dollar, dollar, dollar

So despite only having caught 1 fish in my first 4 years in Bolivia, I
decided to head out with James (friend from New Zealand) and Ramiro
(friend from Bolivia) to explore some new waters. On our 3 hour 4x4
trip to the Lake of Hope, I explained to my fishing buddies the
dollar, dollar, dollar game: each fisherman pays one dollar to thefisherman that catches the first fish, another dollar to fisherman
with the most fish and a third dollar for the biggest fish.
It rained. But we were determined to break my loosing streak. And
after a fair amount of patience, Ramiro came running to me with his
first catch ever... a nice 8-9" Rainbow trout. We put it on the
stringer.

It rained some more. Ramiro caught another... the same size but a
little fatter. I was super excited for him. And I went to fish with
him.
The rain stopped for a couple minutes. Then it was James' turn. He
caught yet a fatter but equally length Rainbow and we added it to our
stringer. Ramiro's comment was that now we had at least one for each
of us.
It started to rain again. And Ramiro caught his third for the day...
making my one fish in 4 years seem pretty silly. The four fish on the
stringer must have shared the same birthday, because they were all the
same length.

It started to pour, and of course wind too. I was ready to clean the
ones we had and head home. But then I broke my streak and hooked a
trout! And on landing it and seeing it was at least an inch or two
bigger than the others, I thought to myself, "Poor James, mine will be
the biggest and Ramiro already has the most and first."
The rain came down. We were soaked. The fish biting, but my hands not
able to work anymore I was about to call it quits. That's when I heard
James call out my name. I thought he was in trouble, and turning
towards the sound of his voice, I saw him come over a hill hunched
over with something in both his hands. Was it a duck? Maybe a baby
llama? No, it was the biggest trout I have ever seen.

James has a 7 month-old daughter. She and the fish both measure 24.5
inches (62 cm). Even Dani was impressed. What a great start to the New
Year.

And I thought to myself on the ride back home, I think I'm ready to be
a father. I had equally as much fun watching Ramiro catch his first
fish and James catch a monster as if I'd done it myself.

Happy New Year!