Well, I said I was going to talk more about our vacation. We spent four nights in Huatulco, Mexico. I found inexpensive rates on the Apple Vacations site in their Last Minute Specials. I’ll do a series of posts that go through the vacation chronologically.
Sunday
Sunday was a leisurely day. We (KC, Breezomatic and myself) went to church and then finished our packing, tossed everything in My Element and took off for Chicago. We had a Park-and-Fly at the Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Des Plaines. They had attractive rates and it’s just easier to do a Park-and-Fly. We got there and checked in without incident. We went across the street and ate a Chili’s restaurant, all of us tingling in anticipation.
Monday
Monday was all hustle and bustle. We got to O’Hare Airport the recommended two hours before our flight was to leave (10:00am). I’ve always thought this was kind of silly as we ALWAYS end up waiting for at least an hour to board the plane, and usually end up waiting an hour and a half. Today it was even sillier. We flew with Mexicana Airlines, and the plane was delayed for takeoff; mainly because it was delayed landing. We had a “turn-around” plane. It landed, was refueled, cleaned and such and then took off with us. All in all, we ended up taking off at 11:00am. Still, I wasn’t disappointed as it was delayed in landing by an hour due to bad weather in Mexico City – the first leg of our flight.
Now I thought the fact that we had an hour delay in our takeoff was good because we were to have a four hour layover in Mexico City. Turns out the ClickMX Mexicana Airlines domestic flight was also delayed an hour, so we ended up four hours in Mexico City anyway. Strange thing about the Mexico City Airport; we never were told what gate to go to until about 20 minutes before takeoff. We were simply told to wait at this gate or that gate until the actual gate was announced — then it was a mad dash! Here, we met four college gals from UW-Madison. These gals were great; friendly and fun. They were Ashley, Catherine, Emily, and Megan. They were also on their way to Huatulco. Turns out they were also on their way to our resort, the Crown Pacific. Their own self-descriptions were Ashley (dark haired money-loaner), Catherine (fun loving, also likes scuba & Australia & laid back), Emily (birthday sharer) and Megan (scuba diver / basketball fanatic). Once we got on the domestic flight and got to Huatulco, our Apple rep took us straight to the Crown Pacific.
First we got settled in our HUGE room; when I say HUGE, I mean it. It had a bedroom with two double beds with dressers and a separate room with a sofa sleeper and table and chairs. It also had a kitchenette (sans refrigerator) and a large closet and nice sized bathroom. we went out on our HUGE balcony. Then we went out on our HUGE balcony – again, when I say HUGE, I mean HUGE. I measured one tile with my shoes and figured the floor tiles to be 1 foot square. The balcony was 12 tiles by 20 tiles. Even though there were three of us, we were not wanting for space. And as it turned out, the four UW-Madison gals were right next door! We really couldn’t see anything as it was after dark, so we turned in as we were tired from the travel.
Tuesday
Being excited, we were up early. I got up about 6:45am and went out on our balcony and was simply awestruck. The view took my breath away, as the pictures show. At about 8:30 we left for Santa Cruz, one of the three main cities of the Bahias de Huatulco the area map shows, the other two are La Crucecita and Tangolunda; our resort was in Tangolunda), to find Hurricane Divers so that KC and Breezomatic could sign up for scuba diving (one of the main reasons we went on this vacation). We found it quickly and the girls signed up for a 2-tank dive that afternoon and a 2-tank dive for the next morning. We did a little looking around in the Santa Cruz marina and some of its shops before heading back to the resort. Seeing as it was hot and we were thirsty, we got something to drink at a farmacia (pharmacy); here is where we were introduced to Kas, a grapefruit flavored soda. It quickly became our drink of choice if we were to buy soda.
