roof of a little hotel in the middle of the village, and to see the view there stretch out to box the compass. It came up against, in turn, the sea, the sea, the blackened sea and the rise of a bare and sandy hill, steep and amazing so far from other land. As I gazed up from a wooden deck chair, sleepiness fell upon me like a rug.
What can I say? I’m a fan of writing like that.
This isn’t Sam’s first piece on bonefishing. I spotted his previous article about fishing Acklins with beloved guide Fidel.
Photo by Chris Ramirez, NYT
You can follow Sam’s twitter feed (about 1% fishing, 99% food stuff).
Now, the New York Times is a venerable old paper and some of their writers… well… they write very well.
Check it…
People fly to India, stay in a hut for a month. They sail across the Pacific. They camp for weeks in the remotest stretches of northern Maine or build yurts in western Montana or walk the Alaskan bush with binoculars and field guide. They go to Australia. They suffer the hardship of distant travel against the serenity they hope to find when they get where they’re going, and they work hard to earn the money or time that allows them to do it. Run into someone just back from a long sojourn to the outback, tanned and rested and suddenly kind, and odds are he’s either wealthy or Buddhist, a college kid, dreamer or life dropout, sometimes all five.
It does not have to be this way. Not if you follow the bonefish, not if you come to Lovely Bay, to this long, desolate sandbar at the southeastern end of the Bahamian archipelago to walk the flats of Acklins Bight with fly rod, concentration and hope. Not if you’re game and have a few days. You won’t need more than that.
Now, that is just beautifully written. Doesn’t it just make you want to go cast a fly to a cruising bonefish?
Sam Sifton is the author. Check out the full story here.
Sam is fishing with Fidel on Acklins… hardly the first time I’ve read or heard that name. Makes me very much want to head there and learn at the foot of Fidel. www.acklins.com
True... true.
