Our hotel, Casa Nueva, offered a welcome respite after the bus ride and lugging our belongings from the bus station. Valle de Bravo may be a small town, but it wasn't the quiet, sleepy place I was expecting.
Our first night, we filled the window ledge with all our belongings in order to block out the street noise from below. Vendors were working the street at all hours, selling tamales, fire works, cups of boiled seasoned corn, and special bread for Three Kings Day. We suspended the window treatment after the first night. I fell into bed exhausted each night and had no problem sleeping (til the birds turned on at 5:30/6 a.m., that is).
This was where we welcomed the new year. We fell into bed at about 9:30 p.m. on 12/31 with a plan to wake up when the fireworks fired at midnight. It worked!! At midnight, the church bells across the street began ringing wildly and woke us up. We hung out the window, watching fireworks going off in the square and the vendors hurredly cleaning up the street to go home. Not your typical New Year's party, but more memorable than most.
The view of the church from our window.
El Pinon is the name of the big rock across from launch and what we call Valle's main flying site. This is the view of El Pinon from the landing zone, known as "The Piano." I was often the first pilot to land, so I'd hang under the shade tree in The Piano waiting for a shuttle back to town. From there, I could watch other newer pilots coming in to land and the more experienced pilots taking off and getting altitude over launch or the Pinon. By the time the Monarca Open competition started on January 3, there were a lot of pilots in the sky!
The basic cross country flight seemed to be trying to get from El Pinon to the landing zone on the lake in town. The landing zone is pretty sleepy early in the morning.
But, by early afternoon, pilots were coming in from the launch over town (La Torre) or from El Pinon. After my morning flight, the shuttle would drop me back here and I'd grab a Torta (sandwich) and water from the food stand and watch pilots coming in to land until heading back to the hotel for a shower or back up the mountain for an evening flight.
Meredyth told us that kids in town had lowered a fake spider on a string right in front of her as she walked down the street. I later caught them as they awaited their next victim.
A quiet moment on the street.
"Please let me in."
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