Good day!

One week ago I had one of the most amazing weekends at the sunny city of LA. After the excellent spotting trip to GDL, JC, Rich and I decided it was time to make a trip to the wonderful spots in LAX. So after taking advantage of the EXTREME fares in Avolar we planned a trip for May in the weekend of the last week of the month. I was so excited about it that I was confident that my finals were not going to be on the same days as the trip. Never in my last 6 semesters in college i had finals on the last days of the finals period. But for my surprise not only I had one final, BUT TWO...

Fortunately for me Avolar decided to give me another chance by opening the TLC -TIJ route and selling some tickets at 50 USD with tax included. To which I received a call from JC in which we decided ( in less than 10 seconds) that we were definately going to TIJ and then to LAX. Rich had finals so he couldn't come with us and 10 minutes later we were confirmed!

After this a friend was taking to another guy and this last guy said that he loves airplanes. My friend immediately crashed the keyboard in his face as he couldn't believe he had another friend as an airplane geek. When my friend told this guy about me he said: no no, It's my passion cuz I feel things when i'm on an airplane, etc...
To which my friend replied: no no, you know he ( talking about me) is sick, he sleeps in airports only to see airplanes and doesn't have normal trips in which you actually see something. This is actually very true and describes very well this trip to LAX. 

The day finally came, it was Friday June 22 and JC arrived at my house at 4:45 a.m. Eight minutes later my dad took us to the "El Caminante" stop which is located in the Hotel Royal Pedregal ( south part of Mexico City). We arrived just in time to buy our tickets and get onto the 5:00 a.m. bus that will take us infront of the Avolar check-in counters @ TLC. Not too much happened on the way to TLC. JC was smart enough to load his ipod with Jaime Duende's stuff ( a character that gets drunk all the time, created by a Mexican comediant) which made the road shorter as I laughed all the highway possibly bothering some passengers that were trying to get some sleep. My laughs were interrupted by the heavy brakes from the bus announcing our arrival to the warehouse, excuse me, the terminal. When we got down it was still dark and cold so we quickly walked inside the terminal which had the possibility of being colder than the outside...

We went into line which was short compared to Volaris ( not so much with Interjet really)


JC still thinking if it was a good idea to take this really early flight to TIJ.


After checking in and having a fight with the security girl that checks the bags (as she told me I had to have a box for the tripods cuz they were going to crush them on the ramp...????) we proceded to check in with this very nice young ( not so hot) girl that gave us our boarding pass. We had to check in the bags as I was so intelligent to take a Swiss knife in my bag "JUST IN CASE" ( in which some of you might agree that it's sometimes needed) which pissed JC as we had to wait for our bags in TIJ.

We proceeded to the security line where we were asked as to why we had so much photographic equipment. Actually JC was the one with bad luck.

Security Officer: Is there any photography convention?
JC: no, why?
SO: So why do you have so much photography equipment? May I check it? Why do you have a laptop?
JC: ( no words coming out, only the sound of grining teeth)

We found our place in one of the hundreds of chairs in the gate area and decided to "navigate" the internet with the "powerful" wireless internet. The internet was so good I decided to store my computer after trying to mantain an uninterrupted signal through out seconds... After some waiting our flight was called for boarding and we proceeded to the gate.

Our boarding pass



Friday June 22
TLC-TIJ
Avolar 162
Depart: 08:00 / 08:17 (Scheduled/Actual)
Arrive: 09:35 / 09:05 (Scheduled/Actual)
Duration: 3h 12min
Equipment: Boeing B737-300 (EI-VTP)
Cabin: Economy
Seats: 19A Actual: 22A
Load: 90 pax


The bus that took us to the remote stand where our aircraft was


Some aircrafts on the ramp waiting for passengers:




And finally our aircraft


The bus stopped at the aircraft and everyone got down to take pictures with the airplane. A very weird thing as security is always rushing people inside and not allowing pictures. So I took out my camera and took some pictures of it



JC annoucing his third trip with Avolar to Tijuana


Finally on board, JC and I went to the cockpit to say hi to the captain and the FO which talked to us till it was time to pushback. After going to our seats we discovered that the back of the plane was completely empty so each one of us took a row for ourselves on each side of the airplane.

Pushed back and headed to runway 15 and departed with some turbulence and some wicked vortex being created in the wingtip.

Seconds before lift off...


in the air


cool morning



10 minutes later we were almost at our assigned altittude which was 34,000 ft. JC took out his laptop and entretained himself and I read the newspaper that TLC gives you free when you're at the gate. Some 40 or 50 minutes later the two of the three F/A's started to give the drink and food service which consisted in a very regular sandwich with a drink (non-alcoholic to my disgrace).

meal


our FA's doing their job


After the meal I decided to take a nap as I woke up very early for the flight and when I woke up I found the captain talking with JC. I joined them and we had the most pleasant chat for around 20 minutes. We showed him pictures and he told us how he ended up in Avolar. All the Avolar crew made this an excellent flight as they were all cheerful and doing a great job.