Since there was still a lot of time left in the morning, so we hit the resort’s beach. As the resort map shows, we weren’t exactly on the beach, but didn’t have any problems getting there. It was about a 400m walk from the resort to the beach and there always seemed to be a trolley car available to take you, although we did choose to walk there a few times. The trolley cars also took you up to your building as the Crown Pacific was built right into the hillside. After a few hours on the beach we had to head back to our room so the girls could get their stuff ready for the dive. When they left, I did some exploring of the area around our resort and found some nice shops and such. I also purchased a 24-case of bottled water and took it back to our room. I spent the afternoon checking out the beach activity. You know, when we went to Riviera Maya last year I thought there was some surf. I found I was incorrect. There were some waves that were 8-10 feet crashing in on the sand! Now playing in THAT was exhausting AND fun!
Tuesday, as I stated on that day, was KC’s birthday. Turns out it was also Emily’s birthday (thus her description of ‘birthday sharer’ – Happy Birthday again, Emily!) and I had decided that we would go to Don Porfirio’s Restaurant. I had read about Don Porfirio’s in the vacation forums for the Huatulco area and believed it to be a good place. Turns out everything in the forums was right on target and more. The place was great! I told them it was KC’s birthday and they even sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her AND gave her a tequila slammer!! I didn’t know they would do that! Every one of the staff wished her a happy birthday as well. Their special of the day was a “surf and turf” that consisted of a ribeye steak and two HUGE prawns – the prawns looked as big as lobsters I’ve seen at home. None of us had that, though; I had the mixed fajitas (chicken and beef), Breezomatic had the grilled chicken breast and KC had quesadillas with Oaxacan cheese. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was great. The girls had Diet Cokes (which are called Coca-Cola Lite in Mexico) while I had a Tecate. I didn’t think the 480 peso bill was out of line. On the walk home we stopped at a “Super Mart”, which is a kind of convenience store, and picked up ice cream bars for dessert.
Wednesday
Wednesday saw us up again fairly early. The girls had to be at Hurricane Divers by 9am in order to make their boat for diving. I, on the other hand, went exploring again on foot around our resort. I didn’t discover anything new, but did have a wonderful time walking around and checking things out. About 10am, I went down to the beach and just took in the sun and sand. I had to go out and fight the waves again, but I didn’t last as long. It’s really tiring fighting the tide… but it’s fun!
When the girls came back, we had a quick lunch of bagels and a few other snacks we had brought down and then headed off to La Crucecita, the largest town in Bahias de Huatulco. La Crucecita is about 20,000 or so, according to our taxi driver. OH! Taxis! It cost us a mere 40 pesos to go from our resort at one end of the bays to the opposite end. The ride from our resort to La Crucecita was only 25 pesos. La Crucecita had a wonderful town square with a lot of shops and restaurants. There were also a bunch of shops and restaurants within a block or two of the square. While there weren’t as many shops as we saw at Playa del Carmen, there were plenty of good deals to be had! We shopped most of the afternoon, and purchased nearly all of our souvenirs for us and others we had planned to buy for.
As it moved on toward dinner time, we got hungry and settled on Tostado’s Grille (another restaurant I had researched on the forums). While the waitress was about as fluent in English as we were in Spanish (barely!!), we did manage to communicate quite well. I settled on the beef and shrimp skewer, KC had the chicken tacos and Breezomatic had chicken tostados. Again, my research efforts were not wasted — the food was excellent. They had a grill right out among the tables and we watched as they cooked our food and then brought it to us.
After a quick taxi ride back to the resort (the taxis seemed to be everywhere ready to pick up the gringos!) we decided to check out the pool on the seventh level of the resort. Since we were on the sixth level, it seemed to be easier than going down to the beach. The pool was nice; we talked with a young Canadian couple who were there with their kids. The kids reminded me so much of ZDog and Breezomatic when they were that age (4 and 7). The pool, while only 4 feet deep, was quite nice. It was late and the lights were on and the pool offered a nice way to cool down after the warmth of the shopping day.
