Mexico. What in the world would motivate me to fly my RV-7 down to Mexico? Well, other than it being a beautiful place and there being a zillion gorgeous spots just waiting to be discovered -- many only reasonably accessible by small plane -- my father lives there. He and his wife retired a few years ago and were looking for the ideal place for their new mode of existence. Long story short, they settled on the area on the north shore of el Lago de Chapala (Lake Chapala), Mexico's largest lake. That area is ideal for "old" arthritic cronies like my dad. He was 49 when he retired, so ok, he's not that old, but the injuries from the crash (just say no to Arrows) sort of exascerbated the usual arthritic sensitivity. The Chapala area is at an elevation of about 5000 feet, and the climate is very dry and cool year-round. Perfect for arthriticists. That, and it's beautiful, and it's a great place to make your dollars last a lot longer than they would here in the states.
Long story short, my father lives down there, and ever since I've been building this RV-7 I've always toyed with the idea of flying it down to visit when it was done and flying. I would use AOPA's flight planner or DUATS or whatever and see that even though it's over 1100 miles each way, that's only about 6 hours or so by RV. Cool. That would probably be less time consuming than flying commercially. Even so, for the past several months, I hadn't taken the notion seriously. I always assumed that it would be really expensive and risky. Expensive in the sense that I assumed avgas must be incredibly expensive down there. If it's over four bucks per gallon in Vegas, it's gotta be pretty pricey down in Mexico. Risky in the sense that we all hear the rumors about planes being stolen or ransacked or confiscated down there. There are also the rumors and hearsay about the "federales" coming up with seemingly arbitrary fees that pilots have no choice but pay if they don't want their plane impounded. Rumor or not, all of this was enough for me to steer clear of flying my plane down there. Why would I even consider risking losing this plane that I've poured my soul into building?
The other aspect of concern I had was that the plane is less than a year old. Not that age of the plane matters numerically, but the plane has only been flying since March, and there have been a couple of key "growing pains," per se. To be perfectly honest, when Jen and I flew the plane across the country and into Canada earlier this year, the plane really wasn't ready for such a big trip. Well, maybe I take that back. It's not like it wasn't "ready," it's just that it was still new. And the couple of problems we had were not entirely surprising. Any new plane, homebuilt or not, is gonna have its share of issues, minor or not, as it goes through the first few hundred hours. If I recall, 14D had about 110 hours on it when we launched on a journey of many thousand miles. The ignition wiring issues, the baffles and oil cooler bracing, all that stuff could have been discovered in due time on relatively local flights...which certainly would have been more "convenient" and less stressful. It wasn't a big deal, but looking back on it, I basically consider that trip to have been a little more of an "adventure" than it otherwise would have been due to the plane being so new.
Back to the topic at hand here... Since then, the idea of flying this plane into a foreign country which is unfamiliar, non English speaking at that, seemed like a pretty big risk. What if I had some new quasi-major issue pop up in the middle of nowhere in Mexico? It's not like I can just whip my cell phone out and send email to the RV lists asking for assistance. And what about getting parts and materials down there? These were huge concerns, at least initially. But the more I thought about it, I forced myself to look at this plane's track record recently. It had 300+ hours on it, about 230 of which have been absolutely trouble-free! Put fuel and oil in and go. It has been an absolute treat relative to the old spam cans I used to fly. So ok, the plane has really proven itself as a reliable travelling platform. Why should I automatically expect that something will go wrong as soon as the spinner crosses the border? I guess that's the pilot in me, where flying a plane is essentially a process in which "ahead of the plane" or not, you're basically scanning, monitoring, waiting for something to react to. I guess I've caught myself being possibly a little overly conservative. You know, the beginning of the flight process with these homebuilts is that first flight, where you're just ready to abort as soon as something goes wrong. You don't know what to expect. I guess that's one extreme. The other extreme would be not bothering to preflight, not bothering to check the oil, just get in and go. I guess what I'm saying is that over time, we tend to move away from the initial extreme and toward the other -- but I've gravitated toward the former.
