We spent a day in San Antonio, Texas and really enjoyed exploring the famous Alamo. In December 1835, during Texas’ war for independence from Mexico, a group of Texan volunteer soldiers occupied the Alamo, a former Franciscan mission located near the present-day city of San Antonio. On February 23, 1836, a Mexican force numbering in the thousands and led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. Though vastly outnumbered, the Alamo’s 200 defenders–commanded by James Bowie and William Travis and including the famed frontiersman Davy Crockett–held out courageously for 13 days before the Mexican invaders finally overpowered them. For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their heroic resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year. We also wandered along the river walk-located one story below the street, and lined by restaurants, shops, nature and public artwork.

With 2 weeks left before we head home-it was time to slowly make our way towards Galveston, where Ruby will be leaving first, on her ship to Southampton. We spent a few days outside Houston, sorting out all our stuff.

 We treated ourselves to a day at the NASA space centre and it was absolutely fantastic! We were there from the moment it opened to almost the moment it closed. Part of the day included a 90 minute tram tour which took us around significant points of interest in the Johnson space centre. The space centre presently serves as the home of mission control, NASA’s lead for International Space Station operations and missions, home to the Orion Multi-purpose crew vehicle, and numerous advanced human exploration projects. The centre also plays an important role in NASA’s Commercial Crew programmes.

The first stop took us into the room which overlooked the historic mission control, which managed, amongst many things, all of the lunar landings. As the world watched the outcome of Apollo 11, the first attempted lunar landing, employees in the NASA Mission Control Center held their breaths during the entire descent. Everyone anxiously awaited the confirmation of a safe arrival from its Apollo crew. At approximately 3:18 p.m. on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong’s famous words were forever ingrained in history: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Once word was received from the lunar module, capsule communicator (CAPCOM) Charlie Duke responded to Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He expressed the feelings of relief and excitement that were felt in Mission Control and around the world:“Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You’ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.”

In fact, from this room, the NASA team exercised full mission control of Apollo 11 from launch and liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. You can feel the history in the room from the monitors to the rotary dial phones.
 It was so interesting and we saw the small speaker where the first and last words from the moon were broadcast and also the infamous line "Houston we have a problem"-which we learnt were not the exact words that were used! The exact words were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" We learnt that 12 people have set foot on the moon, and there have been 12 manned (only men so far) landings (all by the USA). In those days-there was only one computer used with one as back up-its computer power was only the size of a phone app that we use nowadays! The success depended on 10 per cent technology and 90 per cent brain power-the staff using slide rules (there were no calculators!) to land man on the moon! Incredible! The room we were sitting in was the one used by the families of the astronauts, to see their loved ones in space. They had an open invitation to attend.

We visited the space vehicle mock up facility and astronaut training centre-where all astronauts have trained since 1980. There have been several types of mockups within the facility and each served a different function for astronauts and engineers. Initially, the facility housed space shuttle training modules such as the full fuselage trainer and two crew compartment trainers. The building is home to exploration rover prototypes and other robotics projects such as Valkyrie, NASA’s next generation of humanoid robot also known as R5. International Space Station modules help astronauts become familiarized with the space station in preparation for their mission. Orion, NASA’s crewed space vehicle, is being evaluated and tested by astronauts in Building 9 as engineers finalize Orion’s design. Orion is the space vehicle that will eventually take humans (hopefully including a female) to land on Mars.

We explored Rocket Park, where one of only three of the remaining actual Saturn V rockets is displayed, along with other rockets that propelled space exploration.  The Saturn V rocket at NASA Johnson Space Center is the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever flown. NASA used the colossal Saturn V rockets primarily during the Apollo programme to send Americans to the moon. There are only three Saturn V rockets on display in the world. The three segments, called stages, contain the powerful engines needed to lift off, entering orbit to reach the moon. In total, 13 Saturn V rockets launched into space. The Saturn V rocket stands 363 feet tall and has dazzled viewers since its first un-crewed takeoff, the Apollo 4 mission in 1967. When fueled and ready for launch, the rocket can weigh 6.2 million pounds (2.8 kg). That is almost the same weight as 39 space shuttle orbiters.

Flown from 1967 to 1973, the rocket launched 27 astronauts into space with six successful missions landing men on the moon. Saturn V also launched Skylab, America’s first space station, into orbit in its final mission. Astronauts could immediately feel the impressive power of Saturn V propelling them through Earth’s atmosphere into orbit. It was, as the American`s would say, awesome!

There was plenty more to see. We visited a shuttle replica Independence, mounted on top of the historic and original NASA 905 shuttle carrier aircraft, and then explored the giant plane. It is the world’s only shuttle mounted on an shuttle carrier aircraft and the only one allowing the public to enter both. We learnt about the planned missions to Mars, we saw how astronauts live in space and we listened to a talk by an astronaut who described his favourite moment in space as seeing the earth for the first time and how emotional that was.

We then made our way to Galveston for our last few days. It was Ruby`s turn first and we took her to the port, ready for shipping. We had to pay for an escort to take us into the port-as you cannot drive in by yourself. A lovely man called Gary from Galveston was our escort-he met us at the port and took us to where we needed to go. Someone came and checked Ruby`s VIN and wrote a series of numbers on her window (I guess to identify which ship she will be going on). Next, I took the dock receipt to be stamped. Gary showed us where to park Ruby. And that was that. We left the old girl there ready to be shipped by roll on roll off (instead of a container, she will be driven on and off). We will be reunited with her again around the end of June.

 It was a strange feeling leaving her there. Ruby has been our home, our transport and our life for the last 2 years (other than hotels and airbnbs!) and has done us proud. She has been fantastic. Whilst we have had a number of mechanical issues-none have been too serious and she has kept going mile after mile after mile. People love Ruby-she has had countless photos taken and has been pulled over many times by the police and military, so they could have a good look at her. She has been an integral part of the trip and through her we have met some wonderful people-such as Francis and Elsa in Portland, Graham and Joyce in Belize, all the landy guys in Colombia and the wonderful Jorge in Argentina. It has also bought us into contact with the lovely Mike Trott from the Landy paper. Thank you and safe travels Rubes-see you back in Blighty!

Next we headed to customs, handed in our paperwork and were given clearance to export her home. Heading back to the airbnb, emotion must have overcome me, as I fell flat on my face! I looked up to see Gav peering at me, looking all concerned, however I was fine!

We spent our last morning on a wonderful fishing trip from Galveston port. It was the day of the royal wedding so I had got up at 4.30am to watch it live! (I loved it-as did all the Americans we have spoken to!) We went on a large boat with about 80 other people, out into the bay. We had a lovely few hours-with dolphins following the boat- and Gav  caught and released 3 catfish. We also sailed past Ruby-patiently waiting for her boat! She must have thought "look at those buggers, still enjoying themselves, whilst my trip is over"!

So that`s it folks. We`re done. Tomorrow we fly back from Houston, almost exactly 2 years to the day we flew from the UK to New York, to start the trip. We have had a wonderful time and seen some of the most incredible things. We have set foot on the most remote continent on earth and felt we were part of a David Attenborough documentary! We have met some brilliant people-with whom we shall stay in touch, We have been welcomed by lovely people in all of the different countries  and places, and have felt humbled by the tremendous amount of human kindness everywhere we have been. We have never felt unsafe and have always found someone to help us, when we needed it. The world is largely a safe place and people are generally kind people. We need to build connections and bridges, not walls and barriers. We have never taken our tremendous privileges for granted and have felt so lucky to be able to do this trip.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming "WOW-what a ride!"
 
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
      But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
      Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
      On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
      That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
 
Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
      At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
      And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
      Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
      That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
 
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
      There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
      The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
      Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
      That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.
 
WOW-What a RIDE!
 
 
 

We arrived in the beautiful city of Puebla, Mexico`s fourth largest City and just 67 miles from Mexico City. We spent a couple of days wandering around the gorgeous buildings and learning a little about the City`s history. Puebla suffered quite badly in the September 2017 earthquake, however a lot of work had been done to restore the historic buildings. We also visited a photography exhibition featuring the legendary Mexican artist , Frida Kahlo. Frida is an icon in Mexico and her image is everywhere. I (Jen) have become a little bit obsessed with her and her life story and have already bought numerous (tacky!) Frida souvenirs to take home! Poor Gav has become used to me brandishing a cheap shopping bag or fridge magnet, bearing Frida`s face, with delight! More on Frida`s story later!

We left Puebla and headed to Teotihuacan, 25 miles outside Mexico City, where we left Ruby for 6 days whilst we travelled into Mexico city and stayed in a lovely hotel in the old central district. There are complicated rules governing when you are allowed to drive in Mexico City and most of Mexico state, due to pollution, and the police are hot on stopping and fining you, if you get it wrong. We decided to leave Ruby at the campsite, as the easier option!

We really enjoyed our time in Mexico City, the most populous city in North America. Mexico City is one of the most important cultural and financial centres in the Americas. It is located in the Valley of Mexico a large valley in the high plateaus in the centre of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres (7,350 ft). It is the largest Spanish speaking city in the world. We visited the wonderful main plaza and its cathedral; the supreme Court of Justice which contained absolutely amazing murals about justice and injustice, the national palace  with its Diego Rivera (married to Frida!!) murals and the Templo Mayor-ruins in the middle of the city which was the main temple of the Aztecs in their capital city. We also visited the public education building which was Diego Rivera`s first large scale mural project.

We had a couple of days on the hop on hop off tourist bus-visiting the important monuments in the City and Chapultepec park. The park was fabulous and we spent most of a day there, visiting the wonderful anthropology museum which was world class. It took us through the entire history of Mexico and contained wonderful artifacts. We also visited the botanic gardens and the castle of Chapultepec.

We visited the districts of Roma and Condesa-hunting out great street art and of course, we had to visit the Frida Kahlo museum in Coyoacan. I found this museum-housed in Frida`s childhood home and where she lived for a time with Diego and where she died-mesmerizing!  The museum contains a collection of artwork by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and other artists along with the couple’s Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs, memorabilia, personal items, and more. The collection is displayed in the rooms of the house which remains much as it was in the 1950s. It is the most popular museum in Coyoacán and one of the most visited in Mexico City.

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is now regarded as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth  Century. Severely injured in a bus crash in her youth, Frida Kahlo took up painting when confined to her bed. Her life was changed forever by the accident and the portrayal of her body, wracked with pain, is a recurring theme in her paintings. Frida said that there were two accidents in her life –  the second was her tempestuous relationship with the renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. It is in her iconic self portraits, unrivalled in their poignant beauty, that Kahlo depicts both her isolation and also her indomitable spirit and sense of self. The exhibition also reveals the less well-known aspects of her work; her powerful political insights about national identity, the plight of the poor, the march of technology and Mexico's relationship with its neighbour the USA.

