I don't give up so easily

I mentioned yesterday that we had another surprise for the group.

Our original schedule had us spending three nights here at Isla Aguada and then today moving on to the city of Campeche for three nights. We have a city tour of Campeche booked for 3pm on Saturday.

But the RV parking in Campeche is at a balneario (swimming resort) in an open field with minimal services. The weather here at Isla Aguada has been great and people are just enjoying relaxing. So I asked Gabriel, the owner of Caravans de Mexico if we could make an adjustment to do four nights here and then two nights in Campeche. If we left here at a decent hour on Saturday morning, we would still arrive in Campeche with lots of time to do the city tour starting at 3pm.

Gabriel agreed that was fine, and so we surprised the group with one more night at this location. Everybody loved the idea!

Lots of pelicans around here!

We puttered around for the morning, while 11 of the group members hired themselves a boat to take them out to see the dolphins and a birding island. They came back with great stories about the dolphins, and they enjoyed themselves so much that some of them are going again this morning!

After lunch, we were getting ready to take the bicycles for a ride. I was just finishing up reading some emails when I saw a flight deal notification come through. 

There's a new discount airline starting up in Canada. FlySwoop is owned by WestJet and begins operations in June. Yesterday was the first day of taking reservations and they had some fantastic deals. Very limited routing for now, but there was one that caught my eye.

Abbotsford B.C to Hamilton, Ont.

That's essentially Vancouver to Toronto, but using smaller local airports that have lower taxes and fees.

We need to be in Hamilton for Sept 29 for Ruth's nephew's wedding! This could work well because we will be in British Columbia with the motorhome for the month of September.

I found a flight that departs September 26th and returns Oct 17. It happened to be one of their 500 dirt cheap seats that they released as part of the opening day.

The final total price was $43 CAD ($35 USD) per person return. Essentially, it was a zero fare, with paying only the taxes and fees.

I tried booking it, and it even let me put in my credit card info, but every time I went to pay it said "I'm sorry, this flight is no longer available". Obviously a glitch because the system was overloaded.

But I don't give up so easily. I called customer support where it said there was a $15 surcharge if you book over the phone. Of course the lines were busy, but I only had to wait ten minutes or so. I explained the problem to the guy, he went and checked with his supervisor, and they gave me a booking number for the deal price! It took me 45 minutes on the phone to get the deal, but it was worth every minute.

Yep, $86 in total to fly the two of us from Abbostford to Hamilton and return. Sweet!

Now, because it's a no frills discount airline, we are only allowed a very small carry on that has to fit under the seat in front of you. But this is normally a $400 per person flight, so we will make it work!

Now, just have to keep my eyes open for a cheap car rental and we'll drive up to Ottawa after the wedding.

With that done, we took off on the bikes to do some exploring.

Isla Aguada.

More pelicans.

Ruth!

Isla Aguada.

Isla Aguada is a sleepy little fishing village. It seems almost everyone here is in the fishing business.

Catch of the day.

We spoke to the fisherman here. He said the name of the fish, but we don't remember it. He told us that they dry this fish in the sun, and then it is shipped to San Cristobal de las Casas and Tuxtla Gutierrez in Chiapas where it is sold.

Fish, drying in the sun. 

When the sun is shining, he says it only takes one day to dry.

Ready for shipment.

Not sure. Anybody?

Isla Aguada has a history with the pirates.

The original lighthouse was recently restored and now has a museum.

We were walking with our bikes through the park beside the museum when a young man in some kind of port authority uniform came up to us with a smile. He said the lighthouse houses a museum, and would we please visit? I told him we didn't have any money with us (we really didn't!), but he said that's okay, it's free!

Jose Armando brought us into the old lighthouse and asked us to sign the guestbook. It was 3:45pm, and we were the first visitors of the day!

He proceeded to give us an enthusiastic guided tour, of course all in Spanish. Although we miss bits and pieces, we are definitely better than we have ever been and we can ask questions when we don't understand.

He said that if we brought some of the group over today, they would have another guy who speaks English available.

View from the top of the old lighthouse.

The new lighthouse.

Sunset at Isla Aguada.

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