Margaret and Ottos latest Travel-adventure.

Xcalak of the beaten track.(pronaunced shcalak)

Easter Sunday we left home to fly to Las Cruces, NM. We made it in good time and had breakfast at the Airport Café. We continued to Fort Stockton TX to stay overnight at the Days Inn. Next morning we did not get far, after 100 miles we encountered some IFR conditions and landed at Sonora to wait 2 hours until the sun burned off the fog enough to continue to Brownsville. Tuesday we flew into Mexico, it was a bumpy 3-hour ride of 412 nm.

In Veracruz we cleared Mex. customs that meant visiting offices of: Customs, Immigration (get tourist cards), the Comandante to get our multi entry permit, cancel our flight plan at the flight service office. All the officials were helpful to do the associate paperwork and get all those papers properly stamped, nevertheless for Americans it seems to be a waste of time. I think, for Mexicans it is work and job security and since most airports are privatized all kind of departments want to know about you, write a bill and collect a fee if possible. Air traffic is mainly corporate or airline. There was one Ultralight on the ramp at in Veracruz
After refueling we departed for Villahermosa 1½ hours southeast, to stay overnight at the (old) Best Western/ Madan ($52) down town. In the evening, it was hot and humid there were many people shopping and milling about on narrow noisy Madero Ave. The beds were very hard.
Wednesday we had breakfast ($11/person) in the luxurious Olmec Plaza Hotel next door ($79). At the airport we paid $5 tied own fee, $50 for 11G 100/130 octane Av-gas and filed a new flight plan to Xcalak. Near Villahermosa there are meandering rivers snaking through the green countryside towards the Gulf. There are oilfields off shore. This portion of the flight crosses the Yucatan; it is sparsely populated desolated bush land devoid of any settlement in the interior as it looks from the air. We had some head wind component, (constant this time of year) the air was choppy, visibility marginal. At 75% power we made a groundspeed of 140 knots.
We made position reports to Chetumal and Xcalak in sight. This was our destination, a Mexican outpost with 2 army soldiers and one sailor guarding this runway. The airstrip caretaker acted as taxi driver to bring us to our Bed & Breakfast 1 mile north of the village.

All of those other six places are located along the beach and owned by US expatriates. The attraction here is sea kayaking, snorkeling, diving, fishing, bike riding or just relaxing. There are no phones or TV, just a lot of tranquility.

The barrier reef is just a mile off shore and the waves crashing on it with a constant roar. The other guests at the Tierra Maya were three young couples from England. Everything concerning tourism is geared to be ecologically friendly and those who venture out to the reef should pay a $4 fee used to protect the reef, declared Ocean Park.

The water is emerald green and warm, but it is shallow and to swim one has to walk out on the pier. The B&B’s produce their own electricity by Diesel-Wind Generator or Solar. The Tierra Maya has the best restaurant; a complete dinner for two can come to $46. There are 2 small less expensive restaurants in the village. When we had lunch at the Costa de Cocos we met a Continental Airline pilot, who was about to buy an $40 000 ocean front lot here and he asked me my opinion. I said go for it, thought it is a good idea to buy before city services get there, while prices are reasonable.

Margo, from Sin Duda Villas, told us that the cooling trade wind comes off the ocean most of the time, except some times during August-September, the raining season things get interesting, when a humid wind comes from the woods, bugs appear and butterflies to feed on them and the water gets very calm, Margaret said she does not want to experience it.
On Tuesday morning the driver from our “hotel” brought us back to the airstrip 5 miles away. A caretaker and his family are living here and he collects the landing and tie down fee. On the ramp there are tie down anchors for one plane.

At 6500’ and 80 miles out it was so hazy there was no difference between the sky and the water, no horizon. At 1000’ it was not much better, so we made a 180 turn and returned to Veracruz. Now I had to get our tourist cards back, but it was no problem and the Comandante and staff were helpful as long as all the paper work was done. Arrival Report, notify Customs, Immigration and the Airport Security why we are back. We decided to spend another night in Veracruz to wait for better weather. Margaret wanted to stay at the new Holiday Inn at the waterfront.This place is new, luxurious and very modern. The Restaurant, all en-glassed is overlooking the very large pool. We spent $220 here, more than twice as much here compared to old down town. On Friday we departed again towards the US. The weather was somewhat better, so we flew low along the beach. 20 minutes from Tampico we smelled fuel and the fuel pressure gage went to 0. This was not a good sign; I kept a look for alternate landing sites and fuel levels. We made a precautionary landing in Tampico, a Technical stop. The Comandante came to the plane and I told him that I have an erroneous instrument indication and want to refuel. After removing the top cowling I noticed the defective 1/8” line to the panel gage. I was lucky this was an easy fix for me, the aircraft mechanic. After the usual Paperwork and talking to the customs officer (he made Xerox copies of our passports), but everybody was polite and acted professional. At the ramp, waiting and waiting for the fuel truck, I talked to a Mexican Corporate pilot, and he offered me his cell phone to call US Customs about our arrival time in Brownsville. While flying at 1500’ near the border we had to be very careful watching several TV or radio station antennas. Our overnight stop was the 4 Points Sheraton again, now called Holiday Inn and owned by an Indian family. We were not impressed with its restaurant. I find Brownsville is not an ideal place for pilots to stop over, because the Motels are on the other side of town. Next day, the winds had cleared most of the clouds, but the air was very turbulent. We landed on McAllen Miller Airport; here several Motels are close to the airport. We got an updated weather briefing and continued through the choppy air to Uvalde, Texas. This was about as much we wanted to take to be bounced around, besides over Fort Stockton was a thunderstorm with a tornado watch. Flight Service prompted me to get a Motel and put our RV-6A in a hangar overnight and that is what we did. On the next day the air behind the warm front was clear but we were battling a headwind 19 knots gusting to 25. This was no fun at all. Usually we were cruising at 75% power and 140 knots.
In those 2 weeks we flew 4200 miles in 31 hours. In retrospect we should have made the return trip up the Pacific Coast to avoid the westerly flow and mountains in AZ, NM and low clouds in Texas.