The museum consists of ten rooms. On the ground floor is a room that contains some of Frida`s  mostly minor works. This room originally was the formal living room, where Frida and Diego entertained notable Mexican and international visitors and friends. The second and third rooms are dedicated to personal effects and mementos and to some of Diego Rivera’s works. The second room is filled with everyday items Frida used, letters, photographs, and notes. On the walls are pre-Hispanic necklaces and folk dresses, especially the Tehuana style ones that were Frida’s trademark. The sixth and seventh rooms are the kitchen and dining room. Both are in classic Mexican style, with blue and yellow tiles and a long yellow table, where Frida's sister Ruth stated that Frida spent much of her time. The two rooms are filled with large earthenware pots, plates, utensils, glassware, and more which came from different parts of Mexico. Decorative features include papier-mâché Judas skeletons hanging from its ceiling, and walls with tiny pots spelling the names of Frida and Diego next to a pair of doves tying a lovers’ knot.

Off the dining room was Rivera’s bedroom, with his hat, jacket, and work clothes still hanging from a wall rack. Next to this is a stairwell that leads from the courtyard area to the upper floor. This area also contains a large number of folk art items and includes about 2,000 votive paintings from the colonial period to the 20th century, other colonial era work, and more Judas figures.

The two rooms of the upper floor which are open to the public contain Frida’s final bedroom and studio area. This is located in the wing that Rivera had built. The original furniture is still there. In one corner, her ashes are on display in an urn (she died aged only 47), which is surrounded by a funeral mask, some personal items, and mirrors on the ceiling. On her bed is a painted plaster corset she was forced to wear to support her damaged spine, and under the canopy is a mirror facing down which she used to paint her many self-portraits. The pillow is embroidered with the words "Do not forget me, my love." Her wheelchair is drawn up to an unfinished portrait of Stalin, on an easel which is said was given to her by Nelson Rockefeller. Stalin became a hero to Frida Kahlo after the Red Army victory over Nazi Germany  in World War 2.

The tour of the museum ends at the large courtyard garden which is completely enclosed by the four sides or wings of the structure. The courtyard area is divided by a stepped pyramid, a fountain, and a reflection pool. These were built in the 1940s when Rivera first moved into the house and built the fourth wing enclosing the house. This wing’s walls which face the courtyard are decorated with marine shells and mirrors. There are also sculptures by Mexican artist Mardonio Magaña. One side of the courtyard contains the inscription "Frida y Diego / vivieron en / esta casa / 1929-1954" (Frida and Diego lived in this house – 1929-1954).

I loved it and spent a good 2 hours or so listening to an audio tour and even going back and repeating some of the rooms, whilst Gav whizzed around in less than an hour! He waited patiently for me outside and gave a little smile as I appeared with a big smile on my face and clutching-you`ve guessed it-more Frida souvenirs!!

We visited the colourful museum of popular  art that promotes and preserves Mexican handicrafts and folk art. The museum has a collection which includes textiles, pottery, glass, furniture and much more.

Friday night came and we headed for our first ever Lucha libre experience. Lucha libre means free style or literally translated as "free fight" and is the term used in Mexico for professional wrestling. Since its introduction to the country in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form of the genre, characterized by colourful masks, rapid sequences of holds and manoeuvres, as well as  high flying manoeuvres, some of which have been adopted in the USA and elsewhere. The wearing of masks has developed special significance, and matches are sometimes contested in which the loser must permanently remove his mask, which is a wager with a high degree of weight attached. Tag team wrestling is especially prevalent in lucha libre, particularly matches with three-member teams, called trios.

We had been looking forward to this all week and it did not disappoint! We purchased 2 colourful lucha libre masks and I (Jen) had mine on within minutes, even though it was incredibly hot inside it! We had front row seats and within a few minutes, were being interviewed for Mexican TV-although we had to speak Spanish!

Once the fights started we threw ourselves into it alongside the rest of the crowd. For the first 2 rounds I kept my mask on whilst shouting, hollering and screaming, and nearly suffocated! It had to come off so I could breathe. I got into it so much that when the fighter came out of the ring next to us, I leapt up and was shouting and gesticulating so much, that security came rushing over and told me to sit down! What a great night`s entertainment-a must do when visiting Mexico City.

We left Mexico city and headed back to collect Ruby from Teotihuacan. Before we headed off, we visited The holy city of Teotihuacan ('the place where the gods were created'). Built between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D., it is characterized by the vast size of its monuments – in particular, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, laid out on geometric and symbolic principles. As one of the most powerful cultural centres in Mesoamerica, Teotihuacan extended its cultural and artistic influence throughout the region, and even beyond. We climbed the huge pyramids of the sun and moon and enjoyed wandering around the ruins for a couple of hours.

Next stop was to San Miguel de Allende and a reunion with our friends Fi and Ken, who we last saw a few months ago. We enjoyed the pretty city of San Miguel but the highlight was spending time with Fi and Ken and taking up where we left off with our card games and teasing Ken for his Americanisms! Their plans were flexible and they had decided to head back into the USA, before shipping to Colombia. We decided to travel together for a few days and we made a couple of camping spots together (at Matehuala and Monterey) before crossing the USA border at Laredo. The border crossing into the US was easier than our first into Seattle last year-however we somehow managed to miss Mexican immigration to get stamped out! We gave in our temporary vehicle permit for Ruby and will receive the deposit we paid when we first entered Mexico within a few days. We had to answer a few questions about our plans in the USA, then wait a short while to get our visas stamped. Car insurance for foreign vehicles, particularly old ones like Ruby, is incredibly expensive in the USA. I had managed to find a Mexican agent who insured us at a reasonable price for our final 2 weeks in Texas, which was a relief.

We spent 2 final nights with Fi and Ken-at a state park in Laredo and at a hotel in Cotulla. These 2 have become very dear friends and we know we will see them again someday.

We have absolutely loved our time in Mexico-it is a diverse, beautiful country with friendly and helpful people. It has a bad press because of cartel violence, however, like most people we met, we never felt unsafe. It had my favourite food of the trip-food being very cheap and incredibly tasty. We spent about 4 months here in total and would love to return one day.
 
 

Our first stop back in Mexico after crossing the border from Belize was Tulum, a town on the Caribbean coastline of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Tulum is known for its beaches and well-preserved ruins of an ancient Mayan port city. We stayed in a small hotel in the centre-planning to stay a few nights to visit the ruins and cenotes. The hotel was lovely. Until 7pm that evening when ridiculously loud music began belting out of the bar next door and went on and on! We have grown used to loud music over the last 2 years, however this was something else and it even made the headboard on our bed vibrate!! At 11.30pm I (Jen) went to the hotel reception in my PJ`s and asked how long the music was likely to go on for. At least until 4am-they said! The hotel staff had a box of earplugs they were dishing out-clearly a common occurrence around here! I took the earplugs and we did get some sleep. We decided to cut our stay short and head to the next destination, visiting the Tulum ruins before we left. The ruins were the only Mayan ruins to be built on the coast-and the location was stunning. We spent just over an hour here, as it was very crowded due to the Easter holidays.

We left the craziness of Tulum and drove the short distance to Coba, much less touristy than Tulum. We really enjoyed Coba and visited its magnificent ruins. Coba’s claim to fame is the largest network of stone causeways in the ancient Mayan world, called sacbes (white roads). Over 50 of these roads have been discovered at the site, with 16 of them open to the public. The largest pyramid at Coba is called Ixmoja, part of the Nohoch Mul group of buildings. The pyramid is 42 meters (138 feet) tall and was the heart of the city. It was a steep climb to the top-but totally worth it as we gazed over the greenery of the jungle stretching in all directions. We were also there just after opening time (8am) and almost had the place to ourselves, which was refreshing after the huge crowds at Tulum.

We visited the cenote at Choo-Ha. The Yucatán Peninsula is home to a unique group of underwater habitats that look like circular swimming pools. These beautiful formations are known as cenotes, meaning “natural well” in Spanish. Formed through the gradual wearing away of the limestone walls by freshwater river systems, cenotes offer an opportunity to enjoy swimming in the depths of the underwater cenote world. Cenotes are a result of the constant, and widening flow of underground rivers through limestone caverns. Freshwater moves through the caverns eventually widening them to a point where the ground above can no longer be supported and falls in.

Choo-Ha is a shallow water cenote with crystal blue water and many stalagmites hanging from the ceiling. It was beautiful and we were the only ones there. The cenote was underground and full of bats! I really enjoyed a quick dip in the water whilst Gav took pictures.

Our next stop was Valladolid. On the way, we visited the stunning cenote of Suyton-it was incredible. Cenote Suytun is an underground cavern containing many stalactites, and clear shallow water where you can see the freshwater fish. The sun`s rays shone in though a small opening at the top of the cave-making a natural spotlight on the water below.
We really enjoyed Valladolid-using it as a base to visit a few places. We went to the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza, hugely popular and declared one of the wonders of the modern world. We went really early before the crowds and really enjoyed its imposing structures, particularly the massive step pyramid called El Castillo.

 We also visited the ruins at Ek Balam-much less touristy than Chichen Itza. When the Mayas abandoned the site, it went undercover, literally, as the dense low-lying jungle of Yucatán engulfed it. As with all of the Maya pyramids, these were discovered when archaeologists and adventurers saw a group of hills with trees and brush growing out of them. Digging in the mounds, they uncovered treasures of buildings and artifacts hidden for hundreds of years.
At Ek Balam, restoration has been ongoing since 1997. The Acropolis is the largest restored building, measuring 480 feet across, 180 feet wide and 96 feet tall. This palace has six levels where the governors and higher echelons of the city’s population lived. We climbed this imposing structure, and from the top saw all the other structures at Ek Balam, as well as two large hills which are two unrestored buildings.

We visited the centre of Valladolid and really enjoyed an hour`s tour around a private home, Casa de los Venados, containing over 5,000 items of Mexican folk art. it was a beautiful home with so many beautiful things to see such as art, ornaments, and sculptures etc.

We had a day visiting 3 nearby cenotes-San Lorenzo Hacienda Oxman cenote; Xkeken and Samula. Oxman was amazing. Deep underground-we had to access it by a stone staircase. The water was clear and there is a large opening at the top of the cenote where tree roots and vines dip down to the fresh water and you can swim up to them. Xkeken and Samula were close to each other-both located completely underground with a small opening at the top of the rock ceiling, allowing the sun’s rays to shine down to the water below, with tree roots hanging through the opening. There were stalactites hanging from the rock ceiling, and interesting rock formations, bats flying above your head and little black catfish swimming in the water with you!
Next, we headed to Merida, the largest city and capital of the state of Yucatan. Much of Mérida's architecture from the colonial period through the 18th century and 19th century is still standing in the historic centre of the city. We spent a very hot day wandering around the city, before meeting our old friends Roque and Sharon, who we first met in Death Valley, for dinner. It was great to catch up with them again and share stories. It is the last time we will see them this trip although hope to see them again one day when they visit Europe!

Next was Campeche, a colonial-era harbour city with baroque Spanish architecture, colourful houses, cobblestone streets and a walled historic district. Its preserved fortifications contained museums and a small botanic garden. We enjoyed wandering around the walled city and visited some of the museums and forts.

