The Story of the Biggest Pearl in the World!

Hello there and I am very happy to be back in the Blogging saddle! Today I would like to add my commentaries on a recent news that has garnered world attention (in a positive way): the story of the World’s Biggest & Most Humongous Natural Pearl!

This particular pearl is said to weigh in at 34 kilos (a whopping 75 pounds!), which means it is heavier than my 10-year old daughter Jessica. What kind of animal could have made such a humongous pearl? The only mollusk with the size to make this miracle possible is the “Giant Clam” (Tridacna gigas), and the story of a Philippine fisherman and this pearl has –by now- become famous. Many news sites have shared the news, but few have offered a full account of the story, the one I believe had the best account was the Spanish version of BBC News.

And the thing I liked the most about this story has less to do with the pearl and more to do with the Human story that surrounds the pearl.

A New Myth In the Making

It is said that a fisherman was out there doing his “thing” when a storm approached, so he had to return to land. Fortunately for him –in this case it is!- his anchor would not dislodge from the bottom so he could not leave, so he had to dive into the waters to remove the anchor and to his surprise he found a clam had bitten his anchor. What to do next? Obviously he was in a rush to finish this so he picked up the clam, placed it in his boat and then sailed back home; just one small issue that got into my mind: the pearl itself weighs in at 34 kilos/75 pounds and so…just how BIG was the clam?!?!?!?! I mean, these clams can attain a weight of some 300 kilos/661 pounds (some have been said to even reach 400 kilo/881 pounds!) so, it is very likely the clam was a very large one…how could he lift it up from the bottom? How could he manage to raise it up into the boat??? I can almost imagine the fishermen with an average height and weight of 1.70 meters (5.5 feet) and 65 kilos (143 pounds), hauling up this massive animal from out of the water! And it is this is just what makes me think that this entire story is more myth than reality, but this is still a Fantastic & Loveable Story.

Thus, this unnamed fisherman goes back home with this giant clam, unloads it from his boat and hopefully takes it home in a pick up truck (hope some friends helped him with it and they did not leave to their homes since a storm was approaching). He probably prepared the delicious meat of the clam but finding this unusually large and extremely weird shaped pearl was a thing to remember I imagine!

Now, quite differently to a regular person, this man doesn’t rush out to find a buyer for this great treasure but instead decides to keep this one as a very big lucky charm and places it under his bed for the next 10 years.

Why would he do such a thing?!?!?!? Well, to attract Luck! In some cultures pearls are considered to be great good luck charms that extend their powers even unto the whole family, but the pearl has been appraised at around $100 million dollars…that is sufficiently lucky in my book. Now, unless the pearl has been appraised by a reputable Gem Lab (GIA, SSEF, etc.) I would never pay for one of these giant clam pearls…I would actually only go far as to pay $10 million tops.

What made this man change his mind about the pearl??? A twist of fate: his house burned down. He felt the pearl had not brought him the luck he desired so he decides to give it to the local Touristic authorities, for the good of the whole town of Puerto Príncipe, in Palawan, Philippines. This is an incredibly good willed gesture…unless it may end up burning the entire village (this is absolutely a joke). So far it has begun to work by attracting regional tourism into the town.

What do you think of this story? Do you believe that a lone fisherman found this huge pearl? Is it a real pearl or a polished shell hoax? Whatever the answers are I believe this is one great story!

Technorati Tags: natural pearl,Palawan,giant pearl,Phillippines,Tridacna gigas,giant clam

Technorati Tags: perla natural,tridacna gigas,Filipinas,Palawan,perla gigante

Cortez Pearl VIP Harvest 2016

Again we have this special moment, as expected... the annual harvest of pearls from the sea of Cortez. And in the year 2016, we had the blessing of receiving two very special groups of friends and lovers of this beautiful Mexican Gem:

#1: A group of personalities from the city of Mexico, together with our partner and friend Emilio Nassar, in addition to the team from "BeLive" magazine joined us for this very special VIP event.

#2: A large group of students from the Mexico chapter of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA - Chapter Mexico City), to enjoy what is referred as a "Pearl Safari". In this group we had the honor of having the presence of the President of GIA-Mexico and the IGARM (Institute of Gemology of Mexico): Diana Benoit Seegrove, designer Tania Maria, Melissa Villareal (President of the Monterrey chapter of the GIA) and also an authority within GIA and the world of gems: the renowned photographer and author Robert Weldon.

