Toluca - Puerto Angel, Mexico 28 Nov - 1 Dec 2005

Great lunch and beach at Cerro Largo

In spite of having to leave the party early, it was after 1 a.m. before we got to bed, so we only had about 4 hours sleep. We knew it would be a long taxi ride to Toluca and expected some departure formalities “headwind” at the airport, so arranged for the taxi to come at 7 a.m. (We don´t like to fly in the afternoon in the tropics.) Our Swiss aviator friend Claude Raymond had decided to join us on the flight to Bahia de Huatulco and spend our last few days in Mexico together. In addition to CarolAnn and Joe heading back to Florida in CarolAnn’s Mooney, potential Earthrounders Sue and Bill Harrelson from near Washington had flown to Mexico for the meeting in their homebuilt Lancair III. Both couples took off shortly before us. It was a smooth VFR flight at 11’500 feet for us heading south over the mountains, but approaching the Pacific coast near our destination, the south side of the mountains were obscured in clouds, so we asked to join IFR for an approach. There were a couple of unexpected violent jolts and updrafts descending through 8’000 feet as we entered what had looked like a fairly innocuous CB cloud on the VOR/DME approach to Bahia de Huatulco. Fortunately we were out of it quite quickly.
On arrival, we rented a car and drove west to Puerto Angel where we booked in to the pleasantly rustic Posada Cañón Devata. The Posada´s walls were adorned with some beautiful paintings and we soon learned that the artist Mateo was the father of Kali who owned and ran the hotel. After searching for Mateo unsuccessfully at his house the other side of the bay, we finally got to meet him and purchase a couple of the paintings from him at the posada on our last day.
Unlike the modern coastal resort of Bahia de Huatulco (to which we owe the convenient International Airport), Puerto Angel is a small village set around a pretty little bay that doesn’t seem to have changed much since it was frequented by the hippies. It was fun to have Claude with us. He is a bon vivant with a great sense of humour. We went on a boat trip to various small beaches near Puerto Angel, where we snorkelled and enjoyed guacamole and Corona beer with plenty of fresh lime.
On our last day there, we followed the directions of some fellow guests from Alaska and discovered a superb beach for body surfing. Perched on the top of the cliff above the beach was the Posada de Cerro Largo, where we ate an excellent meal of fish washed down with an exceedingly pleasant bottle of Chilean white wine. Afterwards we were taken on a tour of the rooms which just had three walls and were completely open to the view over the sea. Since they were set on a sheer cliff face, there was no need for a fourth wall to provide privacy. ‘Great place for honeymoon couples!’, said Claude.