On our way to Veracruz we encountered our first "dodgy "police officer of the trip. The police in Mexico are very poorly paid and some try and supplement their income by other means. He pulled us over at a check point and told us (in Spanish) there had been an infraction! He said we had been speeding (we hadn`t) but he had no equipment to verify this. He took Gav`s driving licence and I gave him only copies of our other documents, as I realised we might have some issues getting them back without paying. He kept saying "infraction" and then typed it into his phone on google translate! I spotted my opportunity and swiped Gav`s driving licence from his hand, leaving him with the worthless copies of the other documents. We stayed calm and just kept telling him we did not understand. He gave up pretty quickly and told us it was an infraction but he would let us off and shook our hands before waving us on our way! We even got the copies of our documents back. I must mention that, before this incident, we have been stopped by countless police and military over the last 2 years. They have all been wonderful-curious, helpful and courteous. I have learnt to say in Spanish "Hello-the police/military in your country are wonderful-so friendly-unlike the police in England who are miserable (this bit is untrue of course!)"  We then have lots of handshakes and smiles and get waved on our way!

We are heading next to Puebla and Mexico City, where we have booked tickets for the front row to see Lucha Libre-the famous Mexican wrestling!
 

We wanted a few jobs done on Ruby and get her checked out for the last leg of her trip, so we found a Land Rover garage in Central Farm near San Ignacio. The plan was to leave her there for a few days whilst we headed to Belize City to catch a water taxi to the island of Caye Caulker. We found the land rover garage and were greeted by a wonderful Liverpool accent-this was Joyce, who owns the garage with her husband Graham. Graham is a wonderful character from Wales-he has so many stories to tell, about so many things! From the small former drugs plane that is parked outside their garage to the landy he owns that transported Princess Margaret when she visited Belize! Joyce also runs a British shop which she showed us. It was beautifully decorated with all things British and most importantly stocks a variety of goodies we have not seen for a long time such as-YORKSHIRE TEA BAGS (!) , mint sauce, crumpets, Eccles cakes, Flakes, baked beans and many more delights! We went around the shop oooohing and ahhhing and stroking things much to Joyce's amusement!

Graham and Joyce kindly took us for lunch and dropped us off at the bus stop in San Ignacio. We caught the local chicken bus to Belize city, however after a few miles into the journey-the engine started to belch out a load of smoke! "EVACUATE" shouted the driver-so everybody hurried off the bus and stood a safe distance away! A passing taxi driver drove slowly past and in his wonderful Belizean accent shouted "Mon look-the bus is on fire" whilst laughing his head off! Good business for taxis I guess!
Eventually another bus came and everyone piled on. We got to Belize City without further problems and caught a taxi to our hotel for the night. The following day we went down to the marina and caught a small water taxi to Caye Caulker which took about 45 minutes. The sea was beautiful-aqua green and very clear. As we approached the island-some dolphins swam ahead of the boat. Caye Caulker is a small limestone coral island off the coat of Belize, in the Caribbean sea.

The island was wonderful. The motto, which is painted everywhere, is "Go slow"! We did not need telling twice! We sauntered up the street to our small guesthouse and checked in for 3 nights. We could see the sea from the hotel and it was possible to walk around the island in a hour or so as it is tiny. We went to visit Caveman tour company-as we had booked a snorkeling trip for the following day. We met Gerald-the owner`s brother-in -law, who was in charge that day. We started chatting to him and before we knew it-he had bought us a Belkin beer (Belizean beer)! He told us about his long career in the police force, which he was in the process of retiring from. We bought him a beer back and so the story went on for another couple of hours! We then went in search of food-there was so much choice. We settled on the sports bar-overlooking the sea and with our toes in the sand. we had high hopes for the singer, Tsunami Nick, however we left after a few songs as, in our opinion, he did not live up to his name!

The next day we returned to Caveman tours for our all day snorkeling trip. We said hi to our new friend Gerald and met our captain and guides-Harry and George! We love the Belizean names! This was the best snorkeling trip we have ever done. We were a small group of 10 on a medium boat with our 2 guides. We had so many snorkeling stops I lost count-at least 6 or 7! We stopped at the Hol Chan Marine reserve; Shark Ray Alley; Coral gardens and more! Each stop was different from the previous one and so memorable. In Shark Ray alley we swam with tens of nurse sharks who surrounded our boat. Nurse Sharks are OK, they’re slow-moving bottom-dwellers, and usually harmless to humans. However, they can be huge – up to 14 feet (4.3 meters). Plus they have strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth and they will bite defensively if stepped on or overly bothered! We didn`t bother them and gave them sufficient space!

 We saw various species of sting rays at a number of places. Most stingrays have one or more barbed stingers on the tail, which are used exclusively in self-defence. The stinger may reach a length of around 35 cm (14 in), and its underside has two grooves with venom glands. All I (Jen) could think about when I saw them floating beneath me was the sad end of Steve Irwin-so I had a quick look at them and then swam away quickly!

 We saw the most beautiful coral and colourful fish-our guide took us on a hour and a quarter snorkeling tour of the reef, where we swam after him and he dived down and pointed things out to us. We also saw a massive leatherback  sea turtle-the largest of all turtles. Adults can measure up to 7 feet in total length and weigh up to 1.540lbs in weight! He was splendid. We snorkeled over the shipwreck of a huge barge-admiring the fish and coral which had grown on it.

Another highlight for us was swimming with 3 huge manatees as we have never seen them before. Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. They measure up to 4.0 metres (13.1 ft) long, weigh as much as 590 kilograms (1,300 lb), and have paddle-like flippers. Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, as they are slow plant-eaters, peaceful and similar to cows on land. They often graze on water plants in tropical seas. It was wonderful to watch them whilst they grazed and occasionally came up for air!

We finished with a trip to see some sea horses and to feed the Tarpons-massive fish-which can make spectacular leaps into the air! We had to hold a small sardine between our fingers and the tarpon would make an unexpected leap and grab it! I tried 3 times-however dropped the fish in each time in nervous anticipation of the fish leaping out at me!

 We dragged ourselves away from Caye Caulker and returned to San Ignacio to collect Ruby. Graham and his boys had given her a full service, replaced the hub seal and replaced the clutch master cylinder. We took Graham and Joyce for lunch as a thank you and they invited us to a boxing event in the town the following evening! The event was a charity event but had professional boxers there as well as amateurs. Well what a great night! We had the best seats in the house-eye to eye with the boxers in the ring, on the front row. We loved the local crowd who really got into it-particularly when a Belizean was fighting! There were boxers from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize fighting-they were all tough wiry little things who gave it their all! My favourite fighters were the Mexicans who just did not give up. One fight, between 2 professional boxers-a Mexican and Belizean went the full 4 rounds. The Belizean boxer kept backing away and the Mexican boxer was doing all the work. We were shouting and hollering and generally supported the tough little Mexican boxer (the rest of the crowd the Belizean boxer!). It was pretty obvious to us all that the Mexican had won on points BUT the judges declared it a draw! Well, that was not fair. Even the Belizeans were laughing in disbelief! I leapt out of my seat and began to boo VERY LOUDLY and gave the thumbs down sign to the referee and chanted "Mexico Mexico"!Gav worriedly said "Jen-remember the crowd are Belizeans". "But it is not fair" I yelled between my boos!

Before we left San Ignacio we visited some more Mayan ruins of  Cahal Pech-the site was a palatial, hilltop home for an elite Maya family. We spent an hour or so admiring the structures and the views from the hill top.

We left San Ignacio ,first saying goodbye to our new friends Graham and Joyce at the garage, and made a stop at the Belize zoo-the slogan for which is "welcome to the best little zoo in the world"! The Belize Zoo was started in 1983, as a last ditch effort to provide a home for a collection of wild animals which had been used in making documentary films about tropical forests. Shortly after the backyard "zoo" began, it was quickly realized that its Belizean visitors were unfamiliar with the different species of wildlife which shared their country. This very aspect fomented the commitment to develop the little zoo into a dynamic wildlife education center. Today, The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre exhibits over 175 animals, representing over 45 native species. The Zoo keeps animals which were orphaned, rescued, born at the zoo, rehabilitated animals, or sent to The Belize Zoo as donations from other zoological institutions. The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre believes that by bringing the people of Belize closer to the animals which are their natural heritage, they will feel proud of these special resources, and want to protect them for future generations.

 We loved it here. The zoo was beautifully laid out in the jungle and it was possible to see the animals up close. The signs for each of the animal enclosures were charming, funny and informative. We saw 5 species of wild cats including the jaguar, Ocelot and puma; Belize`s national animal-the Tapir; monkeys and wonderful birds including toucans, parrot and eagles.

However, the animal encounters had not finished for the day. We drove to the community monkey sanctuary, where we were going to camp for the night. As we pulled up, a tour of only 2 others were about to set off around part of the sanctuary so we joined then. This was a wonderful experience. The guide told us all about the protection of the wild monkeys and then he called them down. We got the chance to feed two of them, including a mother. We held some small pieces of banana in our hands and they climbed down, took hold of our hand with their tiny fingers and gently ate the banana from our hand. We did this individually to each monkey. It was amazing to feel their tiny soft hands and watch them as they literally stared into your eyes before eating the banana.  Gav said they recognised a kindred spirit in me! Haha! We also saw iguanas in the trees and a crocodile floating down the river! What an excellent day for wildlife! We camped at the sanctuary overnight and were a mixture of amused and scared the next morning as the camp site owners rushed to check the toilet for snakes before we used them!

Our final stop in Belize was Orange Walk, near to the Maya site of Lamanai. We camped for 2 nights at a fab place on the banks of a river, full of crocodiles! We were parked literally on the edge of the river and we loved looking out for wildlife, and from the roof tent. Mr P was the owner, a great man, who does a lot for the community-which is very poor. He told us about the crocs, the boa constrictors and other delights that frequent the waters and his lodge! He got some raw chicken and threw it on the edge of the water by the bank. We watched in awe as up to 3 crocodiles, circled and eventually came for the food. Gav and I were sitting right next to the bank tentatively watching a croc as it inched its way towards the food. Suddenly there was a huge commotion and splash. I thought it was making a dash for us, as we have lots more meat on us than chicken(!) and I legged it to the lodge where others were watching. In hot pursuit was Gav! We gave them a good laugh and we think the crocs had actually spooked themselves and the splashing was them going back under the water.

We took a boat for the 38 mile journey down the river to the Maya ruins at Lamanai. This was our first land based group tour and with hindsight, we wished we had driven it ourselves as there were too many people on the boat and for the tour of the ruins. We enjoyed the boat ride through the jungle-spotting a baby croc, some birds and bats. Lamanai was once a major City of the Maya civilization and was renowned for its exceptionally long occupation spanning 3 millenia. The vast majority of the site remained unexcavated until the mid-1970s. Archaeological work has concentrated on the investigation and restoration of the larger structures, most notably the Mask Temple, Jaguar Temple and High Temple.The summit of this latter structure gave us a wonderful view across the surrounding jungle to a nearby lagoon. The guide was excellent, even though we were a  huge group, and he took us around the main temples and sites.

Our time in Belize sadly came to an end.  We must start our journey North, back through Mexico, with a shipping date for Ruby in the USA in mind. We both love Belize and would highly recommend it. The scenery is stunning-lush and green. The wildlife is wonderful. The people are just brilliant-kind, funny, charming, helpful- even in the face of huge poverty. We should never forget how very privileged we are to travel in other people`s countries and share their resources. We should always travel with humility, humbleness and humanity. Sadly, some people have forgotten that as they swan around in their big vehicles, judging the wonderful people from the countries we are guests of. You might be able to tell that my cage has been rattled. Maybe more on that another time.

