A day in Veracruz

Yesterday we checked into a much-needed lovely hotel in Veracruz right on the water. Time to relax and stop worrying about the flying conditions for a while.

Today started out with a most excellent 4 or 5 mile jog along the seawall. While on my jog, I encountered the police surrounding an apparently abandoned large SUV with Coahuila license plates. But I wasn't worried. Our taxi driver had explained that this area is tranquilo owing to the fact that it is entirely controlled by the Zetas. The funny thing about that is that he was actually saying that the political party PRI is in control (and therefore by proxy, the Zetas). What a relief to know that our personal security is ensured by Mexico's most dangerous drug cartel (through their puppet governmental representatives)!

We spent the day wandering around the lovely Veracruz, oldest city established by the Spaniards in Mexico. The cool thing about Veracruz is that it is a tourist destination, but only for Mexicans. Not many gringos around these parts. It's one of Mexico's largest shipping ports (second only to Tampico now, I think). But the boardwalk that runs from near the shipyard out to the lighthouse is actually a pleasant area.

We saw the amazing fort San Juan de Ulúa, dating to 1565. There's a large Naval Museum of interest. I thought I was walking into it - all laughing and smiling, but I had in fact wandered into the funeraria naval. Oh shit. We took that as a sign that we should just avoid all museums. We succeeded swimmingly in that effort.

We enjoyed some live marimba. Some excellent well-roasted coffee. A lot of local folks doing what local folks do. Some mediocre ceviche. The seafood mercado. And a LOT of walking and looking and soaking it all in. The flip-flop tan is well underway.

I loved all of the beautiful old tile work all over town - on the sidewalks, the buildings, the cathedral dome, everywhere. Unfortunately, our camera batteries were dead within two blocks of the hotel as we set out this morning. I'll post the one or two tile photos in the next post. For the most part, the few pictures we shot before we lost power were unimpressive, except for the hilarious shot I've posted here of me and a large sculpture by the shipyard.

Fun with dinner in Veracruz

Well, actually, when our dinner arrived I was somewhat mortified about being served an entire snapper (not only because it was enormous, but also because I don't like to eat anything that still wears its face when I eat it). Thank God his head was entirely covered with the delicious sauce a la Veracruzano. I was determined to avoid staring him in the eye. But then the inevitable happened, he peeked at me through the tomatoes and olives. It went down hill from there... I do feel bad about having made a mockery of his last dignified public appearance - and for having ensured that he met with a most ignominious end.

I think Ricardo and I were asked to leave shortly after these sporting shots were taken.

Postscript: I paid for this bad behavior last night when I was haunted by dreams of huge fish being served all around me as I sat at my table in a restaurant. A very cute dolphin grinned at me from a large platter on the next table and waggled his long nose in my direction. It was terrifying and heartbreaking.

windy landing in hazy Veracruz

The haze never cleared. Aviation forecast was 5 miles of visibility and MVFR. We weighed the aviation forecast against staying another night in the stinky Budget Hotel #1 in a town where some Zetas were apparently gunned down not far from our hotel the day before. Of course the Zetas did not figure into Ricardo’s calculation, but I silently inserted them on the “leaving” side of the scale when we were making a decision.

We departed for Veracruz.

Although we had low visibility and had to maintain a cruising altitude of, ahem, 1500 ft to avoid the haze and clouds, it was much better than the last time we flew into Veracruz. That time, in 2008, it was twilight and the airport seemed to have shut down for the day. They cleared us for landing, but we couldn’t find the airport. The air traffic controller responded to that with, “Oh, uh, I will go turn on the lights for you.” Wow… So, comparatively, this was cake.

As Ricardo says, "If ju don't hurt the plane, an ju don't hurt youself, then eet ees a good landing."

Purple haze all in my brain

So we are hanging around Budget Hotel #1 hoping the haze will lift. The Gulf of Mexico from Tampico around to Minatitlan is pretty hazy with pollution. When we did this trip in 2008, I remember that we had very low visibility from Tampico to Minatitlan. It was nerve-wracking.

I'd previously said that our next ultimate- intermediate destination was San Cristobal de las Casas, where we'd hoped to spend a few days. In light of the weather, we have now actually suspended that plan in favor of no plan at all.

We have some vague ideas, but no real expectations. We hope the haze will abate enough that we can advance as far as Veracruz. I just want to get out of Coahuila! In Veracruz, we will check the weather again to see whether we can continue on to at least Minatitlan.

The long-term (haha - long term for us means one week or so) problem is that there are storms forecast for all over Southern Mexico starting in a couple of days. We can't fly in storms. Hell, we can't even fly in nice fluffy clouds.

All of our planned intermediate-ultimate destinations were on the Pacific coast, which means we have to cross mountain ranges to get there. See all those big scary mountain ranges on this map? We need crystal clear weather to cross mountains safely in the trusty Koliber. If the clouds are low, we just can't cross the mountains. I'll do the math for you:

(Mountains + Clouds) * VFR = nightmare (or crash)

BUT - there are no mountains between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. We are thinking that we may just be stuck going to the darned old Caribbean if the storms in Southern Mexico prevent us from getting to the Pacific coast.

Yes, that's right. We may just have to beat a path to Belize. Oh darn!

Headed to the Border

Our plan today is to fly to Tampico, land and refuel and eat (but not ceviche), then fly to Veracruz, land and refuel and sleep.

It's very windy in Harlinger this morning. I don't like to fly in the wind. I secretly wish the Harlinger airport was smaller so we couldn't take off. See, they have 3 runways - which gives us a lot of options. If we had crosswinds and just one runway, we couldn't even take off (Been there, done that. We were blown off the runway at Weiser in Houston in 2008 by a huge gust). But Harlinger has just the runway for us: runway 17 Left points us right into the 20mph winds. So ... we will head to the airport and take off here in a few minutes. Again, I'm scared.

My petsitter sent a photo of my dogs cozied up on the couch this morning (thanks, Brian!!). I sort of envy the little guys at times like this. I am hoping and waiting for my terror to abate... I am sure I will feel much better once we are on the beach in Puerto Escondido.