On the first day of my freshman orientation, my dad noticed a kid from Bozeman, Montana and decided we needed to be friends.  He walked up and introduced himself and said, "This is my son, Dwyer.  You ought to be friends with him!"

Just like that, a beautiful bond was formed and we've been buddies ever since.  From the depths of the Grand Canyon to the top of the Wasatch Mountains, we've explored, adventured, partied, and pillaged across the west ever since that fateful day in 2006 when we first met.

Like the studious fella he is, Wade has been studying to become a lawyer and his bar exam was set for late July.  While we were floating down the Grand Canyon together, we made plans to end his law-school stint with a bang.  The agreement was: the day after the bar exam, he would get on a plane and come to wherever I was sailing for 3 weeks of fishing, partying, and unwinding.  We knew such a game plan could only end in infamy and we were correct.  Below is the description of the first half of his trip, a much needed reward from the rigors of academia and hard work.  

Wade flew into Cabo and I scooted down to pick him up in a rental car.  I found him exactly where I expected - sitting and waiting in the airport bar with an ice cold Modelo, a big smile on his face, and the meanest mustache he could muster.  With laughter and an excited growl, we wrapped each other up in a bear hug that was fierce enough to break a pair of glasses that got caught in the middle.  That set the tone for the trip and we spent the ride back to La Paz catching up from the months since we had seen each other.  

With a stop or two for street tacos and cold beers, we made it back to La Paz and stocked up on essentials for the week of adventuring to come.  The Rascal's ice box was soon piled high with delicious Oaxaca cheese, mountains of limes (key ingredients for both margaritas and ceviche), and of course dozens of fresh tortillas.  Wade tackled it like a champion and embraced Mexico with all the vigor and excitement of a young mariachi guitarist.  We were pretty worn out after the days travel and such a vigorous shopping expedition, but it was clear that we couldn't possibly skip out on a Friday night in the booming metropolis of La Paz.

We each drank a Ballenon of Pacifico (which translates as "Male Whale" and is roughly the size of a 40), and that was just enough to cool our jets as we watched the sunset from the cockpit of the Rascal.  We spent the evening bar hopping down the malecon (the main street along the ocean in La Paz) and managed to gobble down a huge plate of carne asada fries as the night wound down.  The combination proved enough to put us each into a deep coma and we awoke to day two slightly hungover, but well rested.  

For the week before Wade's arrival, I had been working in a local metal fabrication shop to build a stainless steel arch for the back of the Rascal.  Its the perfect platform to mount solar panels from and it also serves a bunch of different purposes: it includes a swim ladder, fishing rod resting points, a dangling hammock to sit in while sailing, mounts for navigational lighting, and attachment points for safety lines.  I'm really proud of how it came out.  

They were kind enough to let me use their shop and tools to build it, so I was working side-by-side with the Mexican machinists and welders as they worked on projects for other customers.  We built a fun rapport during my week there and they all had nick names for each other (with Bucky being the most prominent and comical of them all).  Without my prompting them at all, they decided to start calling me Dwayne.  Sometimes a good nickname is just meant to be.

The arch hadn't yet been installed, so we fortified ourselves with some of the finest grub that La Paz had to offer: Fish tacos from La Gaviota.  La Gaviota translates as "the gull" and its a little roadside stand close to where all the Mexican panga fishermen come in.  The proprietress buys a bunch of fish every morning right off of the boats and cooks incredible fish and shrimp tacos all morning until she runs out.  Its always packed, but we elbowed our way in and filled ourselves to the brim.  After that was completed, we drove the arch down to the boat and bolted it to the toe rail in the blistering heat.  When we finally got everything dialed in, it was mid-afternoon and our appetite had built back up.  I knew we couldn't depart from La Paz on an empty stomach, so we decided to tackle "El Monte" - the legendary name of the nachos at a restaurant by the marina.  The waiter warned us that normally only large parties or whole families order El Monte, but we assured him that we were equal to the task.  We didn't let him down and as we left, he shook his head in astonishment.  

We sailed out of the bay with a stiffening wind and ended up making it to Balandra Bay just before the sunset started to kick into gear.  I was quite satisfied with my new solar arch and Wade decided he ought to get a better view of the bay!