We crossed the border at Corozal into Chetumal. We paid our Belizean exit fee of 40 BZ each, had our passports stamped out of the country, then had Ruby stamped out of the country. We drove into Mexico-filled in our visitor card, paid the fee of about 533 pesos each and went through customs. We already have the temporary import permit for Ruby from last time and it is still valid, so one less task  this time.

We will start in Yucatan and slowly head North, going to places we did not visit on our way South. We have approximately 6 weeks before we need to take Ruby for shipping and 8 weeks before we fly home! Where has the time gone?!

We spent a night in Coban, before setting off for the mountainous jungle town of Lanquin-then on a further 11km to Semuc Champey. The scenery was spectacular, the lush jungle greenery spread across the mountains, and narrow roads with steep drops. Semuc is described as one of the most difficult places to get to in Guatemala and the last 11km from Lanquin were certainly an adventure-with steep ups and downs, off-road, on a single track. Ruby went into low range and handled herself brilliantly-though we were relieved to reach our camp spot at Posada Las Marias- at the bottom of a very steep hill! It was a beautiful location -in the middle of the jungle with a turquoise river flowing in front of it.

Semuc Champey means “where the river hides under the earth” in Q’eqchi’, and  is a natural limestone bridge about 300 meters wide under which passes the Cahabòn River. At the top of the bridge is a series of stepped natural infinity pools filled with turquoise water where locals and visitors can dip in for a relaxing swim. We got up early the next morning and hiked the fairly short steep path through the jungle to the mirador. From here we had our first glimpse of the Semuc pools and they were spectacular. We hiked down to the pools and got straight in as we were hot and sweaty from the heat of the jungle. The water was cool, crystal clear and very refreshing!

We spent about half a day in Semuc and then returned to our camp spot to escape the heat. The following day-we made the challenging, steep climb back to Coban where we were due to spend the night before moving on to Flores. The roads in Guatemala have been pretty poor-with numerous pot holes-some of them massive! 8 miles into the journey-we drove over a pothole and Ruby started to judder! We pulled over and Gav had a look underneath. We had cracked the radius arm axle bracket, so we turned around and slowly headed back towards Coban to look for a garage. We found a small place that did soldering and the young mechanic soldered a piece of metal onto the axle and bracket for a few dollars! There were a few giggly young mechanics there who were drinking beer and watching the work been done on Ruby. One of them soldered a piece of metal for the repair and the sparks were flying everywhere-we had to jump out of the way! No safety equipment here!

 After another night in Coban, we headed to San Miguel, just across the Lake from Flores. Flores is an island on Lago Petén Itzá, and is a pretty colonial town. We had wonderful views of the island from our hostel on the shore of the lake, in San Miguel.
After a couple of nights here, we caught the car ferry across the lake and carried on to the Tikal national park. We camped in the jungle and what a treat that was. We heard all the wonderful noises of the birds and animals-particularly the howler monkeys, as the jungle awoke early in the morning.

Tikal is a large archeological site. During the Classic Period it was one of the largest and most important of the Mayan cities. Today it's one of the most fascinating and enjoyable of the Mayan sites to visit, largely due to its remoteness, but also its jungle setting. Some of the temples are still being uncovered, and you can watch archaeologists busy at work. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1971. Many beautiful buildings have been uncovered and many more wait to be discovered. Amongst the many Maya sites in Central America, Tikal is perhaps the most breathtaking because of the scattered impressive buildings which have been restored in an area with many more ruined buildings still enveloped by the jungle. The sight of the temples poking through the canopy is amazing. You can climb to the top of a few of the temples and get panoramic views from above the tree tops.

We got up early and spent a few hours at Tikal in the morning-beating a lot of the crowds. We loved walking through the jungle and hearing the trees rustling-looking up and spotting spider monkeys swinging through the trees. Later we heard the guttural roar of the howler monkeys and spotted them in the trees. As their name suggests, vocal communication forms an important part of their behaviour. Group males generally call at dawn and dusk, as well as interspersed times throughout the day. The main vocals consist of loud, deep guttural growls or "howls". Howler monkeys are widely considered to be the loudest land animal. According to Guinness Book of World Records, their vocalizations can be heard clearly for 3 mi (4.8 km). The function of howling is thought to relate to intergroup spacing and territory protection, as well as possibly to guarding their mates. We also heard their howls very early in the morning from our roof tent, an eerie but amazing sound!

We enjoyed seeing all of the temples-both the restored ones and those still covered by the growth of the jungle. We climbed many of them and by mid day-were exhausted particularly because it was so hot and humid. We returned to camp where we rested for a few hours-before returning to the park late afternoon. By this time-it had cooled a little and most of the crowds had left. This is the first of our Mayan ruins-and we have many more to come!

After one more night camping in the jungle-we headed the short journey to the Guatemala-Belize border (Melchor de Mencos). We have loved our time in Guatemala-it is a colourful, vibrant, incredibly friendly country-in spite of all its hardships and we loved the landscapes and the wonderful people. The crossing into Belize was very straightforward. We went to immigration and were stamped out of Guatemala and then to customs-where we handed in our temporary import sticker for Ruby. Stepping over the border into Belize was like stepping into the Caribbean. As a former British colony, English is the language spoken, and the Queen`s head adorns the money! We received our stamp at immigration and headed across the room to customs. We met a wonderful customs official who told us about Prince Harry`s visit in 2012 (and there is a painted union jack and sign saying "welcome Prince Harry" on the wall). We received our temporary import paperwork for Ruby and headed a few hundred metres away to buy car insurance.

Our first stop for a couple of nights was San Ignacio, on the banks of the Macal river. We were in time for the bustling farmer`s market, selling wonderful juicy produce and we took a wander through town, noticing the relaxed Caribbean vibe! We visited the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich-near the border, by catching a shared taxi, taking a hand cranked ferry across the river and walking about a mile uphill to the site. We really enjoyed a couple of hours here-it is a lot less touristy than Tikal and we shared the site with only a few groups of people.

Our next stop is Caye Caulker, a Caribbean island off the coast of Belize City. We will catch a boat there. Ruby, meanwhile, is booked in for some TLC at a land rover garage near San Ignacio!
 

We spent a couple of days heading South towards the Mexico-Guatemala border. The night before the border crossing , we stayed in a small hotel in the City of Tapachula, so we could get an early start the next day. We crossed into Guatemala at the Ciudad Hidalgo-Tecan Uman border and it was very straightforward. We did not cancel our temporary vehicle permit because we will be returning through Mexico at a later date. We went to immigration, handed in our tourist cards and were stamped out of Mexico. We paid 17 pesos to drive across a long bridge and then we were on the Guatemalan side. Our passports were stamped at immigration and we filled some paperwork in for Ruby. We headed to customs, paid 160 Quetzals (Guatemalan currency) and were issued a temporary vehicle permit for Guatemala.

Our first stop was Quetzaltenango, a city in Guatemala`s highlands, with a back drop of volcanoes. This was our first experience of Guatemalan roads and it took a few hours to go a short distance due to the potholes and hills! Our first impressions of Guatemala were good-the people were very friendly and it was such a colourful place-particularly the  locals in their wonderful  woven traditional dress. As we climbed higher-the temperature cooled which was a welcome relief after the hot and humid climate on the Pacific coast of  Mexico. We only spent one night in Quetzaltenango so didn`t fully get the chance to explore it, before heading to our next destination-Lake Atitlan.

One of the things we spotted as soon as we entered Guatemala, speeding along the roads and noisily beeping their horns, are the colourful chicken buses. When North American school buses reach the age of ten years or 150,000 miles, they are sold at auction. Many of these buses are bought and driven down through Mexico to Guatemala where they are prepared for their second lives. And wow, what a second life they have! In contrast to their modest first lives as yellow buses carting children to school, their second lives are spent stuffed with people, topped with roof racks full of cargo, and driving at high speeds over mountain passes. The old yellow paint is covered with colourful murals and praises to Jesus. One guide describes them as "dressed like a Vegas showgirl" which sums up these colourful buses perfectly! They are called chicken buses because they squash people into them like chickens and chickens are sometimes taken on to them! With the high-speed of the chicken bus and driving techniques of the driver such as overtaking around a blind corner on a narrow road on the top of a hill, a ride on them can be quite an adventure! They also regularly belch out thick black smoke-not pleasant when you are driving behind them! Ruby loved them-and has decided that she needs a paint job when she gets home so she too, can look like a Vegas showgirl!

The roads to Atitlan were better than the previous day-until we began the long winding descent downhill to Panajachel on the North East shore of Lake Atitlan. We could smell the burning of Ruby`s brakes as we inched our way down, trying not to career out of control! We headed around a steep corner and both shrieked as we saw a car and 2 motorcycles had stopped in the middle of the road. Gav was pressing the real brakes and I was pressing the imaginary brakes as we headed closer to the back of the motorcycles! We stopped with millimetres to spare and both heaved a huge sigh of relief, as Ruby juddered to a halt-as if to say-what`s the problem?!

We based ourselves at Panajachel for 5 days, on the shores of Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan is a body of water in a massive volcanic crater in Guatemala’s southwestern highlands. Ringed by steep, verdant hills, it’s known for its Mayan villages and volcanoes with striking pointed cones. It was a beautiful place-particularly the 3 distinctive volcanoes around the lake-Atitlan, Toliman and San Pedro. The busy town of Panajachel, where vendors sell traditional textiles, is a popular gateway to the lake. We really enjoyed our time here. We took a minibus to the nearby Sunday market at Chichicastenango, a charming, traditional and authentic traditional Mayan town, the market being one of the best known in Central America. It was probably our favourite market of the trip so far, locals travel from villages throughout the countryside and gather at this market to sell their beautiful handicrafts, colourful textiles, fresh produce, traditional clothing and more at this bustling and vibrant local market. The market was HUGE and it took over the entire central area of town. The small cobblestone streets had been transformed into narrow aisles and hundreds of vendors lined the streets on both sides, selling a variety of traditional Mayan handicrafts and textiles. The streets also featured colourfully painted colonial buildings. We stumbled upon the Saint Tomas church in the middle of the market-a beautiful white building with many people on the steps outside with incense and flowers-creating a colouful, noisy atmosphere. We were exhausted after half a day's shopping and returned to Panajachal with a few souvenirs!

Atitlan was a beautiful lake, with many small villages surrounding its shores. The best way to travel between them was by small boat. We visited the villages of San Pedro and San Marcos-both in stunning locations, with very touristy parts and then wonderful local parts if you walked out away from the dock. To be honest we found the tourist parts a bit pretentious, though it might just be our age! In San Marcos, there were loads of bare footed Westerners, and people strumming away on their guitars, singing about coffee and chocolate! Not our cup of tea!

We also took one of the wonderful, gaudy chicken buses to the town of Tonala for market day-and enjoyed the short ride up the mountain to a local market, with hardy any tourists. At the high elevation-it had a great view of the lake and one of the volcanoes.

