The Journey - Saturday, December 11, 2010

MMPR (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico => MMAA (Acapulco, Mexico) => MMBT (Bahias de Huatulco, Mexico) - Flight Changed, Skipped Acapulco Stop and flew nonstop MMPR to MMBT - 3.8 hours

After a slight change in plans today, Jerry and I are on the ground in Bahias de Huatulco enjoying an adult beverage oceanside at the beach club of our hotel. This town is a bit sleepy and definitely not a huge tourist destination, but beautiful nonetheless. With a waning computer battery, I will attempt to get some of Friday's media uploaded, but we will see how it goes.

On the flight north of Tapachula, Mexico (MMTP) -

First a quick site update. . .It looks as though I have the pics and video uploads all figured out, so those should go smoothly the rest of the way. However, the video uploads are taking WAY too long on YouTube, so I may be limiting the number that I put up for now. If the hotel in Costa Rica provides a more solid internet connection, that may change.

The Saturday, December 11 Trip Report

Saturday brought a fairly cool, but enjoyable morning in Puerto Vallarta. We grabbed some breakfast and were off to the airport. Having done the departure from here before, there were no surprises, but also some anticipation of unfamiliar territory to come. As we were walking between offices to file paperwork, we heard another friendly, albeit booming, voice call out it us. Turning around, we realized we had run into non-other than Mr. Jim Blick, a pilot from Tucson Jerry and I both know quite well. After exchanging pleasantries and the typical friendly jabs, we sent Jim on his way to a hotel and set out to fly. An easy preflight and departure, and we were off. It was not only a beautiful day on the ground, but also one in the air, and the Puerto Vallarta skyline draped in morning haze was a great site out of the windows.

The flight continued quickly, so much so that somewhere near Acapulco, having looked at our time enroute and done some fuel calculations, we realized that continuing nonstop to Bahias de Huatulco would be an easy task. We called Acapulco approach and changed our flight plan. It was barely seconds after that when the XM radio started to lose its signal. Jerry and I looked at each other worried and frantically tried to see if we could do anything to regain the signal. Our efforts proved fruitless, and we discovered that 17? 09" 07' North latitude was as far south as the XM was going to take us. Jerry's response was simple, "This sucks." I agreed. It was here that I realized Doug's prediction in the comments section may just come true! Fortunately, we survived the remaining 1.5 hours of flying without killing each other. . .tomorrow may be another story.

The arrival into Bahias was slightly bumpy because of the varying terrain, and one look out of the window showed how different this area of Mexico was compared to our previous destinations. Rising terrain and forest canopies draping the mountains were amazing to see. We landed in a significant crosswind, taxied to the ramp and shut her down. There we were met by members of the Mexican Army (not uncommon), whom we provided with the appropriate information of our flight. We fueled the airplane to be set for Sunday morning and headed inside. Once there we closed the flight plan and were on our way to the hotel, piece of cake!

The hotel was right in the heart of downtown, which was very vibrant with a beautiful town square. Our hotel had a beach club, very nice, but extremely sleepy, that we walked to, and that's where I posted from. As the sun faded we took a taxi back to the hotel and got ready to have dinner. Walking around the town showed just how alive this small place could be, with people walking everywhere and the town square abuzz with activity, an LED lit Christmas tree and many vendors. Later we found out that the reason for all the activity was a celebration planned that night in honor of the Virgin Mary. As we milled about town, we were able to enjoy a parade in her honor with music and dancing that occurred mainly outside of the main church, but also did many laps about town.

After enjoying some of the festivities and a few cocktails with Samuel at La Crema Bar, we were in the hotel by about 9:00, where I worked on the website for a bit and then crashed out pretty hard. Little did I know that a few late laps by the parade were set to jolt me awake! Oh well, big day tomorrow!

-Marc