But I think it's time to relax -- at least a little bit. This plane has been more reliable than any other plane I've ever flown. And in talking to my father about it, he did raise a great point when he said, "Hey, there's always Fedex." If I did have a problem and needed parts, I might end up staying in Mexico longer than planned...but hey, I'd be hanging out at my father's house. There are worse places to be stuck! He's got high-speed internet (they have wireless broadband down there, it kicks butt), so working there would be no problem. It's not like I'd get screwed work-wise. As far as work is concerned, it doesn't matter if I'm in Timbuktu as long as it gets done. Oh yeah, then there's the pool and hot tub, the nice weather, and the view of the lake and mountains. Hm, getting stuck down at my dad's pad waiting for Fedex to arrive almost sounds like a way of life!
Alright, but what about fuel and the federales? The first thing I did was join Baja Bush Pilots. BBP was almost universally recommended to me by everybody with whom I talked about flying to Mexico. BBP has been around for a long time and has been flying down to Baja and mainland Mexico and has built a "knowledge base" of sorts. It's my feeling that their membership fee is a little on the high side, and the price of their reference material is a bit high, but hey...this is aviation and everything costs. Information is a commodity in this case. The BBP web site has some pretty useful details on border crossing, fuel prices, insurance, fees, process, etc., and there is a fully archived set of forums which I found somewhat helpful. The more reading I did about people's experiences down there, the more I was comforted about the rumors just being rumors. And fuel prices...BBP reported most fuel prices to be about $3.20 per gallon in Mexico, which while it's pretty high isn't too bad considering. (FYI, fuel in Mexico ended up costing me $2.51 per gallon.)
I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet (at least as much as possible) and just run through the process that I went through to plan this trip. It was extremely aggravating at times due to the lack of expertise and information on certain topics, but in the end it was very straightforward. Hopefully this "briefing" will give you more insight starting out than what I had at my disposal. Have fun!
Step 1: Flight Planning
First things first. Irrespective of it being a foreign country and all that, what does the route look like? I like using AOPA's Real Time Flight Planner, which has a half decent graphical UI. I plugged in a direct flight from KCNO to MMGL. 1109 nautical miles, and 6:22 at an average of 175 knots. Wow, not bad at all. Break that up into two 3+ hour legs and we're golden. The direct great circle route takes you right along the west coast of mainland Mexico, along the eastern shore of the Sea of Cortez. That works out great, because inland Mexico tends to be pretty high terrain. I'm happy to hug the coast on the way down. I started looking at halfway points and immediately found Guaymas (MMGM) and Ciudad Obregon (MMCN). Lots of people I know have flown into Guaymas before (including my father several years ago) and reported it to be painless. Looked pretty good, but it left the two legs a little uneven. 2:54 to Guaymas, 3:29 to Guad. For VFR I have pretty much set the limit of my legs to 3:35 or so, which at typical cruise fuel burn would leave about an hour of usable fuel at the end of the flight. Not a huge margin there, but like I said, it's a limit...which I almost never reach. Obregon would be a much better setup, with 3:16 and 3:06 legs. Perfect! Plus, this would be at an average of 175 knots, which is about 5 knots slower than my typical true airspeed in cruise. Leaning toward the conservative side. Anyway, it seemed like KCNO to MMCN to MMGL was the way to go.
Then I started reading more about border crossing and customs and all that, and I found out that if you don't land at your filed A.O.E. (airport of entry) in Mexico, there can be major penalties (which are still not clear to me). You're not able to change destinations enroute prior to landing at your filed A.O.E. I forget where I read this, but I think it was on the BBP site or something, but somebody recommended landing at Mexicali (MMML), which is just over the California/Mexico border. The idea is that you land there right away, clear customs, get your general entrance authorization stuff taken care of, and then if you have problems in flight you don't have to worry about violating any rules if you have to land somewhere short of your intended destination. So at that point I pretty much decided that my route would be KCNO-MMML-MMCN-MMGL. Three legs.
Skipping forward a little, in a conversation I had with Erik at BBP a day or two before leaving, he played devil's advocate and asked why I was going to bother landing at Mexicali. I told him the logic and his response was that the only time you will ever "need" to land early is if you've got a legitimate emergency. Just declare an emergency. You'll have paperwork to deal with, but that'll be the least of your problems in that situation. Apparently, the only person he knew of who ever got in trouble landing short of the A.O.E. was a guy who was using "declaring an emergency" as a fake way to justify landing at a non-A.O.E. before clearing customs. But in a legitimate situation, as long as you've declared an emergency, apparently it doesn't matter where you land. Don't quote me on it, but it makes sense to me. At that point I was on the fence. In the end I decided to skip Mexicali. I had read several reviews about Obregon being quick and painless as an A.O.E., that you can fuel up right there where you're clearing customs, and that Mexicali was sometimes slow for entry. Without having done it yet, I had no idea what to expect in terms of how long it would take to clear customs and go through all that stuff. I figured, it would probably take about an hour at each stop. If I made two stops, that's two hours instead of one hour. Screw it. I'm going straight to Obregon. If I have an emergency, I'll have an emergency. But I'm not planning on it! I'd rather minimize the number of stops, the number of places where I might hit a snag with the officials, etc.