On the day of departure from Atitlan, we set off at 7am from Panajachel, to make the long, steep, windy climb back up the hill. We wanted to avoid the traffic-particularly because various vehicles have a tendency to stop just when you have built up some momentum-and Ruby is a large, heavy lass! (I said Ruby is, not Jen!) We put Ruby into low gear and she slowly but surely chugged her way to the top! Our next destination was Antigua city in the central highlands of Guatemala, famous for its well-preserved Spanish Baroque -influenced architecture as well as a number of ruins of colonial churches. We spent a wonderful few days there. We stayed in a casa on the edge of town. It had a beautiful roof terrace with views of the 3 large volcanoes that dominate the skyline around Antigua-Volcan de Agua, Fuego and Acatenango. Fuego is famous for being almost constantly active at a low level. Steam and gas explode daily from its top, a larger eruption occurred in September 2012. As soon as we went onto the terrace-Fuego put on a show and belched a huge cloud of smoke! We also saw it at night-when you could see the red larva at the tip.

We spent a few days wandering the streets of Antigua-visiting its beautiful churches and ruins. We sat in the main square-Parque Central-and watched the people enjoying life. We also had a proper Sunday roast dinner here at a British pub we found-it was amazing and I had brussels sprouts for the first time in ages!

We went on a day trip to another active volcano-Pacaya. After being dormant for a century, it erupted violently in 1965 and has been erupting continuously since then. We hiked continuously uphill for about an hour and a half--coming out into a clearing where it was possible to see the summit of Pacaya (you are not allowed up to the summit due to the active status) and other lovely views. It was a long slog up, given we have not properly exercised for a  while and have been partaking in far too many tacos! A number of guys on horseback follow you up the hill, making eye contact with you as you slowly make your way red faced, puffing and panting, and say "you want a taxi?"! It was funny at first but by the end, it felt like they were trying to psyche me out! Them-"madam-you need a taxi-last chance" me-"I am determined to walk this bloody hill if it kills me-no gracias"! As I staggered on! We loved the views from the top and seeing steam come out of the crater. We descended a little to a vast area where the floor is made of solidified lava. Here we toasted marshmallows in the rocks-the ground was that hot in parts! We descended very quickly (about 45 minutes) and headed back to Antigua.

I (Jen) had an important date in Guatemala City. A job interview via skype with England! I had been preparing for a few weeks, whenever I got the chance, in the most varied circumstances ever! I prepped through earthquakes in Mexico, with active volcanoes blowing outside the window in Guatemala and through the noise that is Mexico and Central America! We booked into a great business hotel in Guatemala City and paid for a small meeting room and extra good wifi. It was a strange experience being interviewed via skype and giving a presentation, however the good news is-I got the job! I will start when I return home at the end of May and am delighted to be going back to my previous place of work.

Feeling happy, we moved on for the longish drive to Coban, where we will spend a night before the short but tricky drive to Semuc Champey.
 

We headed 180 miles to Morelia from Guadalajara, making reasonably good time due to the toll roads or cuotas as they are called here.  Whilst we have paid various road tolls throughout South America, nothing quite prepared us for the frequency and price of the toll roads here in Mexico! Jen can often be heard mumbling "daylight robbery" as she pays the toll and smiles sweetly (through slightly gritted teeth) at the toll booth attendant! However, the toll roads are renowned for being safe and the roads are very good-so it is our choice to use them.

The Historic Centre of Morelia is located in central Mexico, at the foot of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range and near the agricultural valley of Morelia-Querendaro. Morelia is the capital of the state of Michocoan and it is a registered UNESCO World Heritage site. With a consistent colonial-style throughout, Morelia is one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico. It is not really on the well-trodden path of the leisure tourists and so you can walk around in comfort without bumping into the bermuda shorts and flip flops crowds!

More than 200 historic buildings, all in the region's characteristic pink stone, reflect the town's architectural history. Morelia was the birthplace of several important personalities of independent Mexico and has played a major role in the country's history.  Our favourite building was the stunning pink stone Cathedral in the centre of town, which was so beautifully lit at night. It was just as beautiful inside with a monumental organ, imported from Germany in 1905, which was the largest organ in the Western Hemisphere at the time. It consists of 4600 flutes or pipes!

We did 2 self guided walking tours around the City-visiting the beautiful pink buildings and learning about the history. It was another pair of relics, however, that made our stay in Morelia extra special-the arrival of Fi and Ken, who we had first met in Mazatlan. We just hit it off so well with these two, all 3 of us Brits teasing the American Ken, for his pronunciation of words such as "route" (he says rowt); "leisure" (he says leesure) and so many more! We shared lots of laughs and experiences with Fi and Ken over the next few days.

We decided to take a tour from Morelia to the El Rosario butterfly reserve to see the remarkable sight of the millions of monarch butterflies who arguably, take the title of the world`s greatest travellers. As winter arrives in the United States and Canada millions upon millions of these beautiful orange and black butterflies begin a remarkable migration that sees them fluttering south 2000km to central Mexico where they winter in the dense fir forests that cover the high mountain slopes-(just like loads of Americans and Canadians we have met in Mexico-although  they head to the beaches!) Visiting their Mexican mountain retreat is one of the world’s most astounding wildlife experiences. The migrating butterflies begin their journey in early-October, arriving in the mountains of central Mexico in mid- to late November. Traveling at an average speed of 12 mph (but sometimes going up to 30 mph), the monarchs cover about 80 miles a day. They can fly at heights of up to 2 miles. They travel an average of 1800 miles from the United States and Canada to the forests in Michoacan where they spend the winter before embarking on their return journey. Numbers peak between mid-December and the end of February when, in good years, there can be tens of millions of them present. By mid-March the butterflies are starting to return northwards to the US and Canada.

Adult monarch butterflies live for only around a month so no one butterfly ever makes the entire circular migration from North America to Mexico and back again. Instead, it takes three generations of spring-born butterflies to complete the northern leg of the migration from Mexico back to the US-Canada border. The fourth generation though is a ‘super-generation’, which lives eight to ten times longer than normal. It’s these butterflies which, each autumn, leave the Great Lakes area and fly south to Mexico. We took the tour with Fi and Ken, alongside a lovely Mexican couple and their baby. Our driver was a little eccentric, to say the least-regaling us with tales of UFO`s, healing by light and that aliens are amongst us etc! We were very British and listened politely, smiling and nodding at the appropriate moments!

It took just over 3 hours to get to the reserve and then we walked uphill for 45 minutes to reach the spot where the butterflies congregated. It was truly remarkable to see millions of beautiful butterflies weighing down the branches of trees as they huddled together and almost turning the sky black as they flew in their millions. When everyone was quiet, all you could hear was the gentle flapping of their tiny wings. It can get very cold at the high altitudes and on cold mornings and evenings the butterflies huddle together for warmth, but when the sun filters through the trees and warms the butterflies, they take to the skies in enormous numbers. We stood and watched in awe for almost an hour, before descending and returning back to Morelia.

That evening we went to the Temple and ex-convent of San Francisco, for a light and colour show called mapping. This consists of projecting moving images on real surfaces, in this case on the facade of the San Francisco Temple, to achieve an artistic effect in 3D. These projections are synchronized with music, resulting in a wonderful show. The following day we said farewell (for now) to Fi and Ken. That evening, Gav and I waited patiently in front of the Cathedral with thousands of Mexican families, to watch the brilliant firework show in front of the magnificent cathedral. It was a great atmosphere, with families eagerly awaiting the show and lots of sellers hawking their wares such as candy floss, glow in the dark trinkets and all sorts of other stuff. Whilst only short, it was a great firework display, in time to music.

Morelia was our favourite City so far in Mexico and is up there as one of the favourites of our whole trip. After almost a week there, we packed up and headed to Patzcuaro, another beautiful town sitting on the edge of Lake Patzcuaro. Here we reunited with Fi and Ken and also Roque and Sharon, a wonderful couple from the USA who we met a few months ago in Death Valley. These two have retired and are slowly heading to Panama (where Roque is from) to see if they want to resettle there. They have travelled through the USA, including Alaska, Canada and Mexico for around 13 months with a caravan stuffed full of their possessions for their new life in Panama! We all camped at a ranch on a hill overlooking Patzcuaro and the beautiful lake. There was a variety of animals parading past our camp spot, including horses, turkeys, sheep, dogs, hens and donkeys! We explored Patzcuaro, really enjoying its huge plazas and beautiful buildings. In the evenings-we taught Fi and Ken the 2 cards games we had learnt whilst working on the date farm at China Ranch. We had a great laugh and all particularly enjoyed teasing Ken when he lost with childish signs of "LOSER"!

Moving back to thePacific Coast, we camped for 2 nights at a small campsite on the beach 30 km South of Zihuatanejo. We had been in the mountains for a couple of weeks enjoying warm but bearable temperatures. Back on the coast it was very hot and humid and we spent the day lying on hammocks under a huge palapa, with Fi, Ken, Roque and Sharon.  From our hammocks-we spotted whales although it was almost too hot to fetch our binoculars to take a proper look! After a farewell dinner in the local restaurant which cost us the princely sum of £14 for food and drinks for 6 of us, we all headed our separate ways-hoping to meet up again in a month or so`s time in Yucatan.

Our next stop was Puerto Escondido and we stayed a cabana overlooking Zicatela beach, as we were simply too hot to camp in Ruby! We wandered down to Zicatela beach, which hosts major surfing competitions and down to the Playa Principal-which was our favourite as it was full of local people enjoying the sea and fisherman selling their catch. We had our tea (dinner not a cup of tea!) in a restaurant overlooking the beach and walked slowly back to the cabana via a street market selling all sorts of wonder colourful stuff!

After Escondido, we headed the short distance to Huatulco and the town of Santa Cruz. This region is known for its 9 beautiful bays of white sandy beaches. We headed to Playa Entrega to snorkel, expecting only a few people to be there as it was mid week. As we drove up, there were hundreds of cars and people, bands, police etc. What on earth was going on-was it a public holiday we were not aware of? We asked and were told by a wonderful, smiley restaurant owner "it`s the beach`s birthday"! Hence the crowds, bands etc! We spent a lovely few hours snorkeling and people watching. There was also the obligatory very loud music and competitions for swimming, football and volleyball.

We have also experienced another fairly big earthquake measuring 7.2.We were in an outdoor restaurant when the earth literally starting to shake beneath us and everything started moving around! It did not put Gav and I off our food, however!
After here we are heading for the Guatemalan border-which is about 500 miles away. Central America-here we come!
 
 
 
 

The ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan took about 13 hours and after disembarking, we headed for our campsite near the beach, just outside of the Centro Historico. Mazatlan is a Mexican resort town along the Pacific, with a 21km malecon (boardwalk) along the sea front-which was full of people walking, and statues and installations for the carnival in February. We spent a day wandering around the central old town district- where we enjoyed the mercado (market) selling wonderful fresh produce and  many local food stalls. The old town was beautiful-with its historic square, cathedral and buildings-which were beautifully lit at night. Wandering down to the sea front-we saw the cliff divers-who dive off  45 foot rocks into shallow water about 5 to 6 feet deep, surrounded by jagged rocks! They wait for a crowd to gather before they dive-and who can blame them for wanting maximum tips for putting their lives in danger each time they dive. They also wait for a large wave to come in before executing the perfect dive, as this makes the water a little deeper.

