I’m going to start by saying negativity isn’t my strong suit with reviews. I do not enjoy potentially taking food off the table for another family. This experience was just that bad.
I had booked a 6 hour fishing trip with Jorge Cruz and El Patron back in September 2022…far in advance of our fishing date of February 23rd, 2023.
The date of our trip came and we had to cancel due to windy conditions. I was ok with this and we rescheduled for the following Sunday, February 26th. The entire time I was messaging on the app with ‘Jorge Cruz’ as the captain.
On the date of our trip, the boat arrived and our group got on the boat and were greeted by a young, soft spoken, sweet girl whom identified herself as our host. She spoke great English and gave us a 30 second overview of the crew and confirmed the details. Once the pleasantries were over, she pulled out some forms that felt commonplace, then needed the remaining balance for the trip. This has been somewhat common in Mexico and always leaves me uncomfortable, but I wasn’t surprised. I had done all of my homework through the FishingBooker App and ‘Captain Jorge Cruz’ to ensure all the financials were clearly stated and understood upfront. This woman and I went over the details and after ironing out a few very minor details, it appeared we were on the same page. Hallelujah! Once we had the US Dollar price confirmed with each other, she converted to pesos to run my card on the boat. I asked her the conversion as she was running it and she said 21 pesos to 1 USD. That was far off from the typical rate we were seeing at the banks/everywhere, but I felt comfortable that her and I were on the same page of cost in USD and what I should expect to see on my statement. I paid, signed the forms and strangely she exited the boat on our dock and left…
200’ from our dock, we were told we could sit inside the cabin, but it was very hot and ‘you will get dizzy’. Our options were up top, or the back of the boat (or inside, if we desired). That was an immediate problem as half our crew was underage (ranging from 2 to 16).
I stayed with my 2 year old inside and it was borderline unbearable. I do realize this is a fishing boat, not a luxury yacht, but this information would have been invaluable upfront.
The crew offered a few of us a drink a few times, the caught bait for an hour and we fished exclusively for barracuda for 4 hours. I asked to try catch something..anything else and was told no, that was deep sea only. We ended up catching 11 barracuda, but as an easy/plentiful fish, it was far from an ‘exciting’ catch each time knowing what was on the hook.
In the end our crew was dropped at random private dock near our rented house and as we unloaded our stuff and started to go walk to the street, we found that we were fully enclosed in this property by locked gate. We had no idea what to do, it was after dark, so I tossed a beach towel over the fence to protect the kids from cuts and lifted the children over the fence 1 by 1 until a guard came out and told us he was calling the police. One of the house hosts from our property saw us at the fence and came to help with grabbing the kids as we lifted them over. After the kids were over, some Americans from a neighboring property saw what was unfolding and came to guide us and help watch the kids on the other side. We gave them all of our fish and ran to our property.
In the end I was overcharged for the trip, I paid $125 USD for 24 Dos Equis beers and ‘snacks’ that ended being ONE bag of lays chips. We were told my tip on the credit card doesn’t go to them and they were irate we wouldn’t give more. Our captain wasn’t Jorge Cruz and the crew gave an average at best effort at catching fish. I truly wouldn’t go again if it were free and we are disputing the charges entirely. Misrepresentation of the boat and its condition can’t be overstated. I would avoid El Patron/La Patrona and Chartiers Del Mar entirely.
I’m going to start by saying negativity isn’t my strong suit with reviews. I do not enjoy potentially taking food off...
Charter Operator replied
Dear Jason, first of all we feel very sorry you had the worst day of your life apparently. We want to tell you that we never lied to you or wanted to take any advantage of you. Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m Jorge Cruz, CEO of Chartiers Del Mar so I’m the one taking care of everything as you can see in our videos with fishing booker. El Patron as you see in our listing, doesn’t have AC, so yes it can be warm inside the boat, however that doesn’t mean you can’t... More