Maps and resources...I was almost over-equipped for this flight, but there's no such thing as too much when it comes to in-flight resources. I had the Jeppesen Standard Airway Kit - Mexico, which costs $61 and is worth every cent -- especially if you think you might do any IFR flying. Even if not, it's helpful to have all of the terminal procedures, low altitude enroute (IFR) charts, instrument approach procedures, SIDs, STARs, etc. I also had WAC charts CH-22 and CH-23 (MyPilotStore.com for $7.25 or Sporty's for $8) for the northern half of Mexico, ONC charts J-24 and J-25 (Sporty's for $5). I also had the Airports of Mexico Flying Guide book from Baja Bush Pilots (which leaves a lot to be desired but is a necessary evil), as well as their Border Crossing Card. Operation overkill, but that's the name of the game when you're not sure what you might need!
You can refer to www.worldaerodata.com for international airport information, and AeroPlanner has similar international airport data.
AOPA's list of Mexican airports of entry seemed pretty outdated to me. For the best information of that sort, Baja Bush Pilots is the way to go. Check their forums while you're there...there are specific forums for almost all airports of entry.
Step 2: Logistics
So what do I need to do in order to fly into Mexico? The BBP reference material was decent, but not very thorough (and in desperate need of an editor). AOPA has some really good, thorough information online for international ops. There are several documents I found really helpful here: AOPA's Mexico/Central America/South America International Operations. The "Quick Briefing" and "Flight Planning Guide" are the most useful ones. EAA also has a relatively decent document on the topic of border crossing information for homebuilts, although I believe it's a bit outdated.
The basic list of crap I needed to have squared away was (and please don't use this as a reference for your own travel...do the research):
Cool, that's a pretty short list of crap to deal with. Not too painful. Basically I had everything covered already except for Mexican liability insurance. And that ended up being the bane of my existence for about two weeks.
Step 3: The Insurance Fiasco
The problem with insurance was that there were contradictions everywhere I turned. First of all, my normal U.S. insurance policy, which came from NationAir and was underwritten by Phoenix, does cover me in Mexico. I was somewhat surprised to find that although Alaska is excluded specifically, Mexico is indeed included in the covered territories. It's a thing of beauty. But...if you read all these AOPA and EAA and BBP briefings, they all say that you still need a separate liability insurance policy issued by a Mexican insurance company.
First I called NationAir and spoke to Aaron Wedge. He reassured me that my policy would definitely cover me in Mexico. When I mentioned that all these sources mentioned the need for a specifically Mexican policy, he basically stood by the idea that the Phoenix policy should be good enough. I was a little worried, though, because how could all of these documents and briefings be wrong? I was worried that I'd get down to some place in Mexico I had never been before, I'd be dealing with some official who doesn't speak English, and I'd be trying to convince him that my U.S. insurance policy is valid. Hmmm.
So I called Baja Bush Pilots and talked to them about insurance. They said that the rules in Mexico had changed a year or two ago, and that yes, you used to be required to carry Mexican insurance, but that was no longer a requirement. Ok, then why does BBP sell Mexican insurance policies? I couldn't really get a clear answer. At this point, I didn't want to dick around. I'll just pay the 100 bucks or whatever for a Mexican insurance policy and be done with it. I'm not trying to skimp on money, just trying to do the most straightforward thing. So, ok, BBP -- sell me an insurance policy. Sorry sir, the policy doesn't cover experimentals. You've gotta be kidding me. Can you recommend a company that will cover experimentals? Nope, no idea. The woman at BBP I spoke to said that since my U.S. policy does cover me, it would probably be fine. Not encouraging.
So then I called the EAA and asked them if they knew of a company that would write a policy to cover experimentals. They had no clue. Big help. I called AOPA, and the person I spoke to there was even more clueless. No help.
