Trip to Alamos and to the Hacienda de los Santos
On Tuesday morning, Oct. 27,2009 I was reading the Baja Bush pilot website when I came to the notice that someone had to cancel his trip to Alamos, Mexico. There was going to be a Pilotos Club reunion at the Hacienda de los Santos Hotel resort that is rated one of the 7 best small resorts in the world. Jim Swickard, the owner, had posted an offer to attend the 5-day event for a $ 400. discount. I told Joan to read it, and she responded, “Let’s go.” I called Jim and left a message on his cell phone.
I didn’t know if we would get the spot or not but I went over to the airport and fueled the airplane and got it ready. About 4:00 pm Jim called to say we could have the reservation. We had to leave Wed. morning but it was easy – pack the bags, take the diabetic cat to the vet, get money, and, of course, plan the flight, file EAPIS both going & return with the Customs & Border Protection & file an international flight plan.
Wed morning we hurried around getting everything prepared and by the time we got in the air it was 10:30 am.
After taking off I climbed to 10500 via Catalina vor. I had programmed the GPS 480 computer for direct Alamos. I activated our international flight plan and crossed the border a little south of TJ. Squaking 1200 on the transponder we settled into our traveling mode watching the landscape go by.
We arrived at Alamos at 2:30 pm just 4 hours after we had taken off. We had very good tail winds of around 45 kts. We tied down the airplane, checked in with customs which were in attendance due to special arrangements . We did not get into the hangar as it was full. Our bags were loaded into the van provided by the Hacienda de los Santos.
When we arrived at the hacienda we were greeted with a margarita and taken on a tour by one of the hotel guides. Joan just loved the place as it is old Colonial Mexican. The owner Jim Swickard had purchased 3 different properties and made them into one resort joined by tiled courtyards, walkways and a bridge over the (dry) river. I told the guide it reminded me of Hearst castle and I could get lost in it (and we did).
Don had to order a late snack of fish tacos and ice tea. There were all kinds of things planned, plus in free time one could use the little putting green. Movies were scheduled at 9 pm several nights. There were three tiled pools one could swim in, all kinds of places to sit with chairs, tables, loungers, internet café bar, and many interesting events were scheduled for the reunion. After a short rest in the room we took a walk into town and looked around. It was an old town with narrow streets and two or three town squares. The squares were beautiful with many flowers and tropical plants. Alamos is an expatriate place but we could not tell it by the people we saw. It is located in the foothills of the Sierras, surrounded by low hills and mountains. After our little walk around town we went back to the Hacienda and got ready for our gourmet dinner. I kept telling Joan that this seemed like a cruise ship to me - a lot of eating and talking with people.
Thursday
Joan got up early and left for Jim’s guided walk at 7 am to a hilltop overlooking the town. She got some great pictures. I could not get up that early. Breakfast was great - part Mexican with a little bit of U.S. thrown in. After breakfast we went to the theater and listened to a local ex-pat show slides of trips around Mexico. After lunch I walked into town again as I’ll never get tired of looking around Alamos. You have to watch where you walk or you trip on the uneven cobblestone streets and the unmarked steps up and down in the covered arcades. Joan enjoyed the museum with a special Dia de los Muertos display of altars.
Late in the afternoon we had a pilot briefing for flying around the Copper Canyon planned for Friday. The leader (an ex military pilot) and Jim Swickard gave us GPS waypoints to fly to and told us what would be at the waypoints: towns, waterfalls, hotels on the edge of cliffs, and many more beautiful sights. Joan & I accepted the invitation to fly with another pilot, Geno & wife Jan Bourdage in their Cessna 182, to conserve the fuel we had left. After the pilot briefing I started feeling a little sick in the stomach. A nice couple close to our room offered me some Imodium and that helped.
That evening we all loaded into the hotel vans and were shuttled to the ranch to have a chicken and rib barbeque in the great outdoors. It was fun and we all got to meet and get to know some new people, Jane and Mel, from Boulder, Colorado. There was a cold front passing through and it was very cold in the night air. Joan drank wine and I drank a couple of beers. It was so cold that almost everyone was huddled around the big fire pit to stay warm. There was always a great group of Mexican musicians and singers entertaining us at dinner. Because of the cold we were all ready to go back to the Hacienda.
Friday
We ate breakfast early and got to the airport for the flight to Copper Canyon at 8 am. Geno forgot his ignition keys so while he was taken back to the Hacienda, we helped Jan (a pilot also) do the pre-flight check. Everyone else had taken off ahead of us and was headed to the first waypoint. We could all talk to each other on the radio so we would know where each airplane was. It all worked out great and we saw beautiful sights as promised. The best sight to me was the hotel right on the edge of the cliff and the waterfall. Due to the recent rains everything was very green with water in the canyon bottom and waterfalls. The trip took around 2 hours.
I still wasn’t feeling completely 100% so we went back to the hotel and after lunch I lay down for a while. There was a movie in the theater of the moon landing so I watched some of it then took a walk. Later we both called friends on SKYPE in the computer area. We had not told anyone of our trip and just wanted people to know where we were. I still wasn’t feeling very good so after dinner Joan & I went to bed early and missed the Ballet Folklorico performance but got a good nights sleep.
Saturday
Joan went on an early morning bird watching trip guided by a young man who is a 16 year resident of Alamos. After driving out to the country, where he set up 2 telescopes, and handed out binoculars, we spotted many colorful birds in the trees. One was called a “squirrel” bird because of its brown color and the way it hops from branch to branch. We went to the town next to us Aduana, and could see bright green parrots in a tree.
I woke up feeling much better. After breakfast we were getting into the swing of things - just relaxing and not doing much just sitting on the courtyard outside our room and enjoying the warmth and sun. After lunch John & Martha King (of the aircraft ratings schools) gave a talk on the Light Sport Aircraft the new Cessna Sky Catcher. It was an interesting talk but that airplane is almost $200,000. I’d rather build an RV12 for around 60K. John & Martha had flown to Alamos in their falcon 10 Jet. After the talk Joan & I lazed around the hacienda some more a little catching up on E-Mail talking to some more people and having a ball. Our last dinner was terrific as we sat with all the people we had met and liked and listen to the wonderful Hacenderos play Mexican music for us. It was a great last night Jim Swickard handed out an engraved thermos for each couple, and new pilots received the special Hacienda cap. A wonderful evening.
Sunday
We got up late, ate breakfast and got ready to leave for the airport having paid the hotel bill the night before. We got to the airport around 10:00 am, cleared customs, paid our $75. airport fee, and departed for Guaymas. It was a quick flight, less than an hour, got fuel, cleared out of the country and took off for Calexico. It was about a 2-hour flight with good VFR conditions and we landed just about right on our EAPIS time of 1:30 pm. The only thing I did wrong was to put the wrong aircraft number on EAPIS due to a typo. The customs guy said “get out your check book”. I said “you mean like in Mexico?” He said “NO, like in the U.S.” You mean “$5000.?” ”Yes.” But then, “ you can go”. After having a big Mexican lunch we took off for Oxnard, maneuvered around some restricted areas climbing to 10500 ft. direct to Van Nuys VOR, direct to Oxnard in just a little over an hour.
It was a great spur of the moment trip and Joan said it was just what she needed. It was fun practicing our Spanish the little we did and meeting all the new people. We plan to get together with some of them again soon.
