Found a great new blog called “Fire Someone Today” a couple of weeks ago, thanks to Scoble, who posted on it here. One exerpt I really enjoyed from the author

Misconnected on a meeting in Miami today - the folks I was scheduled to meet with were unexpectedly unavailable, and highly embarassed about it. But it was no big deal to me. Fuggedaboutit, I say. Did make the two hour down and two hour back drive seem a bit inconvenient, but I had good company both ways so what did it matter? Nada.

Took a few minutes in Coral Gables before heading back north to catch a cup of coffee. Normally, in a town like Miami I’d be looking for a little Cuban coffee shop where I could catch a cafecito, but given there was a Starbucks two blocks back and that I knew I could hop on the web to check e-mail, it won out.

Wish I had a camera phone… even at place like Starbucks that’s homogenous brand-wise, it was easy to see just how different a place Miami is from Stuart. The architecture was different, many, many more people, more than a few car horns blaring, different prevalent clothing styles, and a real melting pot of ethnicity. English and Spanish were liberally mixing among, and within, conversations all around me.

If my work goes the way I expect it to soon, I’ll be spending more time to the South, and will have an opportunity to learn and apply some new skills. I’m very much looking forward to that, along with the opportunity to meet some new folks, and experience new (to me) sights and sounds. Although I don’t expect to be as far away as Miami on a regular basis, maybe I’ll get a chence to sample a little slice of the nightlife the REAL South Florida is famous for. Hasta Luego, Amigos!

Saw a very interesting Loop on FilmLoop tonight, and it turns out it led me to a more interesting project called Heaven, Earth, Tequila, and the website of the same name.

Here we are… its Sunday morning, and we’re steaming out for the last outing of the trip. Its a bright sunny day with just a bit of morning cloud cover in spots, which will probably move on and burn off before long. The seas are calm, and we just passed the rock outcroppings that ring Bahia Portrero, where the town of Flamingo is. We call the rocks “Seahenge”, since they look a lot like Stonehenge when you pass them.

On my first trip to Costa Rica, a couple of years ago, we spent a few hours riding around the bay and got close to the rocks. They’re huge - one of them looks just like a mountaintop sticking 300 feet or so out of the sea. Which, when you think about it, it is. The other rocks are smaller and dispersed over a half mile area, and when you’re close you can see all manner of caves and cutouts, some cutting all the way through the rocks, and big enough to drive a tractor trailer through.

The last day of a trip/vacation is the hardest, I think. Its hard to keep thoughts of “the world” from creeping in and stealing away part of the fun. Back to work thoughts, the stuff to do at home, touring colleges for Leeann… its all waiting for me when I get back. The travel day never seems as bad to me for some reason - maybe because I expect to be thinking about all those things. But, the trip doesn’t end until tomorrow, so today I’m taking photos, editing a slideshow of stuff I’ve already shot, and working on redesigning the Jungle Rules website. Should be a fun day…

Its Saturday 6 Aug, and our second to last day of fishing for this trip. Our usual Flamingo routine… anglers up at 6 (crew up at 4:45 and heading for the boat by 5:15), coffee at 6:45 and on the beach waiting for the water taxi by 7.

While waiting we saw the fueling operation in action. A fuel truck parks on the road next to the beach, and stretches several hundred feet of hose over the beach and out to the boat to be fueled, which idles around during the procedure. Something to see - one of the things that makes fishing Flamingo all about the logistics. When they’re working, they work well. If you’re not prepared and they’re not working, you’ll get your ass handed to you. Needless to say, Jamie was well prepared and it was smooth sailing for us, so to speak. Logistics is one of his real strengths - thanks Jamie.

Pacific Sailfish

The day’s fishing log…

Ran up to the northwest about 20 miles, lines in around 8 am. Jamie ran until he saw a couple of Pacific Sailfish swimming around on top close to the location he was looking for. Tried them – couldn’t coax them to bite.

At 10:15 a nice Blue Marlin came up in the spread. Piled on the left long teaser, sniffed around Keith’s bait for a few moments, and then took off. We teased the fish back into the spread once, but no bite. Jamie estimated the fish at about 200 lbs. Nice fish.

Lazy Sailfish bite around 11:30. Its plenty hot by now (about 98 degrees without the heat index), but the fish wasn’t… just sort of slid into the spread, chased the left teaser a bit, but then took a look and turned his nose up on the ballyhoo. Didn’t come back.

That was pretty much all for the day. But, that’s fishing. I took advantage of the time to start putting together a slide show as a prototype for one Keith wants once we’re home, and to edit some logos he’s had for the boat for awhile. Passed the time, and was a productive effort at the same time. Nothing like a fully air conditioned salon and 110 power, brother

All for now. We’re on the water hose mooring in Flamingo, the sun’s setting and the crew’s in washdown mode. Keith and I will hop off in a few minutes, hit the grocery to re-provision the boat, and then I hope its a leisurely evening and a good sleep before fishing our ever loving asses off tomorrow - our last fishing day for this trip.

