Phil, Thanks very much for putting this together.

I think the biggest obstacle anyone faces doing Mexico for the first time, as we were - is all the stuff you don't know.  I highly recommend Paul's 16 page how-to-article that has the breaching whale picture on page one. My wife Janis did almost all the planning for this trip, including preparing copies of all the documents, as Paul’s article advises.

Like all panicky first timers, we got up at 5.30am, wanted to get to San Felipe by 9, because nobody wants to arrive last and see Phil drumming his fingers. Well, at SF, the fuel dude hadn't seen any Mooneys today, so we gave him his five dollars, as advised, and waited around until ten then departed for Mulege, arriving by about midday. Next morning, some people got up early for a flight over to San Ignacio and a Whale watching tour, but we slept in. Around midday we took the fifteen minute jaunt over to deserted Punta Chivato, hung out on bleached white sands for our picnic lunch. Back at Serenidad. we put the plane away for the night, and as we turned around there's Ron Polley with two outstretched beers and a Fiesta de la Mooney cap. What a guy!

The next day we fueled up at Loreto and proceeded on to Campo Rene around mid-afternoon. The route takes you over the lagoon where the whales are, three thousand feet below, and then, a bit to the North, after a really GOOD look, you can eventually pick out Campo Rene's sand runway, which happens to share the same piece of sand as the road.  A chevy truck waited for us as we pulled around to face the beach, then proceeded on his way with a wave.

The next morning was Monday, the return trip, and that funny mixture of saying goodbye to your new friends, maybe not wanting to go back, mixed with the trepidation of  re-entering the States. We chose to clear Mexican customs at Mexicali, which was very quick, but the Boys in Blue lay over the border and we knew we had to land within 10 minutes of when we said we would. If you’re the sort of person that worries about officialdom, it certainly helps to clear US customs in a place like Calexico. After you taxi past rusty sheds and cow horns in the dust by the side of the runway, your not expecting too much red tape.

Stay with the plane and after a minute or so, Chief Wiggum will mosey out.  He met us with a wry smile and ' Mooney convention huh ?' because Paul's immaculate M20 was in the line ahead of us. He took our paperwork, led us inside and in less than a few minutes, he called " OK, you're good to go". Painless. To her credit, Janis had the appropriate forms all photocopied and filled out.

We were really lucky to have had such clear flying weather for our first trip.  It was a warm relaxing getaway, free from continual radio chatter, plenty of visual checkpoints on the gulf side, met some great people, didn't need to speak Spanish, and overestimated the holiday cost by 40%. 

We are going again soon.

From Ozzie & Jo:

After months of talking, planning, and just waiting, the big day to leave arrived with gray skies, freezing temperatures and snow in Tucson. Friday was to be our traveling day, leaving about 9 A.M., clearing Mexican customs in Nogales, MX, and expecting to be in Mulege about 1 P.M. for lunch. The forecast was for poor flying conditions till Saturday at best. Even filing IFR was not in the cards as the freezing level went right down to the surface. We just gave up looking for a break and resigned leaving on Saturday.

We were able to leave as planned on Saturday and landed at Nogales, MX to clear customs. It’s a good port of entry and usually pretty quick. Not this time. We had to get a new annual permit, which took almost 45 minutes to type into the computer. The rest of the entry formalities went fast. This was the cheapest entry fees we ever had, about $77. US, for 4 people.  The remaining flight to Mulege was less then 2 hours and in the clear. We were the only VMG plane to arrive on Sunday.

The Saturday night pig roast was the usual gay event. There were about 20 other planes parked at the hotel so a good crowd was in attendance. A group of about 50 trailer travelers also attended the roast so it was pretty full.

Serenidad made new reservations for us for whale watching on Sunday at 11 A.M. When we arrived there, they said the whale watching area was full with the allotted pongas and we would have to wait until one of them left. We expected a wait of an hour or so, but to our surprise, we were told in about 15 minutes to get ready. We were the only people there and we would only have 4 people in out boat.

It was kind of breezy with small wave chops, but not too cold. Going out to the watching area we saw absolutely no whales. We usually see a few to get excited about. It was not a good start. At the whale watching area, the wind died down nicely

All of a sudden we slowed down and right in front of us was a full-grown whale just floating on the surface. It looked dead until it did a blow. We went right up to it, petted it, took pictures, went to the other side, took more pictures, and just floated with it for about 20 minutes. It didn’t mind and neither did we. This was the first time we had ever seen a whale just floating like it was sunbathing.

Now the activity really picked up. Whales were breaching all over the place. And whales were moving around us every which way. We even saw another whale floating like the first one, just sunning itself.

What started out kind of quiet turning into a great day. We saw more whales breaching on Sunday than on all of our other trips combined. After our 2 hours of whale watching we were ready to head back to the hotel and enjoy some margaritas.

For a change we made reservations at the Equipales restaurant for the VMG party of 13. Good food, good people, and many flying and whale stories were the norm for the night. The margaritas were much stronger than those at the hotel. Nuff said.

On Monday we cleared customs at Guyamas, another good place to clear. We found out why our entry fees were so cheap. We did not get entry Visas. They wanted them, we did not have any. A typical Mexican standoff. We blamed it on Nogales; they said we should have known better. We insisted that we just did what we were told, paid our money, and when they said we could go, we did. They finally said in the future, you would always need a Visa. We said thank you and left without getting them. We saved $60. US. For once we beat the system and felt good about it.

Coming back into the U.S. at Nogales, AZ was a non-event. Show your passports, leave your entry form and you are good to go. Can’t wait till next year.