Me trying to look interesting:


The second drink service was given and the captain announced on the speakers that we were about to start our descent. Outside the window you could see the most interesting geography:





Finally we made our approach to TIJ and the city started to appear outside


You can see the Mexico-US border





Spoilers


A weird 747SP infront of Avolar's hangar


Tijuana's Terminal


We took our position in the terminal and deboarded. As JC and I are very organized, JC took out his laptop and reserved our car that we were going to pick at SAN 5 hours later. This because our friend Rod from Tijuana was going to pick us at 12 and then cross us to San Diego. To pass some of the 4 hours we were going to be in TIJ, JC and I headed to the parking lot where we spotted for a while.

The terminal


As it was my first time in Tijuana I was intrigued by the cultural mixture as Tijuana is almost Americanized by people mixing Spanish and English naturally. Also I was amazed by the proximity of this international border that takes people lives every year. After some cultural shock, JC and I went back to the terminal to change some money and eat something as our stomachs were demanding some more food. We went into this small local inside the terminal that had the most expensive food ever as well as the most expensive red Marlboro. But apparently consuming was not enough for the old lady that works there as she was all the time cursing every movement that everyone made inside her small and expensive store.

The time for our ride to San Diego started to get longer as we had no news from Rod. The sun was taking it's toll with us as we were outside ( no seats inside) for hours.

Outside Tijuana's airport where you can actually see the border at the end of the picture.


Rod came with a 1h and a half delay and took us to the border where we made one hour of line



Duty free someone?


pfff what a line




After some driving we finally arrived at SAN to pick up our car which it had THE BEST car plate: 5X787  

And with some hours of delay we finally hit the 5 North to LA

San Diego:




Car Rental:


5 North


We were very excited!


But our excitement lasted as long as an ERJ takeoff as we got into the real world:

TRAFFIC


and 405 was no better


After LONG hours in traffic we finally arrived LAX and our excitement got to it's highest





Directly to Westchester as we had NO time to waste


Finally!!


And we started to spot!

A very clean China Southern


When the light started to go away, he headed to the TBIT to do some night shots


We left our car in Parking Lot C and took the shuttle to the terminals where there was the most weird and funny driver that singed and shouted and told several stories through out the way. Sometimes you had the feeling he was insulting you but no one seemed to matter. Also the ugliest women got into the bus...poor girl she looked like a toad.

When we were tired enough we went to our car to then go to our hotel...But wait a second. WE HAD NO HOTEL. So we spent the next two hours going through Century Av. looking for some cheap motel for us to spend the night. After looking the most terrible hotels and motels we finally arrived to a Chinease hotel in which the receptionist made aerobics while watching the TV. We got into our room expecting the worst but for our surprise we found a very nice and clean room with the most MAGICAL beds in the world. I slept like a baby the 2 nights.


Our room
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The Next day


Century Av.


Our hotel


View from our room


The next day we went to Imperial Av. to spot during the morning.




The coolest shots



>



After Imperial we went to the In and out


Then to Westchester and for our last night we headed to the TBIT again for night shots.

me and ghostly JC


Terminal 4 and ghostly JC again


TBIT


me taking some pictures


cool


random night shot from Imperial



That night JC and I headed inside the TBIT and started to collect bag tags from every exotic airline  

Now I can be a complete show off with this new tag in my bag  


In our last day in LAX the routine was the same and around 7 p.m. we decided it was time to go back to San Diego to drop the car at the car rental and wait for Rod to pick us up.

The 7Eleven in Imperial that provided us with our breakfast,lunch and dinner


One last tour around LAX


Goodbye to the cool Virgin ad


Back to San Diego with the coolest sunset

At 9pm we finally arrived at San Diego and our friend Rod from Tijuana went to pick us up and gave us a quick tour around the city. That night we went by the baseball stadium were Boston played against San Diego's Padres so downtown San Diego was full with the most beautiful girls ever and the bars were full! I have to say that San Diego has to be the finest city in the US! It's just out of this world!





our dinner for that night


Monday June 25
TIJ-TLC
Avolar 163
Depart: 1:45 a.m. / 02:15 (Scheduled/Actual)
Arrive: 07:05 / 07:25 (Scheduled/Actual)
Duration: 3h 10min
Equipment: Boeing B737-300 (EI-DRR)
Cabin: Economy
Seats: 5A
Load: 98%

We arrived at a very crowded Tijuana airport, checked-in and went to the gate area to use the useless internet prodigy has installed through out the country. The flight was packed and the process of boarding was slow. Specially when the Prince of Ignorance (I will be politically correct) arrived with a human size doll surrounded by huge boxes to protect it PRETENDING to take it onboard. Of course the gate agent refused for 20 minutes to take this kind of coffin on board as well another 10 minutes of this idiot family annoyed by this act. Finally onboard JC changed his seat and took a row for himself and both of us slept the whole flight.

At TLC we went off, took the bus and went to the slowest baggage claim belt.

Arriving at TLC

our plane


baggage belt


Our ride back home



After sleeping through out the highway from TLC to the Hotel Royal we arrived around 9:30 a.m. and then walked to my house to which was the end of this quick weekend at Los Angeles.

As a conclusion, Avolar is a great great airline. They have great service, their employees seem to have fun doing their work and the airplanes are well maintained. I would recommend everyone to give it a try if they have the chance to do so.

Thanks everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the reading as I promise another one soon.

Cheers!

Alonso

[Edited 2007-07-02 06:20:22]