A friend and I are having a bit of trouble figuring out a good destination for a fishing themed vacation we’ll be taking later in the year. Originally, we wanted to go to Alaska but the lodges out there require a four person minimum to book. So we moved our focus a little down south to British Columbia. The flight would be dirt cheap but lodging is way too expensive. After a bit more searching we decided to try Colombia instead. More specifically, Leticia, Colombia. Not only is the flight cheap but so is the lodging. We would also be very close to Brazil and Peru. After some research, I came across http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_941.htmlsome warnings against traveling to Colombia.
So I’m still stuck on what to do. Iceland and Thailand were both expensive as well. You think I should ignore the travel warnings or keep looking for a better place to go? Any suggestions on trip destinations?
The last issue of Gourmet magazine had a geat article about taking the train into the wilds of Canada for some truly pristine fishing. We’re talking no electricity for 50 miles pristine. It sounded heavenly.
You might also look into “self-catering” options in Ireland. I generally pay about 500euros per week for a cabin that would sleep five comfortably.
I have traveled many places with a travel warning in effect…
Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, D.R. Congo, North Korea, Georgia (where I lived for a while), Uzbekistan… probably others. In the case of Sudan, I was there last month and never felt in any danger at all - it felt safer walking around Khartoum than many places in Oakland, California.
If you have travelled some and are aware of your surroundings and “street smart” I wouldn’t be too concerned (war-zones excepted), but if it is your first time abroad, then maybe a more “normal” place is better.
I’ve been to Leticia, Colombia, and I wasn’t under the impression that it was a terrific fishing destination, but it was a pretty cool town. I’d think it’s pretty difficult to get to. I went out on a Amazon jungle stay in a very funky “resort” if you want to call it that. It was about 10 rooms up on stilts above the flood zone. We fished for pirahna and electric eels, but never caught any eels. The pirahna were very easy to catch and will pretty much bite a bare hook. You can hike about the jungle and see lots of birds and monkeys and stuff. The towns of Tabatinga and Leticia are pretty undeveloped, but charming in a third world kind of way. I hear Colombia is a lot safer these days. In any case, Leticia is just a sleepy jungle town and pretty safe.
The weirdest thing I did was go caiman hunting. At night we went out in a motor boat and shined a flashlight onto the shore. You can see the eyes of the caimans reflecting and you hang on the prow of the boat. You crash the boat into the shore and grab the caiman around the neck. Now, these guys were not huge, maybe 30 inches at the biggest, but I suspect they might be able to bite off a finger. The guide told us it was fairly safe, so what the hell, I went and did it!
Have you thought about going to Cabo San Lucas or La Paz in Baja Mexico? Lot’s of fishing, drinking and partying to be done down there!
Manzanillo, Mexico is known as the “sailfish capital of the world” and is a great place to visit. There are literally miles of beach and it is a very safe city.
This is just one of many websites you can find on sport fishing in Manzanillo.