Next I emailed J.T. Helms and the "vansairforce" Yahoo group. J.T. has always been somebody who I trust completely about insurance issues. J.T. is "the man" for RV insurance. He knows RVs, he knows insurance. This guy even monitors the RV email lists and participates in insurance-related discussions on the list. Too cool. Here's what I wrote:
JT, I'm heading to Mexico next weekend in my RV-7, and I'm trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row. I've heard CONTRADICTING things about insurance in Mexico. First of all, my U.S. based policy through NationAir with Phoenix *does* cover Mexico. That is clear. What is not clear is whether that will suffice as far as the Mexican officials are concerned. I've been told that about 2 years ago, the law changed -- where previously you were required to carry insurance from a *Mexican* company, now it doesn't matter if the insurance company is specifically Mexican, as long as you're covered in Mexico and have an appropriate level of liability coverage. The contradiction is that everything I've read (which may be dated) says that you *do* need to have additional insurance from a Mexican insurance company. Baja Bush Pilots said that as long as my U.S. policy explicitly covers Mexico, that I'd be fine. But then again -- they're the same people who are selling Mexican insurance...which by the way apparently doesn't cover experimentals (although from what else I've read and been told, Mexico doesn't distinguish between homebuilt and production aircraft). This is all very confusing, and while I feel confident that my policy WILL cover me, what I'm most concerned about is satisfying the Mexican officials who will be checking my paperwork. The last thing I want is for my plane to be confiscated or something wacky like that just because I don't have the appropriate coverage. Do you happen to know the definitive answer as to whether I need insurance from a Mexican insurance company? If so, can you recommend one? And if anybody else on this list has been to Mexico recently in their homebuilt, can you provide any insight? I spent the money on the Baja Bush Pilots membership, and so far have been extremely unhappy with the lack of specific information they provide (including their expensive "Airports of Mexico" book, which has way less detail than I was led to believe). )_( Dan |
First of all, not a single RV pilot replied. At this point, I basically assumed that I must be the first RV pilot ever to fly into Mexico. I seriously doubt that. Well, if there were RVators flying to Mexico, they sure weren't monitoring the email lists. J.T. was kind enough to reply:
No problem. Yes, I know the definitive answer. The requirement is for you to show proof of liability coverage (well below $1 Million US) that covers you in Mexico. Your Phoenix policy satisfies that, and I'd recommend taking the original policy or a copy with you. Baja Bush pilots have for a long time continued to RECOMMEND that you also purchase a separate liability policy from a Mexican insurer. Their reasoning is that you might go somewhere in Mexico that isn't too terribly informed, they might follow the old rules, impound your plane, arrest you until it gets sorted out. That is definetely what you don't want. However, it is really a moot point if the company Baja recommends can't do experimentals. The only other way that I know of to acquire that coverage is to purchase it at an FBO along the border (which most that can arrange the customs paperwork offer from what I understand.) I do not know if they differentiate between homebuilts and production planes. I'd recommend calling and asking. I think you are likely good with just your policy from the US. Hope that clears that up a bit. JT |
This was only marginally useful, and it didn't give me any additional comfort. I started calling around, looking for a Mexican insurance company that would cover experimentals, and in the end I couldn't turn anything up. At some point, I basically resigned to just use my U.S. policy. The one thing that kind of left me feeling a little uncertain was that everything I had read indicated that your policy is supposed to display the words "Liability Insurance in Mexico." When I talked to BBP about it they said the same thing, that the more clearly it's stated that the liability insurance applies in Mexico, the less trouble I'll have in case the officials I'm dealing with don't read English very well. My policy clearly includes Mexico in the list of territories, but it's kind of buried in the policy. The word "Mexico" doesn't appear on the limits page or anything like that, it's just listed under the covered territories in small print amidst policy legalese.
I again called NationAir and spoke to Aaron, and this time I asked if there was any sort of additional page in writing that I could obtain from NationAir or Phoenix that would clearly state something to the effect of "This policy provides liability insurance in Mexico, the limits being such-and-such." Aaron said there wasn't a way to get that in writing, that the policy should stand on its own. He then got J.T. on the phone, and we talked for a while about this (and other insurance topics, too, which I'll discuss some other time). In the end, J.T. dug through a file or something and finally came up with a phone number for MacAfee and Edwards. The number is 800-334-7950 (or 626-792-7399, fax 626-792-7322). He said this was a company that used to write Mexican insurance policies, but J.T. had no idea if they still did, or if they would even cover an experimental. It was a last ditch effort.