We were sharing the cove with a couple of huge motor-yachts (who saw fit to blare Miley Cyrus tunes for much of the night), but we managed to chip away at our limited stock of cold beer and soak up the sunset after a day of hard work in the blazing baja heat.  

On day three, we set our sights on Cerralvo Island, which is south of Balandra and the San Lorenzo Channel.  We decided to bust out the heavy tackle for the sail across, and had a couple of lines trolling when we made our first catch of the trip - a young, delicious tuna.  

It promptly became a sushi lunch and we devoured it in no-time.  Wade was finally getting into the swing of this "cruising" stuff, and a little ride in the little rascal as she trailed along really helped to melt that post-bar-exam stress away.  We sailed across a few areas that were at least a half mile deep and decided to try our hand at swimming in such deep water.  It was cool and refreshing, but I don't think Wade appreciated my "shark" jokes.  

As we wrapped around the north tip of Cerralvo Island, the lush eastern coast came into view and the wind died away.  We were truly in paradise and as we motored our way south, we started to see small schools of bait fish breaking the water as they ran from the predators that haunt these waters.  Wade jumped to attention immediately and started casting flies right into the middle of the melee.  We were rewarded with a couple more little tuna.

We anchored in a little indentation mid way down the coast and made a fairly early night of it.  The following morning, we hit the beach early and started casting flies at whatever structure we could see in the morning light.  We each went in an opposite direction down the beach and we were rewarded with great fishing.  We each caught a bunch of different species that morning, from jacks and pargo to snapper and chinese trumpetfish.  It felt great to finally be fly fishing in Baja and it was interesting to see the large diversity of fish that were lurking right along the shorline.  

During our perambulations along the beach, we found a new cove that was even more picturesque than the first area we stopped in the night before.  We moved a mile or two down the beach and decided to dive in for some snorkling.  The water was pretty calm, so visibility was good, and we saw some neat fish swimming around.  There was a beautifully cliff overlooking the anchorage, and we hiked up and around the back side of it for a view down into the anchorage.  There were a bunch of bushes and vines blooming and the view across the Sea of Cortez as breathtaking.   

Our new cove was filled with a bunch of driftwood, and we decided it might be pretty fun to start a bonfire and enjoy a huge bowl of guacamole and a few margaritas to toast a successful day of fishing.  The sunset that accompanied our fire was magical, and we decided to play around with some long exposures in such a picturesque little anchorage.

After such a placid, beautiful day, we expected more of the same, but got rocked awake in the night as a storm tore in from the south.  The wind started twisting around to the southeast and our anchorage was entirely unprotected.  As lightning struck Cerralvo mercilessly and illuminated the night, we could see how precarious our position was so close to the rocky shoreline.  As the wind and waves continued to mount, we decided that we had to move farther out.  The engine fired right up and we moved a couple hundred yards away from the beach.  We let out a lot of chain and, thanks to the heavy ground tackle, we didn't drag towards the coast at all.  That said, the boat was rocking up and down like crazy and I think Wade spent a sleepless night riding the roller coaster up in the vee berth.  The storm finally broke later in the night and we woke to a lovely sunrise, with the Rascal looking squeaky clean after such a vigorous shower.

We decided a more sheltered anchorage would be a good idea for the following night, so we pulled up the hook and sailed around the southern end of the island.  We found a perfect reef right next to a beach that allowed for great fishing and exceptional snorkling.  The water was crystal clear and we each went off in search of whatever creatures lived in such a rich environment.  

We spent most of the afternoon fishing along the beach and caught a handful of small fish, but nothing like the diversity we had seen on the other side of the island.  Having split up again, Wade decided he would try and catch a good tan at the same time and decided to go for a little bit of nude fishing.  I looked up at one point and way off in the distance it looked like he had changed into some white swim trunks.  Ironically, it also happened to be a full moon that night.

We had noticed a few lobsters hiding under the rocks during our snorkeling foray and decided they might just make a pretty tasty dinner so we headed out in search of a few suitable crustaceans to provide that nights' sustenance.  After some wriggling around, reaching into dark crevices, and a few carefully timed spear jabs, we had a meal fit for kings!