 We met a wonderful  Englishman called Michael, who invited us to his house in the historical district that evening. We had a great time in his beautiful home-which had 3 levels of outside terrace overlooking the other buildings-drinking margaritas and eating the most wonderful shrimp pasta. Time flew by and before we knew it-we were wandering the streets of Mazatlan looking for a taxi at midnight (that`s really late for us!) When we got back to the campsite-the gates were locked and we had visions of having to scale the walls, until thankfully we managed to rouse the owner who let us in!

We met some great people on the campsite-in particular Marj and Dave (in their late 70s and early 80s) from Vancouver island, who were travelling in a small van with their cat and who had explored Mexico during their Winters for the last 39 years.  Fi and Ken were a Brit and US combo-who had previously travelled extensively by bike, but were now in a ford camper. These two were great fun and we shared a lot of stories and laughs with them. We hope to see them again in Mexico, as we are all heading South. They are looking for somewhere to relocate either in North, Central or South America.

Gav did some checks underneath Ruby and found that  the universal joint (UJ) was worn on the front prop shaft. He took the prop shaft off and we hopped in a taxi to a mechanics who used our spare parts to replace it for us.

After Mazatlan, we headed for the fishing village of San Blas. This was a stopover before heading into the mountains towards Guadalajara, however we also wanted to do a boat tour through the mangrove marshes to see birds, crocodiles and turtles. At the edge of town was a viewing point where tens of crocodiles, large and small, were taking a break and basking in the sunshine. We also found the embarkation point for the boat tours-which we arranged to do at 7am the following day.  We camped beneath some coconut trees, taking care not to position the roof tent directly below the ripe coconuts. However, whilst Gav was cooking, I heard a big "thump "and a big Yorkshire voice say" bloody hell, I was nearly hit by a coconut"! We got up early from our campsite and drove to the meeting point for our boat trip, however no one was there! We waited half an hour and there was no sign of life, so we decided to move on rather than stay another night, particularly as this place was full of jejenes (tiny biting sand flies) which manage to bite you in numerous places, even though you are smothered in repellent!

 It  has been great to drive in Mexico so far, except for the numerous speed bumps (called topes) which are everywhere and range from small to huge. As we approach the topes, I (Jen) starts to yell "TOPES TOPES TOPES" and Gav hopefully slows down. If we don`t see them, as they are not always obvious, we almost take off as we go over them at speed (well the speed of an old landy!)

We stopped for a night in the town of Tequila , known for its production of the famous spirit. Near the foot of the Tequila Volcano, the outskirts of town are dotted with fields of blue agave, the liquor's main ingredient. The production process can be observed at several distilleries in town, all of them  offering tours and tastings. The popularity of the drink and the history behind it has made the town and the area surrounding it a World Heritage site. It was also named a "Pueblo Magico" (Magical Town) in 2003 by the Mexican federal government, because of its culture and historical interest. It was a lovely little town-with an attractive main square dominated by its beautiful stone church, where many people come to sit, eat or listen to music from the street performers. There are many cobblestone side streets and attractive stone buildings.

The Toltex Indians discovered tequila as a drink more than 200 years ago. Agave plants thrive in Tequila, where conditions such as altitude and climate are perfect for its growth. It takes the agave plant 8 to 10 years to mature and be ready for harvesting and distilling. Agave is harvested in the traditional way in a very labour intensive manner. The worker, called a jimador, uses a special tool, like a sharp, pointed shovel to remove the spikes from the agave and extract the heart of the plant. The heart of the plant, with the spines removed resembles a pineapple and is called a piña. To actually make the tequila, the green outer leaves are sliced off, leaving the large agave "pinas" or pineapples to be processed. The average worker can prepare only 200 plants a day because of the intense heat and the difficulty of the procedure. The white creamy core contains the juice necessary for the preparation of tequila. One plant can produce 5 bottles of tequila.

We went on a great tour at the Jose Cuervo distillery, called La Rojena. This is oldest distillery and the tour showed us the agave hearts being chopped up and taken to the ovens, the labs where the tequila is tested to be sure that it meets the factory's strict standards, and the barrels where the spirit is aged; up to one year for reposado tequila, up to five years for añejo and up to eight years for the special product.  It was really interesting and peppered with small samples of various tequilas. We had also booked a private tasting for the end of the tour and headed into the tasting room with our guide. We know nothing about tasting-so were eager to learn, whilst trying desperately not to look out of our depth as we swilled the tequila around the bottom of the glass and sniffed it! We had 3 glasses of tequila to taste and then a special one which was very old and expensive! The 3 glasses contained: white tequila, which spends 15 days in stainless steel tanks before bottling; a rested tequila, left for at least 2 months in wooden barrels and an aged tequila which is left for at least a year in wooden barrels. By the time we got to glass 4-my memory fails me so I guess it was very old and very special!!

Well what a laugh we had! We first had to swish it around the bottom of the glass to see the colour and the body. Then we had to sniff it-both at the top and bottom of the glass. Finally we sipped it-holding it in our mouths for 3 seconds, inhaling, swallowing and then exhaling quickly, for the maximum taste. I (Jen) was trying very hard to appear cultured, so didn`t finish all the tequila in each glass, leaving some in the glass ,before moving on to the next. Very dignified. All was going well, or so I thought, until Gavin told me later that by glass 3 I had my chin in the glass whilst my nose was elsewhere sniffing into the thin air! By glass 4, I had decided not to leave a drop-knocked back the whole glass- before finishing Gavin`s and then going back to the previous 3 glasses and finishing off every drop!

We also saw some cultural dancers called Danza De Los Voladores (Dance of the flyers). The ritual consists of dance and the climbing of a 30-meter pole from which the dancers then launch themselves tied with ropes by their feet, descending to the ground, upside down whilst playing instruments! Brilliant!

Our next stop was Guadalajara, Mexico`s second largest city. We visited  the city’s historic centre and its most obvious attractions, such as the twin-towered cathedral and the labyrinthine Mercado San Juan de Dios, Latin America’s largest indoor market. The stately Hospicio Cabanas,a former orphanage with fiery murals by  Jose Clemente Orozco, is Unesco-listed and we were highly impressed by the artwork on the ceiling and walls. We spent an afternoon in the suburb of Tonala, sampling the delights of its weekly market. On the Sunday, we did a wonderful self guided walking tour which took us past lots of street art and parks, where people were undertaking all sorts of activities such as hula hooping, yoga, acrobatics, cycling, skipping etc. On Sundays, the major streets are closed for a period to cars and there are literally thousands of people cycling, jogging, skating, skateboarding or on scooters along the streets. They call it recreational Sunday and it was brilliant to wander among the local families who were so enjoying their day. We enjoyed a local specialty in Guadalajara -torta ahogada -a sandwich bathed in spicy sauce, filled with deep fried pork and fresh onions) and it was delicious!

Next we are heading towards Morelia and the butterfly sanctuary of El Rosario.
 
 

We spent 5 days in Los Cabos and whilst it was the most touristy place we had  visited in Baja, we had a really good time here. We found two wonderful taco places to eat at, one was at a lovely lady`s tiny shed in her front yard-where she sold the most wonderful variety of meat tacos for about 50 pence each! The other sold delicious fish tacos-possibly the best we have tasted in Baja! We have loved Mexican food so far and I (Jen) have been working my way through the hot sauces and salsas-sometimes at a cost!

We spent a day at our favourite beach-Playa Maria-where we snorkeled and enjoyed watching the procession of small boat tours who anchored near the beach for their clients to snorkel, paddleboard and kayak. We also took our binoculars and saw a number of humpback whales blowing and breaching. It has been common to see whales every day from our beach camp spots, and we never tire of watching them!

We went to the cinema and watched The Greatest Showman, which we really enjoyed in our luxury seats where we were almost lying horizontally! We really enjoy doing normal things, such as the cinema, the longer we have been travelling.

We also hired a small boat (panga) and a captain for 5 hours and did a fishing trip, something that Gavin has been waiting for, for a long time! It did not disappoint! We caught the local bus down to the marina at 6am, meeting our captain, Jose, at 6.30pm. We boarded our boat and first stop was for fuel and for live bait! We were one of many fishing boats heading out from the harbour into the beautiful sunrise, past the iconic land`s end and arch at Cabo San Lucas. The arch is a distinctive rock formation at the southern tip of Cabo San Lucas, which is itself the extreme southern end of Mexico`s Baja Peninsula. Here the Pacific Ocean becomes the Gulf of California.

 We had 4 fishing rods between us, cast out of the boat as we were sailing along and it was not too long before I  noticed a twitch on the rod and yelled" I think we`ve caught a fish". Gav reeled the first one in-a dorado-and it was the smallest of the 8 we caught in total, so we put it back in. A short time later all hell broke loose as 2 of the rods were bending and the reels were whizzing around! It was my turn to reel it in, I stood up to begin the process and nearly toppled overboard! The captain got me a harness which I  put the end of the rod in and I sat down whilst frantically reeling the fish in. It was massive-about 18 pounds worth, and I had to get Gav and the captain to pull it onto the boat. Then a second came in, and a third and a fourth and by the end of the trip we had caught 8! It was really exciting but very tiring and Gav told me at one stage I was so slow reeling it in that I looked comical! On the way back to the marina, we were lucky enough to see a whale breaching (coming right out of the water) fairly close to the boat and the captain waited for a while so we could watch it blowing and swimming.

Jose asked us how many fish we wanted to keep and we said 2, which he filleted for us-so much fish! He was delighted to take the rest and we also gave him a good tip-as he had been captain fantastic! We proudly took our fish to a nearby restaurant and asked them to cook it for us, which they did in 3 ways.It was delicious-one was lightly battered with beer batter, one was in mango sauce and the other with lime. It was truly the best fish we have tasted this trip and made even better by the fact we had caught it about 2 hours previously! We gave away some more fish to the staff in the restaurant as we had so much of it!

After Cabo we headed to Todo Santos,  a small coastal town at the foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains, on the Pacific coast side of the peninsula. It  is located very near the Tropic of Cancer, which we crossed. Handicraft shops, art galleries featuring landscape paintings of local scenes, upscale restaurants, boutique hotels and restored colonial buildings have contributed to the gentrification and redevelopment of the town.  We camped on the beautiful beach at Las Playitas. We had heard about the daily release of baby turtles by a voluntary organization, who incubated them in a greenhouse on the beach during Winter. Three species of Sea Turtle (Leatherback, Olive Ridley and Black) nest on the beaches of Todos Santos.

Sea Turtle nests rely on the heat of the sand for incubation, and when sand temperatures drop below 26° celcius for any part of the incubation period, malformations and death can occur in the developing turtles.  This is where the Incubation Greenhouse came in!  All nests that are laid after October 16 are relocated into the Incubation Greenhouse where average sand temperatures are 29°celcius. Hatchlings incubated inside the greenhouse are healthy, vigorous, and lack the deformities that are common in fall and winter nests.  The incidence of flipper deformations, crooked beaks, blindness and dwarfism is significantly decreased when fall and winter nests are incubated in the Greenhouse.