I called MacAfee and Edwards and asked about Mexican insurance policies. Bam, they faxed me an application. $62.70 and 24 hours later, I had an insurance policy from Mapfre Tepeyac (the Mexican company) in my friggin' hands (faxed). Sweeeet! Much, much, much ado about very little. Had I simply had this reference from the start I could have saved myself days of sweating over it.
Oh, and get this...during these several days while I was struggling with this issue, I posted numerous times to the BBP forums, trying to get references from people who had flown homebuilts down into Mexico before, trying to get some consolation that my U.S. policy would have been good enough. I didn't get a single useful reply, but here's the kicker. The DAY BEFORE I LEFT the Baja Bush Pilots announced that they had finally secured a way to provide Mexican insurance to experimentals. Here's the announcement on the BBP forum on December 17 around 1pm:
We have been in heavy discussions with our underwriter regarding experimental aircraft. Upon my threat of going to someone else, I now have authorization to provide Mexican Liability Insurance for Experimental Aircraft. Jack @ BBP |
Gee, great timing. Thanks a lot. Had this happened like two days earlier I would have been set. I mean, I appreciate the effort and will most likely use BBP for insurance next time, but it was just a little frustrating given the timing of it all.
All I can say is that whoever is reading this has it easy! You can now call BBP and plop down 100 bucks or whatever and you're covered. Worst case, now you know you can also call MacAfee and Edwards. You lucky bastards! ;-) FYI, the policy I got from MacAfee and Edwards covered me for five days; the policy from BBP apparently covers one year...justifying the extra 30 or 40 bucks.
UPDATE!!! Of course after posting this trip log, everybody and his uncle came out of the woodwork with tips and information I could have used a few weeks ago...hehheh. Anyway, this GREAT tip just came in from Roger Hansen (northern CA), who has flown his RV-6 to Mexico a dozen or more times. He said that you can purchase your Mexican insurance policy for $110/year totally online in a matter of seconds. Cool! Here's the link:
International Gateway Insurance Brokers
I just went there (I'm writing this update on 12/30/2004) and ordered my 2005 annual policy for 110 bucks and printed it out -- the whole application and completion process took about 40 seconds...YES! Now I'm covered already for all of 2005. This is exactly the type of thing I've been looking for. Thanks Roger!
Step 4: "Hecho en Casa" -- The Homebuilt Factor
There was one additional piece of the puzzle that I lost a little sleep over during the planning process. Here's a clause from the Operating Limitations for my plane (common for all homebuilts):
(20) This aircraft does not meet the requirements of the applicable, comprehensive, and detailed airworthiness code as provided by Annex 8 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The owner/operator of this aircraft must obtain written permission from another CAA prior to operating this aircraft in or over that country. That written permission must be carried aboard the aircraft together with the U.S. airworthiness certificate and, upon request, be made available to an ASI or the CAA in the country of operation. |
I was already familiar with this from my trip to Canada earlier this year. In that case, all I had to do was print out a letter that was made publicly available on a Canadian government web site and carry it aboard the aircraft. No specific permission required, just carry that letter and you're good. For Mexico, though, it was a different story.
Ordinarily, this would be really cut and dry, but the catch is that Mexico doesn't treat homebuilts any differently than regular production aircraft. In Mexico, apparently homebuilts need to be built and certified to the same standards as production aircraft. I'm not familiar with that process, but I do know that in the eyes of the Mexican aviation authorities, there's really no distinction between homebuilt and type certificated.
That said, Operating Limitations are Operating Limitations. And EAA's site mentioned in the border crossing info for homebuilts that it's suggested that you contact Mexico's embassy in the U.S. to obtain this permission. Sure thing. That would be easy if anybody at the embassy knew what the heck you were talking about. I called and got transferred around a few times. I finally got in touch with somebody who I think partly understood what I was asking for. It wasn't a language barrier issue -- the folks at the embassy in the U.S. speak perfectly good English. In the end I was told to contact somebody at the embassy in Mexico, and I was given a phone number and a person's name. I called the phone number and reached somebody who spoke no English. I did manage to ask for the person by name, and I think I understood the person on the other end of the line when she rattled off something and then gave me another Mexican phone number. I called that number and got a recording that I didn't understand.
