Photographing the Playas

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Weather and Flight Plans

There will be two flights, one to photograph the Jalisco coastline and another to photograph the Colima coastline.

Jalisco:   The plan is to fly direct to Puerto Vallarta, which is at the western border of Jalisco, and then return photographing the entire Jalisco coastline at an altitude of about 1000'. It should take about 2-1/2 hours. The weather has been partly cloudy and could be a problem. Rain is expected Tuesday and Thursday. It looks like Wednesday morning 2/10/10 will be the best day even though it is the day of the Tomzap Party.

Colima:   The plan is to fly to Melaque/Barra de Navidad and take some additional more detailed photos of those towns, then proceed southeast to the Colima/Michoacan line, taking photos along the coast. This will be Friday morning 2/12/10. The forecast is for partly cloudy with a chance of rain.

The Flights

Jalisco:   Takeoff: 10:00 am   Landing: 12:30 am   Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

It is quite cloudy as we prepare for the flight. There is some rainfall while fueling. We find shelter under the wing of a wrecked airplane. We take off and take a few photos over Barra de Navidad and Melaque before proceeding on an overland route to Puerto Vallarta. As we near Puerto Vallarta, the mountains are higher with the mountaintops obscured by clouds so we have to divert to the south to get around them. On reaching Bahía de Banderas, we quickly descend to 1500' while calling Puerto Vallarta approach. There is a landing aircraft but they have no problem with us crossing the airport at 1500' and then circling for a return along the coast. The Puerto Vallarta airport is located next to the state line and that is where we begin taking photos.

The air is heavy with moisture making it undesirably hazy for taking photos. We cross the airport approach path at 1500' as there is no traffic at the time. I take photos constantly along the coast all the way back to Manzanillo, photographing the entire Jalisco coastline.

Here are some photos of the Overland Route to Puerto Vallarta.

I have uploaded about 600 photos of the Jalisco coast. See Aerial Photos of the Jalisco Coast.


Colima:   Takeoff: 10:40 am   Landing: 12:04 pm   Duration: 1 hour 24 minutes

This was supposed to be another partly cloudy day with a chance of rain but turned out to be a perfect sunny morning for taking pictures. We first flew to Barra de Navidad and Melaque as planned and took a few more photos there, then flew back along the coastline all the way to the Colima/Michoacan border. On the return, I flew somewhat inland and photographed back toward the coast.

There are 225 photos of the Colima coast. See Aerial Photos of the Colima Coast.

Here are some photos of the Overland Return Route to Playa de Oro.