Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Flights Holbox

Isla Holbox to Cancun

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Currency Exchange

We hadn't realized when we first arrived on Isla Holbox, that there was an airport and landing strip here.

This was rather exciting. We considered hiring a private plane - just for the experience and for the photos we'd take - to make our return to Cancun International Airport.

We walked to the Holbox airport, avoiding the puddles best we could, and spoke with a man named Guillermo. Guillermo took our information and reserved a plane for us for the following Wednesday at 11:30am.

We took his phone number and WhatsApp and both sides said we'd be in touch

We were all set.

Or at least we thought we were.

Map showing the location of the air field on Isla Holbox

It is Billy's nature to check on things, and as our date to leave the island neared, he went Flights Holbox website to check our reservation.

It wasn't there.

Billy wrote using the online form, and mentioned Guillermo's name, only to receive the response: "Who's Guillermo?"

Not good!

Entrance to the airport

This communication went back and forth for a while, with Billy calling Guillermo and WhatsApping him, with no response.

Not sure what was going on, Billy utilized the website, said we wanted to reserve a plane for Wednesday morning at 11:30.

To this we received the message: "No, we cannot accommodate you. Our small plane is in maintenance. We only have an 8-seater and it will leave the island at 3pm."

Gosh, what was going on?

The runway, separated by hundreds of conch shells

The price of the plane would be the same if it were just the two of us or if it was full (and the cost divided by all the passengers).

It was what it was, we took the 3pm slot, and just to add a bit of anxiety, there was a storm brewing, due to arrive on... Wednesday!

If the storm was going full-on, there would be no flight at all.

Simple runway

Well, needless to say there were a couple of days and evenings that we spent trying to figure out what happened, if we had a plane or not, and what time - exactly - that we were leaving.

It actually turned out that there were TWO flight companies, one run by Guillermo at the flight field (there were no advertising pamphlets there to let us know which was which) and Flights Holbox which had a website.

So unknowingly, we had been dealing with two different flight companies at the same time.

How confusing!

What struck us as very odd, was it "seemed" that one flight company didn't know about the other?

I mean, the island is small, guys. They are using the same runway. How could that possibly be?

We had made our initial arrangements with Guillermo who didn't answer his phone or WhatsApp on the weekend. Then we pursued the website which did return our emails... and gave us reservation numbers and a phone number to call.

Then Guillermo called us back on Monday to confirm our flight at 11:30am...

!!!

Yikes.

There were some good natured apologies come Wednesday when we arrived at the airport.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go

We would rather have left at 11:30am because our check out at the hotel was before noon.

But instead, we had to spend some time eating and having coffee and such, just to get us to 3pm.

Well, at least now we were there at the airport, and just had to wait for the plane to arrive.

Don't  forget about the storm!

It's dee plane! It's dee plane!

And you know what? The plane arrived before 3pm bringing a family with them.

All we had to do was wait for them to deboard and get our luggage inside.

Yay. The plane arrived!

So this snazzy, shiny plane arrived and pleasantries were exchanged between us, the pilots and the family they just brought from Cancun.

One of the pilots took our photos, grabbed our luggage and put it on board for us.

The instrument panel

This was not the first plane that we have commissioned.

We did this in Oaxaca when we decided to take a 30 minute flight from the city instead of a 12 hour winding road through the mountains.

So we were looking forward to this.

Lit up board

So we're inside and the pilots come in and do their checking of instruments.

They had a procedure book they followed and it was all very professional.

We were happy the plane was in such good shape, and even had air conditioning.

The view outside our window

The motor is running and we are rolling now, taxiing ourselves into take off position.

Notice all the conch shells as decoration here. There had to have been hundreds, all told.

The pilots and their instruments

We heard a lot of different kinds of buzzing, clicking and ringing and I was really hoping that all of it was "normal."

These were sounds I was unfamiliar with and maybe I was just a tad nervous!

Ready to go!

These pilots apparently had put in a full day, and they were anxious to miss that storm and get home safely.

That's just how we felt too!

Billy in dee plane

Here's Billy ready to photograph and video the trip.

You can see what a nice and new plane this was.

It sat 8 passengers.

Lift off!

Seriously, it was a very short runway but before we knew it, we were up in the air.

Here you see the white sand beaches of Holbox from the air.

There are the palapas, hotels, and a bit of the town.

We are looking in the direction of the sandbars of the Mosquito Coast.

Nice coastline

More coastline, more palapas, turquoise waters and a bit of jungle.

Another aerial view

Holbox is only about a mile wide.

You can see the protected wetlands and the jungle in the background of this shot.

The view from my wing seat

Here you can see the wing of the plane as I take a shot out my window.

That sand is really white, isn't it?

The wetlands

There are boat tours which take you through some protected areas and to 3 different islands.

You can see much of that here.

More wetlands

This is a nice shot too with the lacy look of the flora and ponds.

Purple flowers on the wetlands

In the middle top right of the photo, you can see the ferries coming and going from Chiquila to Holbox.

They run continuously and every day.

The ferries on their routes

This is a better shot of the ferries in the center of the photo.

Look how clear this water is! You can see straight to the bottom.

Leaving the island now

An even better shot of the ferries in motion here.

We are leaving the island and making our way to the mainland now.

Expansive waters now

There are no whitecaps so that's a good sign.

The storm does come, but we are pretty peaceful here.

Making our way

Here you see the clouds leaving shadows on the land below us.

The storm

You can see the rain coming down here from these clouds.

The plane is bopping around a bit here, which my stomach doesn't like much.

The whole flight is just under 30 minutes, but at this point, I am counting those minutes.

Meanwhile the pilots are cool and calm, and Billy's having a blast.

Landing

The pilots were able to avoid direct contact with the storm, but when we landed, the wind was blowing.

General aviation area

We didn't arrive at the main part of International Airport Cancun. We were at the FBO, or Fixed Base Operations.

The landing was easy, I was grateful there was no more bumping around, and that we had missed the storm completely.

But by the time we got into the taxi it was raining hard.

The taxi was arranged by the people in the airport who worked for Flights Hobox and the rate was 500 Pesos (about $25USD). This was a great price for him to take us to the ferry.

We were on our way to Isla Mujeres!

The price of the plane was about $900USD.

Would we recommend this flight?

Absolutely!!

__________

Flights Holbox

AV Damero corner Calle Sierra / Luuma

Holbox Island 77310 Mexico

email: flightsholbox@gmail.com

Website: https://flights-holbox.com/

For more stories and photos about Holbox CLICK HERE

For more stories and photos about the Yucatan, CLICK HERE

For more stories and photos about Mexico CLICK HERE

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