We had explored Acapulco, experienced holiday cultural differences, and seen a whole lot of family. One day, as I was looking at the picturesque view of the ocean and Pie de la Cuesta (which includes the runway for the Mexican Air Force) from one of the bedroom windows, I saw a huge Boeing jet down below the mountain at the Pie de la Cuesta military Air Force base.
I pointed this out to Julie, who is prior Air Force and thought she might take an interest....
She took a look, but didn't say much about it. But, later on in the day, I did notice that she was preparing for another excursion.
We climbed in the car, and headed down the mountain to 'explore Pie de la Cuesta better!
Julie drove down the mountain, and headed straight to the road that drives along the beach, and just so happens to pass the Military base........
We also 'just so happened to stop directly across the street from the military base, just to get a better look at the front gates and huge airplane displayed out front....!
No sooner had we stopped and exited the car, and three military 'guards proceeded to walk briskly and directly at us...waving their arms (that just so happened to be holding their guns) and swinging their heads in a back and forth motion, (that most people recognize as the NO signal....) and saying something to us in Spanish.
Now, Chuy is getting nervous, thinking about all the recent articles in the newspaper that show beheaded military men lined up, and very dead. He being ex-military himself, knew that they (the military) were on high alert to ANYTHING that may appear suspicious and out of the ordinary...( like two ambling American women accompanied by a local Mexican man wearing dark RayBans......)
Thru translation, Julie and I learned that we could not park the car so close to the base. It had to be moved... so move it we did~
But, as if that wasn't a good enough brush with the armed soldiers, Julie wanted a closer look, and proceeded to walk up near the guards to get some photos. We were also quickly directed that taking photos of the base was a negative!
(Little did they know, that with a good zoom lens, I could have taken all the photos I wanted of the base right from the house!).
Anyway, we did get the 'OK to take a few photos of the 'defunct display plane out front, and I pushed the limit a bit by directing the camera back towards the gate.......
Chuy breathed a noticeable sigh of relief after we said, "OK, enough, lets go!".
I almost could read his mind... (another potential disaster averted....)
Apparently these angles, from the plane forward to towards the road were OK.... however when I tried to angle the camera backwards from the road, the military men again started waving their arms, and swinging their heads in that back and forth motion that is universally understood to mean NO!
The below shot is the angle that is starting to push the limit. I got away with a few of these shots, but, I didn't push my luck.... I did not want any trouble with the military in Mexico.
This photo is when we first arrived at the military base...and Julie crossed the street to see why she was being waved down.... Chuy was hanging back..probably wondering to himself how would he get us out of this one?
This view is from the road, winding down the 'mountain to get to Pie de la Cuesta. If you notice, the military air strip is in the background..it looks kinda like a blurb or something above that roof..... but it is the strip of land that divides the ocean from the fresh water lagoon ....... (Ocean to the left, lagoon to the right.)The Lagoon is where one of the RAMBO movies was shot..the one that was suppose to mimic Vietnam.... Chuy remembers when they filmed there...
Hollywood has also used this spot for several other films...... especially when they want to capture the look of somewhere like Vietnam or Thailand or Guam...
So, we had another nice day. We left the Military base .... and walked around Pie de la Cuesta.
It was pleasant, and good exercise. At least this area is FLAT, unlike up on the mountain.
So, we had another interesting day....... which led up to the following adventures of traveling the Coast up to IXTAPA~!
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