Where Everybody Knows Your Name

As I stepped into Captain Nicho Alvarenga’s boat The Finest Kind last week in Guatemala, he descended from his loft and came over and gave me a bro hug amidst the decorations celebrating my 53^rd birthday. When we first traveled to Guatemala in 2020 I figured it was one-and-done, but now I’m coming off of my fourth trip. The sailfish keep me headed that way, and it’s the staff that keeps me coming back to Casa Vieja Lodge in particular. Everyone, from the drivers to the bartenders to the waitresses to the captains – even owner David Salazar, who is beyond busy – makes everyone feel at home.

I’ve been fortunate to travel to many amazing places, but despite fancying myself an introvert, the ones that I return to multiple times are the ones where the people become like family. At Anglers Inn El Salto, I’ve seen my favorite guides grow up from baby-faced kids to true veterans. Sammy, who has been greeting customers there for over three decades, since he was an 11-year-old hustling tackle bags up the hillside for tips, greets me jokingly as “Jefe” and Ramon always remembers my favorite hot sauce at every meal. After 20 or so trips South of the Border, it could be repetitive if it wasn’t so invigorating. I look forward to seeing my friends, the ones who call me “hermano” and my wife “hermana.”

We’ve developed new friendships with Shane Jarvis at Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, to the point that he’s asked us to help with some of his trade show operations. It hurts me that I haven’t seen Nanci Morris Lyon in Alaska for three years, but we’ll rectify that over king crab claws and an Alaska Ale this summer. Any really good angler can drop into a fishery and with the proper effort learn it well enough to guide there, but there’s a difference between a guide you fish with once, and one you return to again and again and again – and it’s not necessarily the numbers that they put in the boat.

It's even better when their family is part of the process. Captain Nicho’s son Daniel operates as one of the two mates on the boat, and I’m sure he will someday be an exceptional captain in his own right. For now, we’re thrilled to have him down on the deck with us, doing the balletic bait-and-switch, and allowing us to view and ask all sorts of semi-dumb questions about the rigging and offshore game. We soak it up, as he soaked it up from his father and uncle.