The turtles are released at sundown. We all  got a bowl containing half a dozen baby turtles, each about 2-3cm wide. The volunteer drew a line in the sand near the sea, and this was where we were going to release the baby turtles, which had all just been born that day! It was amazing, gently shaking them out of the bowl, which also contained sand, and watching them instinctively head towards the sea. The waves would come in and take some of them off into the sea, whilst some of them immediately swept back onto the beach, before they tried again and again! It was amazing to be part of it.

We settled down for the night on the beach by ourselves and all was quiet. That was until a car pulled up at 1.30am. There was loads of space on the beach but guess where the car decided to park? Yes-right next to us! The music went on, very loudly and a group of youngsters enjoyed themselves until about 3am when they left!

After Todo Santos, we went back to La Paz where we stayed in a gorgeous hotel for a few days, located right on the beach. We relaxed for a few days-with the views of the sea right outside our window. We caught the Baja ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan over night,  leaving Ruby in the hold whilst we had a cabin. We slept like babies and arrived in Mazatlan about 13 hours later.

We have spent a wonderful  5 weeks or so in Baja but are now ready to experience the delights that we know mainland Mexico has to offer!
 
 

We spent a couple of days in San Diego, before driving to the border to cross into Mexico, at Tecate. We had heard that this was a much quieter border than the closer one of Tijuana, which is the busiest border crossing in the world. We stopped at the USA customs to inform them  we were leaving the country and they took our USA entry cards which had been stapled into our passports. What we should have done next, was leave Ruby whilst we walked through the border to get our tourist card for Mexico and to sort out our temporary import permit for Ruby. Instead, we drove straight though the border, thinking we could park there, but we got waved through into Mexico. We ended up driving around trying to work out how to get back-but obviously we couldn`t go back into the USA, so we parked in the street and scurried back in case we got stopped as being illegally in Mexico!

The process was then easy. We filled in the paperwork for our tourist cards, went next door to pay the fee, returning with proof of payment in return for the cards. We then got our temporary import permit for Ruby and away we went. Tecate is on the Baja peninsula, the second largest peninsula in the world, and our plan was to drive the whole way down to the South of the peninsula before catching a ferry to the mainland. Our route would take us through both the East and West of Baja, so we would experience both the Pacific coast on the West side and the sea of Cortez on the East.

Our first stop was Ensenada and we found a campsite that overlooked the Pacific ocean for a couple of nights. It was a beautiful spot and we enjoyed watching the sunsets and pods of dolphins swim past. We also had our first fish tacos of the trip and they were delicious-we know we are going to enjoy Mexican food!  We then headed towards Bahia de Los Angeles, stopping for the night by the beach in San Quentin. The drive was beautiful-passing mountains and going through the desert with the numerous huge cacti , until we saw the gorgeous blue water of the bay of Los Angeles. We found an idyllic campsite on the beach and we parked Ruby next to our own palapa ( open side dwelling with palm leaf thatched roof) which are very common on Mexican beaches. We spent a couple of days here, watching the wildlife and walking along the beach-it was wonderful. We met a lovely couple from Germany-Sylvia and Marita and we were to bump into them again soon.

After a night at Guerrero Negro, we drove to Mulege, a pretty oasis town on the shores of the sea of Cortez. We found a great campsite along the palm and mangrove lined Rio Mulege where we had a private spot surrounded by banana trees, palm trees and other fruit trees. Soon after we arrived, Sylvia and Marita rolled up and we had a great time with them here for the next few days. We joined in the daily game of bocci, played by longer term residents at the campsite-Eric, Don and Lee and it was so much fun. It was similar to boules-however here we played it all around the campsite with an obligatory bottle of beer or two in hand! When any of us achieved a direct hit on the target (small white ball) we all had to yell "Bocci............" at high volume! We also had a night with them in town watching the local Frank Sinatra-this was also great fun and we had a good old dance. However, Gav and I had 4 margaritas and struggle to remember the rest of the night!!

After Mulege, we drove to Loreto  via a scenic coastal route along Bahia Concepcion, with its beautiful beaches and then through the mountains. Loreto was a pretty town-with a lovely town square, the oldest mission in Baja and cobbled streets. It also had a lovely malecon to walk along and gaze out to sea.

We headed to La Paz, the capital of Baja Sur, for Gav`s birthday and Christmas. We spent a lovely few days here wandering along the sea front, eating excellent food and going to the cinema! Our highlight was an amazing boat trip, on boxing day, to swim with whale sharks. After Jen eventually got her wetsuit on the right way, we jumped off our small boat with our snorkels on, led by our guide-and suddenly we were face to face with a huge whale shark! Whale sharks are the largest fish species in the world, the largest measured one being nearly 42 foot long!! Our guide estimated the one we saw was about 20 foot long-it was huge! Whale sharks have very large mouths and are filter feeders, which is a feeding mode that occurs in only two other sharks, the megamouth shark and the basking shark. They feed almost exclusively on plankton and are not known to pose a threat to humans.

It was absolutely amazing to watch it feed-looking at its huge mouth and little eyes as it did so (a bit like watching Jen feed!) We also got the chance to swim alongside it and just simply hang out with it for a little while. It was incredible and one of our best experiences on this trip to date. We went with a brilliant company called La Paz VIP tours and our wonderful guide, Anna, got into the water with us and led us to the sharks. We were always meant to be at least 6 feet away from them, but at times, we were a lot closer and Gav and I would start to swim away from it as we thought we were almost touching it-whilst Anna would grab hold of us and push us back closer to it!

After leaving La Paz, we spent a wonderful few days wild camping at El Sergento, where hundreds of kite surfers took to the sea and Punta Arena De La Ventana.  At the latter, we had the beach to ourselves for 2 nights, and we watched the rays swim close to the shore both mornings. Gav  got the chance to fish from the shore here, however it was still chicken for tea both nights!

We camped next to the beach for New Year-at Los Barilles-another stunning beach. We watched a super moon rise  over the horizon on new year`s day-it just appeared over the edge of the sea and was magnificent. The next stop was Cabo Pulmo and another wild camp next to the beach. Cabo Pulmo is a  national marine park and was designated a UNESCO world heritage site on 1995. Bahía Pulmo is home to the oldest of only three coral reefs on the west coast of North America. Estimated to be 20,000 years old, it is the northernmost coral reef in the eastern Pacific Ocean. We took a great snorkelling tour from here-and went out to 5 different places where we jumped in to snorkel.  We saw a variety of amazing fish, swam with a shoal of at least a thousand Mexican look down fish and also with seals. We loved it and also got the chance to snorkel again the following days from the shores of our camp spot at Los Arbolitas and from our camp spot at Playa Maria near Los Cabos. The snorkelling is fantastic here, the water is crystal clear and there are numerous different types of fish swimming close to shore.

So next stop is the tip of Baja, Cabo San Lucas, before we start heading North  on the West Cape towards Todo Santos and eventually La Paz again, where we will take our ferry to mainland Mexico. We have loved Baja so far-it is very relaxing, we have mostly camped next to the beach and the wildlife is superb. a great start to 2018!

After the serenity of China Ranch in the Mojave desert, we headed back to the craziness that is Las Vegas. We spent the night there, before flying to San Francisco. We worked out that it would be cheaper to fly than to drive, so Ruby was left outside a casino in Vegas for a few days! It was a short flight of just over an hour and we headed to the San Remo hotel in the North Beach (Italian) district of San Francisco. We spent a wonderful few days in San Francisco. On the first afternoon, we visited the districts of North Beach and China Town, the largest Chinatown outside of Asia.

 We purchased a 2 days San Francisco City pass which gave us access to a variety of attractions. On day 1, we went to Madame Tussauds-where Jen was in her  element posing for daft pictures with the star waxworks; on a wonderful boat trip past the San Francisco skyline and under the Golden gate and Bay bridges; into a submarine USS Pampanito; to the Aquarium of the Bay and Ripley`s" Believe it or not". We also visited the San Francisco dungeons which was a performance with live actors/actresses as you walked through various scenarios. Now last time we went to a dungeon,  it was the London dungeons with Leona, Gav`s sister. We were so scared, that we kept running back to the beginning to get away from the live (scary) actors. Eventually, one of them said to us that they would not go near us any more, as long as we would JUST LEAVE!!!!  The San Fran dungeons did not disappoint, and we spent a wonderful, scary hour with a small group of other people, being scared witless!
On day 2, we went on a hop on and off city bus to the Museum of modern art (excellent) and to the spectacular museum of science, which included a rainforest, an aquarium and a planetarium.

Our highlight was a visit to Alcatraz. The island offered amazing views of the Golden Gate bridge and downtown San Francisco.  We did the audio tour of the former prison, hearing about some of its infamous inmates, attempted escapes and seeing the cells, dining room and exercise yard amongst other things. We then visited Castro and the GLBT museum; and the street art of Balmy alley in the Mission district. On our final day-we went to the Golden Gate bridge and rode the tram up and down the steep hills. We flew back to Vegas and spent Thanksgiving there, enjoying a lovely turkey dinner!

We left Vegas and spent a night camping in the car park of the wonderful Peggy Sue`s diner! The following day, we headed towards LA where we camped for a couple of nights at the Leo Carrillo state park, near Malibu beach. We walked along the beautiful beach, where films such as Grease were filmed.

We drove along the Pacific highway, admiring the wonderful beach and sea views, through Malibu, where we saw the homes of the rich and famous. We spent a couple of hours at the eclectic Venice beach-where street performers and characters abound and also visited Muscle beach, where Arnie used to work out.

One of our final destinations in the USA, was Los Angeles and we spent a week here. We had a great time! We managed to get audience tickets for the live NBC show "The Voice USA", which was filmed in sound studio 12 at Universal studios. We were transported by trolley bus to the studios, where we queued outside before the show. 3 of the contestants were being filmed outside for the show, so our brief was to shout, cheer and generally go bonkers for them. Jen did not need to be asked twice and whooped, hollered, high fived and told each of the 3 contestants that she had travelled all the way from England to watch them perform!! We were also asked to do an interview for NBC about the Voice and why we were here. Jen again did this with gusto-saying she had come to watch the "best show in the Universe" and how much we love the Voice USA! We had a great time at the show-it was a small venue and we were close to the action. The judges were Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine (Maroon five) and Blake Shelton-and all of them sang live during the show, which we bopped along to!

Our motel was the Hollywood Downtowner Inn on Hollywood Boulevard-it was perfect for us. We got a 7 days TAP transport card and used the metro to take us all over the City. We booked 2 tours through a wonderful agency called the Real Los Angeles tours, run by a great Brlt called Damien. We went on a heart of Hollywood tour, going back in time to when the name first appeared on maps in the late nineteenth century, learning how and why the movie industry moved to this small town in 1910-11, at which time the town itself didn’t even have a bar or movie-theatre of its own. We also saw all the most iconic buildings on the famous Walk of Fame, including the oldest house in Hollywood (where Charlie Chaplin’s kids went to school), the Capitol Records Building, the Egyptian Theatre and the TCL Chinese Theatre, where your Hollywood tour finishes – in the heart of Hollywood. This was also interspersed with information about modern day Hollywood and the Oscars etc. We also did the historic downtown tour, which was equally as good as the first one. We visited the arts district and took a great street art tour-learning  about the graffiti art all around the area. We saw some great art and learnt about some of the crews and characters behind the artwork.