In case you’re curious what we’re fishing on, this is the Jungle Rules. Built in Costa Rica, the boat belongs to Keith and Lauren Carroll of Stuart. Very pretty boat – great to fish from. Much more comfortable and practical for sportfishing than Keith’s previous Costa Rican ride – same manufacturer, but it was a few feet smaller in length, and laid out entirely differently.

Jungle Rules - 42′ Gamefisherman in Flamingo, Costa Rica

Its an operation to get a boat from Florida to Costa Rica. From Palm Beach the boat went to Fort Lauderdale, where it was floated onto a specialized freighter for the trip down. The freighter is outfitted with ballast tanks that allow its deck to be sunk, boats floated onto it, secured to the deck through welded supports and then refloated, drying out the deck/hold. Sounds freaky but I guess it works. A couple of weeks passage down to and then through the Panama Canal and the boat winds up in Golfito, Costa Rica, where the deck is again flooded, boats are floated off, and the freighter back on its way. Would have liked to have seen that maneuver…

Now that its down, Jungle Rules will stay in Costa Rica for a while - as much as two years, perhaps. Since the boat is privately owned and American flagged, it won’t be chartering in Costa Rica, but Keith will send down a few guests – he knows a lot of people through the insurance agency. Can’t wait to go back…

Its Thursday evening, and its been an exhausting but exciting day. All I can say about the fishing is “Wow”!

Today, as in our past trip to northwestern Costa Rica, we hoped to have an opportunity to do something many will never do. In sportfishing, catching a Grand Slam on your own boat can be a once-in-a-lifetime deal. The species vary, but in Costa Rica, an offshore Grand Slam is catching three fish of differing billfish species. The candidate fish are Sailfish, Blue Marlin, Black Marlin, Striped Marlin, and theoretically Swordfish, but they’re apparently pretty rare here.

So we start the day off by catching and releasing a Blue that Jamie estimated at 250 lbs. What an amazing bite - the fish’s whole head basically came out of the water, slashing Keith’s pitch bait and it was game on. After about a half-hour fight the crew brought the fish to the side of the boat, cut the leader and the fish swam off healthy. Got some good if not great shots of the fish jumping near the boat once hooked, but no really good release shots. Maybe next time, I figured.

Then, fishing slowed down like it has a tendency to do through the Noon hour. Saw a few sailfish, a couple came up on the teasers and we caught one or two. Then, around 2:40, all hell broke loose.

“Fish on the left teaser, left teaser! Its a Sail!” When billfishing in Costa Rica, spotting the fish early is imperative, as seeing the fish drives what rod & reel combo and more importantly what bait will be “pitched” or presented to the fish. With Pacific Sailfish running up to 150 lbs or so but Blue Marlin running up to or over 1,000 pounds for the luckiest of anglers, you can’t very effectively use the lighter tackle on the heavier fish. It can be done, but its much harder…

So, Keith pitches a bait to the Sailfish as it moves from the left side to the right side of the spread, bill and dorsal fin plainly visible. We’re trolling teasers at about 20 feet and 40 feet from the transom, so when the fish shows up, you know it. Its actually sight fishing, which is one of the reasons I love it.

As Keith is setting up for the strike on the Sailfish, two more fish show up in the spread, all over the teasers. Two fish are hooked, both on light tackle - Shimano TLD-20 reels and 20# mono. Having a triple on is a dance at best, and during the fight one of the fish was jumped off, the line retrieved and the rod stowed. Keith finishes up with the first sail, and then starts fighting what he expects is the second sailfish. All that went by the wayside when the fish breached fifty yards or so from the boat. “Its a MARLIN!” was the call, and it was game on.

Got lots of photos, but the fish stayed away from the boat if it was up top, and sounded about a dozen times. We were fortunate to have been fishing in only 300 feet of water, so the fish couldn’t go down where it normally would - like a thousand or more feet down if it could get there.

Marlin Motoring

Long story short, Keith fought the fish for an hour and a half, and on much lighter tackle than you’d normally use for Marlin. And, the fish turned out to be much bigger than originally thought - over 600 pounds. Got the fish to the boat, leadered it up to the transom and then released. Its hard to describe how big the fish was but I’ll give it a shot. First, from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail I’d say the fish was 10 feet long. Around its shoulder, maybe 4 feet, and with big dorsal fin and bigger tail. Simply amazing.

Funny thing is, this might not have been a Blue, but a Black Marlin, given its markings and the way its pec fins looked in most of the pictures. It doesn’t really matter since we didn’t have time to catch a Sailfish, which would have given us the Grand Slam. Next time…

Man, do I love my Canon Digital Rebel XT camera. Its been an invaluable tool on this trip. I have to admit I still have a lot to learn about it, though. Like many tools, you can pick it up and use it without a lot of research or reading, but to understand its capabilities I really have to stick my nose in the book.