Thursday
Our last full day was Thursday. While I was in no hurry to leave, I knew there was one thing I really wanted to do. Breezomatic and I went down to Funny Cars, which was just outside our resort, and rented scooters for the morning. We tooled all the way around the three towns. Man was that a blast! That scooter ride was where most of the scenery pics were taken. We first went up to the far west end to Rio Copalita, just to see it. Then it was off to Santa Cruz in order to get cash from an ATM (in order to pay for the scooters – they wouldn’t take a credit card!) and to get the photos of the Hurricane Divers dive shop. I did get a bit confused when I got my cash – the smallest denomination said $100. After I got it I found that they meant 100 pesos ($10), so I had to do another transaction to get another 500 pesos. Next we went to the square at La Crucecita for a few more souvenirs. We also ate at the Tropicana Restaurant; we split an order of Oaxacan quesadillas and each had a Coca-Cola Lite. This is where we saw the parrot, with the owner of the restaurant. On the way back to Tangolunda to return the scooters we kept taking side roads to the south to get great pics of the bays. All I have to say about the scenery is … WOW!
After returning the scooters, we met up with KC and then trooped on down to the beach for the afternoon. Here is the first time we saw the UW-Madison gals for any length of time. Again we went out and battled the waves, although they were quite a bit smaller at only 4-5 feet in height. We also went west down the beach to a rock formation and took a few pics there. On our trek west we went right by the Barcelo and Gala resorts, which were right on the beach. While their beaches were closer, they weren’t a whole lot nicer. They also were quite a bit more expensive; in the case of the Gala it was over twice the price as the Crown Pacific. We returned to “our” beach and after a quick dip, just lolled around. KC and Breezomatic bought some really nice stone necklaces from one of the walk-by vendors; thanks to Ashley for lending us a US dollar to pay for the necklaces. We hadn’t planned on buying anything and didn’t really bring down much cash to the beach (thus the money-lender nickname!). Ashley, Catherine, Emily and Megan also bought necklaces. KC later said she saw the same type of necklaces in a shop for 50% more than we paid for them with the walk-by vendor.
As it got late, we went back to the room, cleaned up from the ocean and all decided that Don Porfirio’s was the place to go for dinner. The crew there remembered us from Tuesday evening and treated us well. I settled on filleted fish Porfirio style, KC had the grilled garlic chicken breast and Breezomatic had mixed fajitas. My fish was served in a mixture of sauce, red chilis, green chilis, basil, olives and tomatoes. Yummy! The girls had strawberry daquiris while I stuck with Coca-Cola Lite. Again, we found the food to be excellent. After the short walk home, it was a little after 9pm and we were exhausted from fighting the waves, so we did some preliminary packing and then hit the hay.
Friday
Our last day. We finished our packing, did the “once-over” and then headed down to the lobby. I was under the impression that we had to be at the Huatulco airport 2-3 hours before our departure, which was to be at 11:40am. Turns out our Apple rep came by to pick us up about two hours before departure, so we got there at shortly after 10am. Turns out this was a good thing. To say the Huatulco airport is small is not being fair to the word small. We were to wait at Gate A… I never did see a Gate B! Very small also means very quick. We were through all the boarding rigamarole in about 15 minutes. Our return flight was also with Mexicana Airlines; the folks there are friendly and happy to help you out. The flight was delayed a bit (15 minutes) but we had no problems getting to Mexico City.
Again, our return trip was strange as we were told to go to Gate 19 (the first international gate at Mexico City airport) and wait until they announced exactly which gate we would be departing from. Strange; it’s the only airline I’ve ever flown that does that. No gate listed on the ticket, no gate listed on the departure screens; you are just told to wait at one or another gate until the final word is announced over the PA system. We were delayed a bit in Mexico City, again because the plane coming in from Chicago was delayed as well. Nothing really serious; we were in the air about 30 minutes after our scheduled time of 2:55pm.
Once back in Chicago, customs was a relative breeze and we were soon calling the Park-and-Fly to pick us up. Of course, me being the dummy I am, I called the wrong Park-and-Fly so we were delayed there. Then when I called the right Park-and-Fly I forgot to tell them we were at the international gate, so it was delayed again. I felt like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz… “if I only had a brain”! But finally we got back to the Chicago O’Hare Hotel and then put all the stuff back in My Element and headed home without incident.
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