Both groups were pleased to participate first in a special Tour to the Pearl farm, offered personally by Enrique Arizmendi Castillo (founder of the farm), then to another special event with Jose Manuel Nava Romo (also founder): the traditional tribute of the Gulf of California of casting/releasing of pearls into the Sea ceremony; then finally off to the harvest of pearls with the our Company’s Manager,  Guillermo Soberón Chávez and, last but not least, off with Douglas McLaurin-Moreno (last of the founders) to close this much anticipated event.

Enrique during the Pearl Farm Tour.

BeLive magazine team enjoying our Special VIP lunch

At the end of this special moment, we had a variety of refreshing drinks and a delicious snack of fresh snacks: pasta with skewers of shrimp, shrimp salad, fresh tuna tostadas, scallops filled with seafood & vegetables, jicama tacos filled with fresh vegetables...a delight that did not leave anyone unhappy, but with a face of utter satisfaction!

Finally we had a little explanation about the unique properties of the pearls from the sea of Cortez in our jewelry, where in addition the guests could buy our beautiful national gems, unset or mounted in jewelry.

The "Pearl Safari" apart had the opportunity of attending a very interesting talk with Robert Weldon, by reason of his new book "Splendour & Science of Pearls" (it does not even goes on sale but we already have a copy autographed here). I think that it is the first time that Guaymas has a talk at this level in this area of knowledge.

These VIP events were really special... something that not anyone has the opportunity to do, but the event is also made with guests... with whom they come and give life to the event, so thanks to all of you who were part of such special events: thank you!

Here I have a great video edited by Guillermo Soberón-Tirado of our staff at Perlas del Mar de Cortez. Hope you like it.

https://youtu.be/AudY0u5W5L0

Technorati Tags: Cortez pearl,pearl harvest,Guaymas,VIP

Technorati Tags: GIA, IGARM, Diana Benoit, Robert Weldon, pearls, VIP event farm

Our Pearl Farm is becoming more Known

OK. Tried my best to do a play-of-words with the title (have I failed miserably???) and the contents of this entry. This is all about the recent visit of the crew of Mexican Magazine “México Desconocido” (it would translate into “Unknown Mexico”) to our pearl farm just last week! (May 22nd).

If you follow our Blog you may have heard that we appeared in this magazine in a full-fledged article back in the year 2007. The article was called “Sowing Pearls and Dreams in Guaymas” (lovely title, unfortunately not translated into English but you may use a translator to achieve a minimum degree of information). The article was really well written and had some really good photos. We are very thankful to Mexico Desconocido for this chance to appear before their audience.

The photos I mention do not appear in the on-line version of the article so I prepared this small collage of the article that will give you a better insight.

This year, Mexico Desconocido has returned to Guaymas and decided to re-visit us. On this occasion we are not going to be featured in a unique article but instead we will become a part of an article about Guaymas-San Carlos, showcasing our local beauties and attractions…the pearl farm is –of course- a major attraction in the area.

So our own Manuel Nava took the reigns and received our friend Mariel Rivera –she is the head of the local visitor’s center in San Carlos- and two young reporters from this magazine so they could visit our Pearl Farm in style…they even had a boat ride to the farm.

Finally, they had the chance of seeing the end product: thousands of colorful cultured and Mabe pearls! Mariel even tried on some of our amazing new jewelry designs made 100% in Mexico (pearl, silver, design and workmanship).

So, now that you have seen that “Unknown Mexico” knows about us…What are you waiting to come and visit and know more about the farm and its pearls???

Technorati Tags: Mexico Desconocido,Pearl farm,Guaymas,Sonora,Tourism

I mean…specially if you are in the vicinity, the next closest commercial Pearl Farm (by this I mean a REAL pearl farm and not a tourist trap) is located in Fiji, some 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) away from us!!!

Guaymas is much closer (unless you are not of course and you are reading this blog in Fiji itself) and we do have these great places to eat, beautiful beaches and sunsets, stunning desert views and diving and fishing enough to satiate your desires…and did I mention… PEARLS????? Yes, we have them too.

So, just come on over and enjoy our hospitality! Hope to see you down here at the farm soon.

2011 Cortez Pearl Harvest & Elisabeth Strack’s Visit

There are few moments as exciting to a Pearl Farmer as that of  the time to harvest his pearls. This means the culmination of 4 years of taking care of your pearl oysters, years of worries caused by natural phenomena (the "Niño" and "Niña" years, as well as from hurricanes and tropical storms) or human causes. It is at this moment when we can take a deep breath and feel our pressure lowering in relief, only to be replaced by heavy-breathing and an increased heart-rate, but this time caused by the hope of finding that pearl that John Steinbeck referred to as the "Pearl of the World", as described in his novel “The Pearl”, that huge, beautiful & flawless pearl that Kino finds after years of pearl fishing.

