{"id":251,"date":"2012-05-23T07:46:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T13:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/?p=251"},"modified":"2012-05-23T08:27:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T14:27:38","slug":"pancho-the-bandit-sea-lion-gets-reprieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/pancho-the-bandit-sea-lion-gets-reprieve\/","title":{"rendered":"Pancho, the bandit sea lion, gets reprieve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Pancho the bandit sea lion, performs for tourists in the Cabo San Lucas marina. Photo by Cara Curfew-Kociela<\/p><\/div>\n

By Ed Kociela<\/em><\/p>\n

I love Willie Nelson, and one of my favorite songs of his is \u201cPancho and Lefty<\/a>,\u201d especially the version I found on YouTube of him doing the song with Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I couldn\u2019t get that song out of my head after a recent trip to the Cabo San Lucas marina.<\/p>\n

You see, Pancho is the name of a wayward sea lion that lives in the marina at Cabo San Lucas.<\/p>\n

Pancho was in hot water with the local fishing charter captains not long ago because he had taken to climbing aboard their boats and raiding their bait tanks. He had done a little damage to a boat or two and, well, there was talk about what to do about the pesky critter. He found himself in a similar situation as his father, who, years before, harassed the skippers so much that one day he just sort of disappeared.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, we had to go into Cabo on an errand. We stopped at one of our favorite gawking corners, a place called Captain Tony\u2019s, located on a corner of the marina, and were settled in for a little \u201cpeople-watching\u201d session when we heard this persistent honking followed by laughter.<\/p>\n

We walked over to the edge of the dock and sure enough, there was Pancho, putting on a show for the tourists.<\/p>\n

One of the fishing boats had just docked and Pancho came up to investigate. With one of his young pups in tow, Pancho swam up to the aft end of the boat, stuck his nose out of the water and sniffed the air. It wasn\u2019t long before he started barking at the crew, which was cleaning up the boat to ready it for the next day\u2019s trip.<\/p>\n

Pancho swam around in circles. He popped his head up out of the water, he jumped up onto the dock and dove back in, all much to the delight of the growing number of turistas who took great pleasure in the antics of a 500-plus pound sea lion and his aquabatics. Even waiters from the nearby cantinas stepped up to the edge of the dock to watch the show.<\/p>\n

It seems that Pancho and this crew have worked out a routine that is beneficial to both. After making his presence known, the mammoth sea lion would dive beneath the water and hide there until a crew member wiggled a sardine in the air. Then, Pancho would break the surface and receive his reward.<\/p>\n

The deckhand would toss him the little fish, turn and bow to the crowd, which would then stuff his hat with pesos and U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

This went on for a little while until the deckhand went to the bait tank and pulled out a mullet \u2013 a larger baitfish \u2013 and wiggled it in the air. Pancho got very serious this time. He eyed the bigger fish, swam a small circle, then hopped up on the dock. He struck a pose \u2013 half on and half off the dock \u2013 and held it while the tourists aimed their little point-and-shoot cameras his way. He stayed there until the deckhand tossed him the fish, then disappeared beneath the water.<\/p>\n

So, it seems that Pancho and the fishing fleet have found a way to get along after all.<\/p>\n

Or, so the story goes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ed Kociela is a writer for Los Cabos Magazine. You can reach him by email at<\/em> edkociela.mx@gmail.com<\/a>. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com\/EdKociela.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Kociela I love Willie Nelson, and one of my favorite songs of his is \u201cPancho and Lefty,\u201d especially the version I found on YouTube of him doing the song with Bob Dylan. The thing is, I couldn\u2019t get that song out of my head after a recent trip to the Cabo San Lucas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[125,20,21,52,42,51,123,126,124],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}