Some garlic butter and a few rum drinks rounded out the meal, and we slept free and easy after such a taxing day.  

The next morning, we made the quick hop over to Ventana Beach and we finally found ourselves in true roosterfish habitat.  Ventana is an enormous bay that is protected from the south wind and is fringed with 10-15 miles of perfect white sand beach.  It is shallow for a couple hundred yards before it drops off and there are countless schools of baitfish that live in the area.  The beach is just steep enough that you can walk along and look down into the water, searching for dark shadows that might indicate a larger predatory fish.  Wade and I made our way carefully along and started firing casts out into balls of swirling baitfish.  As we neared the point where the bay merges into Cerralvo Channel, a current started forming and there was a group of six dark shadows working in and out from the beach.  I saw the tell-tale comb of one break the surface of the water yelled "Roosters!" and just as I did, Wade ran into position for a cast.  One followed his fly in towards the beach, but didn't end up striking.  We worked that area of the beach for a couple of hours, but didn't manage to hook any of the elusive roosters.  

As we worked our way back towards the boat, we saw lots of signs of sea turtles that had pulled themselves up onto the beach to lay eggs during the full moon the night before.  There were also dozens of puffer fish criss-crossing through the surf and we even ran across the head of a hammerhead shark that some local fisherman had left behind on the beach. We spent the afternoon lounging in the shade of the cockpit, reading our books and relaxing.  Pineapple juice happens to sell for about a dollar a liter in Mexico, and we made great use of this delicious elixir as a mixer with some Kraken that happened to be on board.  As the daylight waned, we dove into some pretty deep conversations, with both of us agreeing that we were pretty lucky to be where we are in life.

We woke up early again the next day and after a couple of big sausagey, oniony, cheesy breakfast tacos we headed back out to fish the sandy point again.  We casted to a few promising shadows but weren't able to catch anything of note.  We got back to the boat around mid-morning and, as our ice supply had run out a few days previously, we crossed the bay to the town of El Sargento.  

It didn't exactly end up being the small mexican pueblo that we expected based on its twinkling lights, but it did have all the key ingredients we were running short on - namely ice, beer, rum, juice, and a bar. We spent a good part of the afternoon sitting on the upper deck of a little bar called "Las Palmas" and, amid a Pacifico or two, had our first encounter with a uniquely mexican dish called "Papas Rellenas" or "stuffed potatoes".  We selected the carne asada vareity and before it was delivered to the table, the waitress came and plopped down a condiment spread that immediately piqued our curiosity.  It included a couple bottles of assorted salad dressing, a wide array of hot sauce, as well as mayonaise and ketchup.  When the dish itself finally arrived, we were perplexed to find a foil packet filled with baked potato, canned mushrooms, canned corn, chopped up craft singles, little bits of ham, and some big chunks of carne asada.  It was a completely outrageous meal, and Wade was even brave enough to try a little bit of the Italian dressing with his. 

We sailed back across to the West side of Cerralvo that night and celebrated our successful resupply by drinking nearly all of the beers we had purchased.  Apparently our chosen anchorage was a good spot to catch baitfish, because we awoke surrounded by fishing pangas casting nets in the water right next to the Rascal.  Some refried beans, eggs, and micheladas helped to allay the horrendous hangovers we were experiencing (no doubt due to the papa rellena, as opposed to the beers) and we started the sail back towards La Paz with a light wind working against us.

It was a long day of sailing, and we made it back to La Paz just as the sun was setting.  With the first week in the bag, we set our concentration towards another resupply.  

Little did we know what the second week would hold - a monster tuna, a huge dorado, a couple of tense engine break-downs, an attempted hi-jacking, and a re-enactment of several scenes from The Lion King.  Stay tuned.

I've been in La Paz for quite a long time now, and I've spent much of my time in town running errands and eating street food like my life depended on it.  That said, I've also gotten out into the surrounding islands and gone on a few first class adventures.  It has all been sailing, fishing, hiking and beaching and I think the pictures speak for themselves!

My friend Wade is visiting for the next three weeks and I can't wait to get out and explore the Sea of Cortez with him.  We'll be fly fishing the beaches and trolling the deeps for as many SOC monsters as we can reel in!  More to come later!