And apparently, we are not alone in expecting such a yearly precious event –since it only takes place during the month of June- because this year we were truly honored to be visited by the great German gemologist Elisabeth Strack, author of a book that is considered –by most- as "The Bible of Pearls”, a book for all lovers of this amazing organic gem: "Perlen" (in German) or "Pearls" (in English). Unfortunately there are no editions in other languages, but this is an awesome book that has a great quantity and quality of information about all types of pearls.

And, at this point I don't know if I can say  if you do not say whether Elisabeth had bad or good luck -it will depend on her personal opinion- during her second visit to our pearl farm, because she arrived on the first day of June, and at that time we also had the visit of Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, in Guaymas; this due to the fact we were also celebrating the “Day of the Navy”, so she had the chance to see a whole array of sailors, armored vehicles, navy helicopters and warships in Guaymas. Regardless of her opinion, she did bring us "good luck", as this year’s pearl harvest seems as it will become the best of our history, at least in color and beauty of the harvested pearls.

 

The Motives

Elisabeth Strack visited us because she has been working on her book’s second edition, and updated data and information is much required and this cannot be gathered just by hearsay. When at the first day of harvest with us, she noticed that some of the colors on our pearls just seemed to be impossible: because she just could not believe some of the colors she was seeing... even when she saw the pearls just coming out of our pearl oysters. And I assume that is a  normal reaction for people who have seen pearl harvests in other types of pearl oysters, such as those from the Pinctada genus, or from pearly-mussels (Family Unionidae), but this was her first time watching cultured and natural pearls come out from our "Rainbow Lipped Pearl Oyster” (Pteria sterna). This incredible color saturation is observed even in the shells of this year’s oysters.

 

Cortez Pearl Harvest 2011

And I was wondering if you've seen how pearls are harvested here in Guaymas? We have several videos available on YouTube, but this is probably my favorite from the 2009 harvest:

Cultured Pearl Harvest Video

And mentioned that Elisabeth was amazed with the natural colors of our pearls as it is rare to find such a variety of colors on a single crop in just one location. The "black pearl" of French Polynesia are mainly dark, but each atoll can produce a certain range of colors. Here in Guaymas we have been blessed with every imaginable body-color and overtones on our pearls. And as a sampler we have some photos...

On the photo above, a beautiful dark purple pearl, with three pearl behind it: one green, a “red” one and a blue colored one.

A couple more photos, now one with our so called “Yori” or “white pearls”, always displaying green and pink overtones.

And I must make it very clear that the pearls came out with the colors you are seeing, they were not processed in any way: not polished (to improve their luster or "make them shiny"), there were not "bleached" chemically to make them white, nor stained/dyed to darken them. They are simply the result of an amazing natural pigmentation process.

These pearls belong to the group of “Green” pearls, but our “green pearls” are very different from the typical Tahitian "green” pearl because Cortez Pearls tend to be brighter, not the “dark-black” color. Our greens also mix with other colors, making them uniquely different.

These last pearls have a reddish body color (violet) with green overtones, leaning towards the “Peacock” color of Tahitian Pearls but not exactly...they are also unique. It seems that this year this Red color will be rather generous. The "red pearls" or "Cranberry”  are incredibly rare, so most of those seen for sale have an artificial color (and you can tell it is), but here in Guaymas we are fortunate enough to produce a dozen or so with this “cranberry” color per year.

 

Additional Notes

And Elisabeth returned to Germany, but before she did she also updated her knowledge on Authentic Mexican-Sonoran Food (unlike the variety they serve in Germany), allowing her taste buds to indulge in the sinful dishes served at our favorite restaurant ("Los Arbolitos de Cajeme"): a “tower” of fresh sea-scallops, fresh tomatoes and avocado slices with some spicy olive-oil dressing, shrimp and smoked-marlin “Toritos” (Banana Peppers filled with these delicacies), a fresh crab meat “tostada”, a savory seafood “machaca” (made with finely minced squid, shrimp and scallops) and an extravagant fish fillet covered with a hot cactus, onion and pepper topping... I surely hope that Elisabeth will have additional reasons to return next year to Guaymas.

Technorati Tags: Elisabeth Strack,Sonoran Cuisine,Cortez Pearl Farm,Guaymas

I hope this entry about the 2011 Cortez Pearl harvest was of interest to you. I will eventually write-up this year’s harvest’s full information (quantity of harvested pearls, size of harvested pearls, shapes, colors, qualities, etc.) since we still have 30% of the harvest yet to reap and we are still hopeful, as we are every year, to find the "Pearl of the World .

Until next time...