Puerto Caimito (Panama) (EFE).- Manuel Garcés began fishing in Puerto Caimito, a small town on the Pacific coast of Panama, when he was 16 years old. Now at 75 years old, he trains young people who are starting out in this “hard” life, which left him “many stories” and which he recommends traveling with “caution”.
“I went to castaway, twice. Because God still did not need me, I am telling it here,” Garcés, who is called “Pelé” in Puerto Caimito, located about 50 kilometers from the capital and birthplace of the Panamanian baseball star of the US Major Leagues, told EFE. Mariano Rivera, already retired and unanimously induced in 2019 to the Hall of Fame.
“I saw Rivera playing there with the pelaos,” recalls this former boat captain as he points to the beach, and assures that he also took him, when the ex-player was very small, to look for crabs.
Stories at sea
Sitting on an upturned boat facing the sea and watching some fishermen weaving nets and others cleaning fish, Manuel Garcés recounts that on one occasion, when he was a sailor, the boat he was traveling in sank and all the crew members were at the mercy of a single life jacket.
“That lifeguard and another boat that was ahead saved us,” he says, always looking towards the fishermen who are unloading baskets with fish and seafood.
Years later, when he was already a machinist, the fishing boat he worked on capsized and one of the fishermen died.
“Yes, that death hurt me,” says this stocky man, tanned by the sun.
The life of Manuel Garcés as a sailor
He emphasizes that he began as a sailor, then he was a machinist and then a captain. From this last stage, the longest of his active life, he remembers that the most difficult thing was “getting to know the currents”, which took him “a little while”.
“When you don’t know the currents, what’s the use of grabbing a lot of fish, when you’re not going to use them because of the nets, they’re all going to get entangled?”, he explains.
Now retired, he spends part of his time training young people who are starting out in this trade. He takes them sailing and teaches them “how to fish, how to cast nets and all that”.
He reminds them that “this life is not very good”, that “this life of being a sailor is hard”, and recommends that they “do things with great caution and take care of themselves, because boats are potential weapons”.
“I no longer go fishing (…) My children are grown up. I am the father of the one they call “Pistolero” Garcés, the one who plays soccer, ”he says modestly.
José Luis “Pistolero” Garcés is an active player who belonged to the Panamanian national team and played in teams from Brazil, Portugal and Bulgaria, as well as local soccer, where he now plays in the so-called Liga Prom (second division).