Words and Photos by Yellow Dog Client Tommy D.Ā
It was a really great trip. I was quite impressed with Mexico overall, the Merida airport is one of the nicest airports I've been in, definitely of those I've been in outside of the U.S. and quite frankly many of those in the U.S. The drive to Campeche was nice, the roads were very nice -- it was like being in the U.S. really. I tried not to have too many expectations and just go with the flow, but having been on some rough, questionable roads in the Bahamas, Belize, and Alaska and other places I was pleasantly impressed with the infrastructure in general.
The city of Campeche was great too, very clean and well laid out and beautiful while not being touristy or overcrowded by any stretch. Mike and I thought it seemed almost like a tourist destination for Mexicans and other central American and Latin American travelers, as we saw few other tourists save some Europeans and a couple other pairs fishing.
We loved Campeche, the city tour was great, especially the tour of the Market. That was unbelievable, like something out of a movie, all the stands, the butcher stands, seafood stands and fruit stands. We loved it and went back the next day and bought some mangos and cucumbers and snacks for the boat and our guide.
The food was also amazing, different than I expected, much more seafood and Mayan based, not spicy or Tex-Mex at all. We had the best tamales I've ever had, great octopus dishes, great ceviche, tacos of course, and amazing chocolate coffees. We were lucky enough that a few nights during out trip Alejandro took us and a few of the other fishermen out to some of his favorite places and gave us really an amazing culinary tour. He was super helpful as we spoke broken Spanish at best and his suggestions and help in some of the more local spots was perfect.
The Mayan ruins were interesting too. And I learned that I had many misconceptions about their construction. I'd be interested to see what costs and travel options are regarding the Mayan rail once it is finished, that could open some very fun trip opportunities across the Yucatan. Perhaps you could fish two days in Chetumal, a couple days in the Tulum or Cancun area, and then a couple days in Campeche, while stopping to see Mayan ruins along the way. Sounds fun!
Now of course the fishing. What is there to say, it was great. We boated many fish and jumped just as many. We had a great variety of fishing as well. At times in the evening and at the right tides we had near constant action of small fish, between 2 and 5 lbs tucked under the mangroves.
Our great guide Daniel also took us to some more open points and mangrove banks were we landed a handful of fish in that 10 to 20 lbs range. More than once Daniel drove us more than 20 minutes almost straight to a tarpon, I don't know how he did it, but at least three times we passed mile after mile of mangrove bank, pulled up to a random spot and caught a big fish within ten casts. Amazing! We saw fish rolling and crushing bait. We caught fish deep in some of the mangrove rivers where there's barely enough room for a roll cast. At one point I hooked a small snook, maybe 1.5 lbs and had a 20-30 lbs tarpon eat it off the end of my line! Crazy!
I would definitely go back! It was probably my favorite saltwater trip I've taken thus far. There's just something about tarpon that is different than bonefish and permit in my opinion.
My only critics overall would be that basically nowhere took US Dollars. That wasn't a problem at all, because they took card, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time so I could have had some Pesos and not traveled with so much cash to begin with (I expected it to be more like Belize where few places take card, and everyone takes US Dollars). Additionally, this might sound crazy, but the hotel was a little too nice. I would happily stay at a less nice place and pay for another day of fishing versus the accommodations.Ā