This trip I’ve been exercising the “Sport” program setting, which puts the camera into a fast shutter speed/multiple shot mode. Its worked well for shooting fish up for the bite or jumping - got some great stuff that way. And, I played with the Macro program a bit in Los Suenos, but I have to admit the manual features still largely escape me. Been years since I’ve had to do any “real” photography, so I think I’ll bone up on theory and practices as well as the camera’s features. Maybe even get back into the zone at some point.

Next trip down I’m going to bring some backup gear. I’m sure there are a load of guides on the Web about how to provision for a trip to nowhere, but here are a few of my thoughts. One, if you’re solely going to shoot photos, you need a backup plan. In my case I just threw the Rebel, the kit 18–55 lens, a UV filter, battery and charger into a bag and off I went. Not thinking to bring the 75–200 lens or D30 body I lent to a friend a couple of months back (for his Costa Rica trip, coincidentally), and not having enough time to get a circular polarizing lens (but thanks for trying, Leeann).

Next go around, I’ll bringing both bodies - the D30 just to back up the XT and probably to let others shoot with - and the 75–200 unless I invest in in the Tamron 18-200 lens (which I think nets out to around 28–300). A circular polarizing filter would have been awesome for in-water shots (the couple I got were OK, but they would have been awesome sans glare). Extra lens caps or a tether (lost the cap yesterday), maybe an extra XT battery. Couple of extra UV filters (in case I bang the filter/lens on the boat – nearly done that a couple of times). Probably covers things unless I think I can get away for a day, and then I’d add a light tripod to the mix.

All in all I’m very happy with the Rebel XT. I have a calendar project coming up at work that I used the D30 for last year, and I’m really looking forward to shooting it this year with it.

Los Suenos (translation: "The Dreams") is a seaside resort community on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. The community consists of homes, condos, marina and the Los Suenos Marriott, which I have to say is one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed. We’re staying in double rooms at the Marriott for a few days while we provision the boat and get all the Costa Rican paperwork for it done (fishing permit, permit to move the boat to Flamingo, etc.)

Los Suenos is about 5 km from the town of Jaco (pronounced “ha-co”). If you’re bored at the resort, Jaco has the local bar/club scene, plus stores, shops, etc. The cab ride from Los Suenos should be about $4 US with tip, although I heard of a cabbie charging as much as $20 US (can you say “ripoff”). If you don’t know what a cab ride should cost, ask the bellman at any decent hotel; I’ll bet if its a well-known destination they’ll know within a couple of bucks.

On the main floor of the hotel there’s a huge lobby area, awesome veranda and bar that each have amazing views of the huge pool, golf course, marina and the bay. Spectacular at dusk… The Marriott has a couple of restaurants, including one that has a breakfast buffet every morning and a different buffet offering every evening. We liked the breakfast offerings but hit the menu for dinner for a couple of nights - better value. The marina also has a bar/restaurant called “The Hookup” where we had a couple of good breakfasts and lunches.

All in all, Los Suenos is a pretty amazing place. If you go for the pampering, the fishing or the golf I’m sure you’ll have a great time. For us, its a convenient stopover, a place to meet the boat, and a place to keep it when no one’s in-country. If you’re headed to Costa Rica its well worth the stretch from San Jose (a beautiful hour and a half drive over good roads) just to see it. Call Chilli - he’ll take you there.

Its really happening – I’m on a plane headed to San Jose, Costa Rica. Got, it feels good. July has been a month of Mondays – something like 27 days of the month, regardless of their Calendar days, either started out as Mondays, were Mondays all day, or ended up as Mondays. You know the feeling… maybe I’ll post another time about that.

Two and a half hour flight on American from MIA to Juan Santamaria airport in San Jose. Keith’s already there, our driver, Chilli Willy (yes, that’s what everyone calls him) should have picked him up a couple of hours ago and they’re killing time until I get in. Then we drive from San Jose to Los Suenos (not sure how long that is) where we should meet up with the boat, assuming its trip up from Golfito has gone smoothly. Can’t wait to get there, and to see it. The “new” Jungle Rules is a 42 foot Gulfstream sportfisherman, originally built in Costa Rica but transported by specialized ship “back home” from Palm Beach, and we’re breaking it in.

Last time down, we had an awesome trip, with two chances for double grand slams (didn’t close the deal either time – short two blues the first day, and the second time around we couldn’t hook a sailfish to save our sorry ass). Making a single slam on the boat would be great, a double is almost unheard of so just having the chance is amazing! But then again, that’s why you fish in Costa Rica.

Looking forward to the fishing, but I’m also looking forward to exercising the Rebel XT on and off the boat. Might sneak away for a day or so, maybe just a couple of evenings after we’re off the water. Got some great landscape and seascape shots last time with much less of a camera. The Rebel is so much more versatile, higher resolution, way better glass. Picked up a Hitachi 6GB microdrive so storage shouldn’t be an issue – haven’t really had time to exercise it but it seems like it works. Wish me luck.

More from Costa Rica… all for now.