I repeatedly tried to contact the person I had dealt with at the embassy in the U.S., but I could not reach her. She didn't reply to several emails either, whereas originally she sent me the Mexican embassy information by email. She basically stopped responding to me. I tried the Mexican phone numbers again, but fell short due to the language barrier.
Frustrating. Surely everybody who has flown homebuilts into Mexico before hasn't had to deal with this. I've heard about groups of canard builders from SoCal who fly down to Baja all the time, but I wasn't able to pin down a single person to give me any advice.
I called the EAA again, and yet again they were friggin' useless. AOPA was no help either. What gives?!
I'll tell you what gives -- I didn't bother. I don't have an answer for this one. All I can say is that flying an experimental homebuilt aircraft in Mexico was absolutely no factor. At least that's my experience. Did I go illegally? Don't think so, but I don't know for sure. Was there risk of some sort? I suppose. Did anything happen? Nope. In fact, the "experimental" nature of this plane drew a lot of attention both in the air (on the radio) and on the ground -- the "guys with guns" gathering around to check out this "hecho en casa" plane. Your mileage may vary, but my experience was that it did not matter. Would it matter if I crashed into a house in Mexico? Dunno, probably. Would it matter if I busted some regulation? Guess so...maybe not. I just have to admit that I didn't tie up this loose end. Again, your mileage may vary.
What ended up helping me decide to forego this step was a conversation with Erik at Baja Bush Pilots. He said that in the past he has flown down to Baja in groups with some of the group flying experimentals, and to the best of his knowledge nobody has done anything about this Annex 8 thing. It's apparently not an issue. Erik gave me the contact information for an RV pilot from San Diego who he has flown with in Mexico before...I emailed him and got a response a few days later, saying that the "real world" answer is that it makes absolutely no difference to the Mexican authorities whether your plane is experimental or not. And that's exactly what my experience echoed. Once again, your mileage may vary!
Step 5: File & Notify Customs
The night before I left, I called up the local FSS (flight service station), which happens to be Riverside in my case. I filed the flight plan from Chino to Obregon. What was confusing was that I thought I had to file DVFR since it was an international flight, flying across the ADIZ (outbound). The briefer said nope...no need to file DVFR, just VFR. That felt a little uneasy at the time, but the briefer insisted that it didn't need to be DVFR. Ok, buddy, we'll see. So I filed VFR and requested that "ADCUS" be written in the remarks section. Supposedly this will "advise customs" on the arrival end in Mexico. I can't say for sure whether this made it to Obregon or not, because I also requested customs attention in the air (more on that in a minute).
With the outbound flight plan filed, I then requested to file the inbound flight plan well in advance. The briefer said that I don't need a flight plan when returning to the U.S., but rather I needed a "customs notification northbound." He said that my best bet would be to contact San Diego FSS directly to make this request. He gave me the number for San Diego FSS, which is 866-682-2175 (or 800-WX-BRIEF in San Diego or Imperial counties). He also mentioned that San Diego FSS has a three-part recording that is a summary of Mexican border crossing procedures. After dialing San Diego FSS, press 225 for part 1, 226 for part 2, and 227 for part 3. Man, I wish I knew about this weeks before I found out. That summary is chock full of great information. It tended to fill in a lot of the blanks that the online information left open. I strongly advise listening to this recording BEFORE any other planning. Be prepared to listen to these recordings more than once, and have a pen handy to take notes, because the dude talks pretty quickly and there's a lot of information to absorb. Here are some bullet points that are covered in the recordings:
Again, these are just bullet points that are covered in detail on the FSS recordings. Be prepared to spend about 15 minutes on the phone listening to them. Definitely do your own research and planning...this info here is just a guideline for what to expect in general.
Step 6: Do it!
This trip ended up being one of the easiest, most uneventful cross-country flights I've ever made. Not to say there wasn't anything interesting or challenging about it, but it was a walk in the park. Lots of agonizing over details unknown, but in the end it was very straightforward. 20:20 hindsight, of course. Let's dive right in with photos and a little play-by-play...
All in all, this trip was a total success. I intend to fly down to Mexico again -- various locations -- in the months and years to come.