Position: 16 21.255 N 086 26.646 W
We are anchored inside the bounds of a Honduran marine park – no fishing is allowed within the park boundaries. Knowing this, a local fellow comes around the anchorage in his skiff a couple of times a week selling freshly caught fish out of a cooler. Warren is very personable and witty and we look forward to his visits.The first day he showed up it was pretty rolly (blowing about 25 knots in the anchorage) and he was bouncing around pretty good in his skiff. He had fresh grouper that day. We haggled over the price - that’s a fact of life here - you never pay the asking price. We picked one out and he said he’d fillet it at no extra charge. He had no knife or cutting board so we handed ours over to him and he deftly filleted the grouper while bouncing all over the place. He had fun calling Mark “Castro” and giving us a hard time about how dull the knife was. Needless to say, Mark had it all sharpened up for Warren’s next visit.
Recently, he’s started calling us “Mr. Mark” and “Mama”. When he came by yesterday he told us he had decided to start
growing a beard “like Mr. Mark’s”. Sure enough, there was new stubble on his chin. He also said that, if he likes someone, after they’ve bought from him three or four times he gives them a better deal. Then he threw in two extra conchs with our purchase. So we’re pretty sure he likes us, too.
We don’t buy from him every time he comes by, but we always look forward to his visits as he is invariably cheerful and has time for a chat. His selection is always different and varies from lobster to shrimp to wahoo to grouper to snapper to conch. We never know what he’s going to bring other than his sunny disposition and wit.
