At times, I did: drinking that final beer and eating ahi tuna at La Corriente; walking through El Quelite, a tiny town 20 minutes outside Mazatlán, where a local doctor turned his family home into a full rural experience, with food, animals and a kitschy performance by a Mexican cowboy.
Besides corn flour and the country's top-selling beer, Polar produces pasta, rice, tuna fish, wine, ice cream, yogurt, margarine, ketchup, mayonnaise, and detergent.
The biggest business that managed to endure Chavez's wrath was Empresas Polar, a family-owned company that produced everything from beer and fizzy drinks to tuna, pasta and cornflour (used to make "arepas", a daily meal for most Venezuelans).
Afternoons, under a glorious sun, Big Festival hosted Big Village, a cluster of white tents lined up along the surfer-heavy Côte des Basques, offering everything from 14-euro tuna burgers and beer to free surfing lessons, art classes for children and manicures and hairstyling for girls.
As we drank house-brewed beer and ate fresh albacore tuna fish and chips, we felt far from Brooklyn, but also right at home.
There was a time when a student working part-time at burger joint could pay for a semester's tuition and still have enough money left over for a muscle car and a case of those beers you open like a tuna can.
It has a restaurant where you can enjoy superb mojama (salt-cured tuna) and a chilled beer.
Kobe beef sliders, $9.99; pork po' boys, $9.99; grilled pizza, $7; ahi tuna appetizer, $14.99; most beers, $4 to $7.
The Range calls its style "Beer Drinking Music and Wine Friendly Food," with entrees like ahi tuna with tapenade for $21.
Follow this with a few tacos or quesadillas, cold beers and ceviche (the best is yellowfin tuna tuned up with jalapeño, Vidalia onion, radish and watermelon, in a dressing of Key lime juice).
