Valle de Bravo November-December 2021

 After a fantastic time in Tenancingo Alex and I travelled to Valle de Bravo, we've been there many times and it's always good XC!

If you are looking to get from Tenancingo to Valle de Bravo, the easiest way is to take a collectivo from the corner outside Nipaqui Restaurante (there are taxi staff there to assign you) and have it drop you at the main bus station in Tenancingo.  Inside go to the Zina bus counter and purchase a ticket to Valle.  Busses are roughly every hour or so.

The lake is extra low, you can see the exposed shoreline all around the lake.  Makes for easier final glides!

It's been a few years since our last trip to Valle and the lake is quite low!  So low, in fact, that hang gliders are landing on the now-exposed portions of the lake frontage on a regular basis, and no need to spot-land like in previous years.

Grabbing a taxi to launch is easy as well.  Depending on where you are staying, you will want to grab one either at the Zocalo or in front of the Santa Maria church next to the LZ.  If you are going solo, the taxi should not cost anymore than $200 pesos.  If you are group of 2 or 3, it'll likely be more like $250 pesos.  Occasionally a taxi will try to charge you $500...walk away from those ones!

Looking back at Penon on an overdeveloping day.  Photo by Alex Raymont.

Depending on the time of year and time of day, you may encounter someone manning the gate as you approach launch.  They may be looking for your local club membership, visiting pilot paid-fee QR code, or simply want to record your name for their records.  Each day was different!  Note if you register as a visiting pilot via the local club, you may not receive a response for several weeks, so plan ahead.

To see the various local club launch access rates, you'll need to register at https://clubpenon.org/

And then after registering and you've received the "thank you, someone will get back to you" response, go into the upper right corner and click on the rates button.  There are daily/weekly/monthly/annual rates listed there, and upon choosing and paying for one, you'll receive a confirmation email with a QR code to show upon request.

Enjoying an afternoon drink.

Since we were rather early in the season, launch was still green and not crowded, which meant you could set up on launch and not be in anybody's way!  And the bathrooms are fully cleaned between uses with an attendant, also available are some snacks and drinks.  Please support the local vendors!

During our time there cloudbase was a bit on the low side, lower than Tenancingo actually, more like mid-2000 m on most days.  This made transitions a bit more challenging.  Doing the Divis run at 2000m is a lot more stressful vs. doing it at 2900m!

We stayed in Valle for just over a week.  We did have a couple of days where it overdeveloped but it remained flyable every day.  Typically drier conditions are by early-mid-December so if you want to get a reliable week of flying, and avoid the holiday travel season, go to Valle in early-mid-December!