piranahs

I jiggled my fishing rod up and down in the water, like the others were doing. Piranhas are attracted to noise, and here I was fishing for one with a slender stick of wood and an attached line.

I felt something on my line. Was the lure hitting the river bottom? I raised the line up and out of the water. The piece of the meat on the hook was gone.

Awg! I got a new bait and started again. A few minutes later, I had a definite nibble. With a jerk, I flipped the rod up above my head. A piranhas went flying! Flying over me … off my line … and into the water on the other side of the boat.

It had been a big one, too. Dammit.

A little while later another guy on the tour boat caught a piranha. A smaller one. Everyone took pictures and oohed and awwed as he stood there parading the little beastie before throwing it back. Everyone except me, that is. I was still fishing.

Still later, I am refining my piranha-fishing technique. I lean wayyy over the side and dangle my line in as far as I can reach. All the better to catch you with. I lose a lot of bait this way. The piranhas are wiley. Then there is a tremendous jerk on the line. I´ve nabbed something big.

¨I´ve got you now, you fucking piranha!” I yell, hauling up the line as fast as I could. I´ve learned you really need to be quick or you lose your bait and they get away.

So up comes … a tree branch. Everyone laughs. I purse my lips. Dammit.

Well now it is a day later and I am in Caracas at the hotel´s business center. I don´t want to spend too much time blogging on vacation but thought I´d share that little story with you as C checked her email. More TK. Here is the view from window of our hotel.