We spent a wonderful day at Universal studios, going on all of the rides (some 2 or 3 times!) and meeting some of the characters such as Shrek, Marge and Homer and a transformer! Whilst expensive, it is well worth a visit and we were really impressed with the quality of the rides and the shows. Our favourite was the whole Harry Potter Hogwart`s set, and the amazing Harry Potter and the forbidden journey ride. It was literally breathtaking-using movement and technology-so we felt we were soaring after Harry and Ron Weasley on broomsticks. We went on it 3 times! All of the other rides were excellent too and the studio tour, which took us through lots of famous sets and also used technology to recreate floods, crashes, earthquakes etc. We went to 2 of the shows-the special effects show and waterworld-both were brilliant. The grand finale was a Christmas sound and light show-projected onto the Hogwarts castle. It was spectacular and we watched it twice-as it took our breath away.

Our last day was spent at Griffiths park, overlooking the Hollywood sign and doing laundry!

So it`s time to head to San Diego and over the border into Mexico in a couple of days time. The USA was not in our original plans and I wasn`t so keen to visit after their election result. We are so glad that we did, as the curiosity, kindness, and warm heartedness of the people we have met has been overwhelming. It is also an incredibly diverse and beautiful country and we have loved its wonderful wilderness and countryside, from the beauty of Alaska to the stunning Oregon coastline; from the glorious Mount Rainier national park to the massive redwoods; from the greatest earth on show in Utah to the desert of Death Valley and so much more!  We have really enjoyed our workaways at the hostel in Kanab and at the date farm in Death Valley. We have loved it all and spent almost 4 and a half months here. We are likely to return after our time in Central America, as we plan to ship back to England from the US.

So time to brush up on our Spanish again, hasta luego!

We had a lovely leaving meal at the Cowboy Bunkhouse in Kanab, and were sad to say goodbye to Joann, Jeff and all the friends we had made there. We planned to spend the night just outside of Las Vegas, on the way to Los Angeles to collect Her Royal Highness Ruby the landy!

On the way, we stopped at the Valley of Fire State park for a few hours. The park derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from huge shifting sand dunes 150 million years ago. The scenery was incredible and we did some short hikes in the desert heat to various viewpoints and rock formations. The most spectacular for us, was the Firewave-multi coloured stripy rocks in a wave pattern.

We drove through Las Vegas and stayed the night in a casino about 20 miles away. We woke up to the dreadful news of the Las Vegas shootings. In a sombre mood, we drove to Los Angeles where we collected Ruby, who had spent the month at the wonderful British land rover mechanics. She had her rear drive shaft replaced and was ready for action again!

Our next destination was Tecopa in the Mojave Desert, on the Southern edge of Death Valley. Our home for the next 6 weeks was China Ranch Date farm, a wonderful green oasis in the middle of the barren desert. What a unique place and experience this was!   China ranch is a family owned date farm on about 130 acres of land, where around 15 varieties  of dates are grown on the tall and small palm trees. From high, you could see the green oasis stretching along the river, amongst the dry, grey desert mountain landscape. It was a beautiful place and full of history-from native Americans, to those travelling the Spanish trail, to the gold rush and mining and much more.

China Ranch is also available as a location for both film and still photography shoots.  Over the years several national magazine companies as well as movie studios have taken advantage of the fantastic scenery as a back drop for their projects. These have included Harper's Bazaar, Country, National Geographic, Paramount Studios, and several smaller companies. In 2001 Paramount Studios used China Ranch for the desert scenes of their hit movie "The Sum of All Fears", starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman.

 Wildlife was in abundance-there were numerous birds, coyotes (wild dogs) which we saw regularly on the ranch as they like to chew the dates, and insects such as tarantulas, scorpions and black widow spiders. I saw my first "wild" tarantula here, wandering past the sorting room! China Ranch was probably the most isolated place we have spent time so far, on this trip. The main shops and other facilities were around 50 miles away. At night the place was absolutely silent-except for the sound of coyotes (wild dogs) howling or the wind whistling through the dry dirt hills and canyons. We only had to wander for a short time at night to find dark skies illuminated only by the moon and stars. We saw the Milky way almost every night. Brian was the wonderful owner and our boss. He works tirelessly to keep the process of fertilising, growing, harvesting, sorting and selling going and he shared some of his tremendous knowledge with us. He had a great sense of humour and we really enjoyed working with him. We were also really impressed with how he has built the date farm from nothing.

Our home was a large permanent mobile home which we shared with 3 others. We quickly turned into a little close family. Gav and I were the eldest (Gav was the most sensible!), Austin from Indiana, aged 19 ,Arianna (19) and Ellie(18) from Vermont who joined us a week later. We all got on really well and shared a lot of laughs and some great food and BBQs! We also got them addicted to British tea and had regular tea times, in the morning and evening. We grew close to Austin and Arianna, sharing many laughs, great food, Gav`s cooking lessons and games of cards together.

We both really enjoyed the work here so much that we stayed 2 weeks longer than we had originally planned (6 weeks in total). We worked from 7am to 12.00 noon, due to the heat. In Summer temperatures soar to well over 100 degrees most days. We were here in Autumn, so it was in the 90s! And it was HOT with plenty of fruit flies! Our work varied each day and we often worked with different people. We harvested dates-which took two forms: one was with the owner, Brian, who would use his crane lift to reach the high bundles of dates in the tall trees, shake them into buckets, and then pass them down to the worker on the ground to sort into crates and pass him empty buckets. The crates were then stacked in the back of his pickup truck. Brian would also cut down whole large bunches of dates on fronds and we had to strip them all off and into the crates. Sometimes, we had dozens of fronds to strip and it took some fast work to keep up! As Brian moved around the trees on his crane, I had to move his pickup truck to best position it to fill the crates. This was the first time I had ever driven an automatic car and all Brian could hear from his crane was me roaring the engine trying to work out how to drive the damn thing! He lowered himself down laughing and muttering about the crazy English woman trying to drive his truck, and gave me a quick lesson in how to drive an automatic. It was great driving the truck around the ranch, although I still prefer a gear stick! The second way of harvesting was to work on the small palm trees, where you could reach the dates and shake them into buckets or cut the whole bunch down with cutters.

Another major task was sorting through the dates that had been harvested or "running the dates" as it was called in the trade! This was done in the sorting room, where all of the crates of date were stored. We emptied the crates into a large machine, which shook them down a chute, onto a moving conveyer belt. We then had to hand sort though them-separating the ones with mouse or bird bites, the ones that were good and the ones that would go into date paste to bake with.  We also had to separate the ones which had not ripened and put them on a rack. There were 30 different varieties of dates on the ranch, so we had to learn to spot what each variety should look like at its best! I loved seeing the little dates slowly shaking and bouncing down the chute ready to be sorted! When we turned the shaker on, I would perform a little shake myself until the first ones reached us!  The sorted dates fell into large buckets, which we then emptied into 15 pound boxes and stacked in the large walk in fridge. I loved the walk in fridge as I got so hot, so willingly volunteered to stack the boxes in there when needed! We also packed 1 pound boxes to sell in the shop.

We picked up numerous large palm fronds to put on the truck and take them to the burn pile. This could be painful work, as the palm fronds, which had been cut down to help harvest the dates, had massive thorns on them to protect their fruit. These thorns stabbed us all over, quite literally!! We had to wait a few weeks for the splinters to work their way out of our bodies-I still have one in my backside! This was hot and dusty work, and made all the more painful by the huge horse flies which like to bite. Thank goodness, there were only a few as they die off in Autumn.

Another job was to work in the bakery. Yes. Jen working in the bakery! My last baking fiasco was at school over 30 years ago when my bread dough ended up on the ceiling over the light fitting! My task was to make 30 large date loaves, 30 small loaves, cookies and muffins! Thank goodness I was shown and left to it, as I turned the industrial mixture on too fast on my first attempt, leading to some of the mixture flying out of the bowl and splatting around the kitchen! I got a lot better at it, and felt very proud when I wrapped and labelled my loaves, cookies and muffins to sell in the store! I also served customers in the store and made date shakes, which are delicious!

Gav and I also worked on clearing out and renovating an old shack. which will house other volunteers in the future. We named it "the love shack" and the sign hangs proudly outside!

The permanent staff were a wonderfully eccentric, slightly crazy and entertaining bunch of people. Brian explained that the desert attracts such folks and having lived here for 6 weeks, we agree! One lady lost her temper quite often and would threaten to " Effin shoot them in the back"! One lady would holler "hey pretty boy" after the male staff, would shout "Effin customers"  within earshot of the customers, people used  the walk in chiller to moan about each other, talked of conspiracy theories  and there was other stuff that just wouldn`t seem funny in the written form. You just had to be there. Every day something  had happened  to make us laugh, and we returned to our mobile home and swapped stories. The staff all made us very welcome and shared both their eccentricities and patience with us and we enjoyed working with them.

We hosted a few BBQs at Brian`s house and had a few outside our caravan on our mobile fire pit. I bought face paints for Halloween and we had a little walk around the ranch with our faces painted and had our pictures taken with some of the visitors! Jen in particular, really got into the spirit of things and made what she thought were suitable zombie faces and moves! One night we made ourselves stay up until midnight (hard when you are up at 6am) as Jen had read there was going to be a meteor shower from midnight until dawn. We played cards, watched a movie and snoozed, until 10 minutes to midnight when Jen re read her information on the meteor shower. Unfortunately, she had read it wrong and we were 24 hours late! Everyone took in  good spirits and we went out into the desert for a bit to look at the wonderful stars !

On our days off-we drove to Death Valley national park and camped overnight.  Death Valley is the hottest, driest and lowest National park in the US. In this below-sea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes.  It is a desert valley and is one of the hottest places in the world at the height of summertime along with deserts in Africa and in the Middle East. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of the lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level.  We explored the dramatic landscape on foot and on some scenic drives. It was a wonderful place to camp with its dark sky and incredible stars.

We also spent a 2 nights in Las Vegas, doing the obligatory tourist visit to the garish casinos on the strip. We also enjoyed visiting the Mob museum, which is dedicated to the artifacts, stories, and history of organised crime in the US,as well as the actions and initiatives by law enforcement to prevent such crimes. The Museum is housed in the former Las Vegas Post Office and Court House and made for an interesting couple of hours. We visited the Neon  Museum  which is dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational, historic, arts and cultural enrichment. We did a night tour and it was interesting to see all of the old Vegas signs and hear about their history.

The 6 weeks flew by and it was time to leave.  We hosted a leaving party at Brian`s house with the theme of British night. With Arianna and Austin, we cooked steak and ale pie, chips, cauliflower cheese and mushy peas. For desert, we made a Victoria sandwich cake and date scones with jam and cream. We transported it to Brian`s house in Ruby and had a lovely evening with the Brian, Gina, Grace and David. We even took our own kettle with us, so we could make them tea!

So after 6 weeks of living and working in the Mojave desert, we will head back to Vegas where we will park Ruby for a few days and fly to San Francisco. We will miss the wonderful China Ranch and our new friends, however it is time to move on and we are thinking about heading into Mexico next month.