Vacation in Mexico
Guess What?
Valerie, Heather, Kelley, and Alan go to the Beach to escape the snow
The trip to Cozumel was planned around Heather's Spring Break. We stayed at the Hotel Cozumeleno, an all inclusive and beautiful resort. The coral sand beaches were nice for strolling along that magic Carribean water that is turquoise fading into the deep blue sea under the sky that appears to be purple in color. I have never seen anything like it anywhere else. Cozumel, known as a divers heaven, has water transparent as glass for several hundred feet.
We spent almost every day snorkeling and swimming, and laying around the pool bar drinking frozen drinks of every color and recipe imaginable. What a life.
On Wednesday, my Niece Kelley flew down for her birthday and it was a full house. The blondie girls did lots of lounging by the pool and shopping downtown.
We rented a car and toured the whole island from the Chakkanaab Reef park to the jungle interior where the locals live in haciendas not nearly as nice as ours. Overall the island is a beautiful place and I would definately visit there again. Val and I decided that our trip to Cancun last year was just too Americanized to go back there again. . .or would we?
The trip to the aeropuerto was the usual don't want to leave the beach sadness. We watched for over an hour as the firemen hosed the spilled fuel off of the tarmac since the fueling of OUR plane malfunctioned. After it quit dripping from the wing, we boarded to go back to Denver.
On approaching takeoff speed, something happened. We ran off of the runway and hit rocks or something that shook the jet so violently that oxygen masks, consoles, overhead bins and main aisle ceiling panels dropped down hitting some and scaring the hell out of everyone. As the flight attendants scurried up and down checking for damaged airplane frame, the sight out the window was a disturbing one.
Poor Heather watched as the left wing dumped all the fuel over the jungle as the pilot tried to keep the plane in the air. The wing flaps had malfunctioned and the airplane would only lift just above the trees below. The pilot said that we would land in Cancun to inspect the plane, not an easy task considering we were only hovering maybe 200' off of the land which was now ocean so clear that your could see the fish swimming below. The plane listed badly left and right, and never appeared to be under control. As the poor girls shook, I only had thoughts of crash landing in the ocean, the jungle, or on the runway. Did we even have left landing gear, or control for a flat landing without hitting a wing?
After circling around Cancun for the plane traffic to clear, and the tower to spot the landing gear condition, we went for a landing that turned out to be soft, although we didn't stop until the other end of the runway. The Captain said that the mechanics would inspect the plane to see if it was fit to fly on to Denver. Yeah Right we all said(or something to that effect)
After hours in the airport they FINALLY bussed us off to a hotel in Cancun to get some relaxation and dinner. We all congregated around the pool bar exchanging stories to find out what exactly happened. We will NEVER know; were we almost crashed, or was it just an "oops we'd better go land in Cancun and look at the tires," All I know is don't fly Allegro Charter Airlines unless you pack your own parachute or waterwings.
I guess that our unscheduled stay in Cancun was almost worth it. We got to spend an extra night of vacation at the beach, Heather missed school, and Val missed work.
You just never know what might happen under the full moon on the beach, in Mexico.
Valerie said that it would have been the shortest Engagement in history, second only to the poor millionare last month. Oh yeah, the important story is that Val and I are ENGAGED!
It happened on the Beach in Cozumel, under the FULL MOON. It sure is amazing how a diamond sparkles so many colors in the moonlight. She, and Heather said "yes" and no we don't know what the date is yet. More to come in future emails.
Alan Barry
