Hard Landing

Me and Lisa are in Puerto Vallarta right now. Getting here was tricky – the rather small US Airways plane flew right into a thunderstorm over its landing strip and tried anyway. The plane was bucking like crazy, surging up and down like a roller coaster. Finally, with only several hundred feet to go, the pilots decided to scrub the attempt and fly east to Guadalajara instead. Pulling up from the landing approach was not fun, and felt a bit like leaving your stomach behind. We landed to refuel, waited a few hours for the storm to lessen, and tried again. It was a nasty landing and the plane came down hard – I was surprised the little tires didn’t burst. Tomorrow we put ourselves at risk again by going scuba diving with manta rays. The hotel where we’re staying has a strict “no children” policy, so it’s mainly gay couples and us. We went for a walk along the bay and it’s an interesting mix of poverty, ostentation, and ex-pats. This is the low season so it’s tropical, rainy, and humid. Apparently most of the gringos come here in December and January.