Lightning in a Bottle

A flashback to Puerto Aventuras' sport-fishing fraternity that is frozen in time

- Cameron J. Rhodes

As the end of the fishing season approached, Victory's Lawrence "LR" Hastings excitedly slipped into a yellow slicker suit in preparation for the evening ahead. Looking like a younger and wilder version of the Gorton's fisherman, Hastings tied Capt. Chris Turner's favorite salad bowl to the top of his head as a makeshift helmet, while a cape made from a clear trash bag hung from his neck. Other mates emerged from their boats with aluminum foil wrapped around their chests, arms and heads, with two alien-inspired antennae standing tall atop their skulls. Puerto Aventuras' legendary Tour de PA was about to start, and the participating mates decked out in every imaginable oddity grabbed their bikes, ready for the race: a course full of obstacles, human-propped ramps and beer-chugging stations.

As a journalist, I love coming across material that could easily give inspiration to the writers at National Lampoon. In the 1990s, the sportfishing crews who enjoyed the seclusion of Puerto Aventuras, a small marina carved into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, lived experiences that would certainly be well-suited for a box-office hit. Those captains, mates, owners, guests and locals lived unabashedly, enjoying the camaraderie that, even now some 30 years later, they have yet to see replicated anywhere else. You'll recognize many, if not all, of the names that frequented Puerto Aventuras during that colorful decade, and their stories will bring on the nostalgia of a spirited and invincible youth, one steeped in tequila, sunshine, family-style meals and, more importantly, lots of billfish bites.

YUCATAN DREAMS