........HOLA MEXICO

The land of refried beans and jalapeno peppers with every meal and salt and lime with every drink. No kidding.

We left Quito for a short spell in Bogota before hitting Mexico City - three capitals in 10 hours, not bad going eh? Getting in via immigration and customs took much form filling and 2 hours - and still no one has asked to see our yellow fever certificates, perhaps we will have more luck at Gatwick?

Mission number 1 was to find a decent hostal, the place we had pre-booked was beyond grim! We had a dew days in the city and started the tourist trail with a visit to see where Leon Trotsky was killed. The fun continued with with more churches and plazas and an interesting stroll round an Azrec site in the centre of the historic area. This site was only uncovered in 1978 after 2 blocks of colonial building were knocked down specifically for the purpose, a lot of debate and controversy still surrounds the latter. We saw the wall of skulls and learnt that 20,000 people were sacrificed in three days, a 3 mile queue, imagine being at the end of that line. The method of sacrifice was to deliver a living heart to the gods - yuk.

It rained every night at 8pm but not a problem when you are tucked up with a beer or two in the Sun Gate bar!

Our next jaunt was a bus ride to Puerto Vallarta stopping overnight at..............

MORELIA. A beautiful colonial city with grand buildings and a relaxed atmosphere. The scenery on the journey was interesting too, very green and lush with mountain passes over river beds and deep ravines. We also caught sight of Volcan De Fuego, gently smoking away and circled a large and beautiful lake, whose name escaped us. 

GUADALAJARA.  The bus trip here took us past many blue agave fields neatly planted in rows. This cactus looking plant is the prime ingredient of tequila, something neither of us have touched since Yvonne's leaving do in Sheffield (Hi Giles!) but as they say.....when in Rome..........

On arrival we chose to stay on the outskirts at Tlaquapaque (easy to say after a few margueritas) rather than head into the city. It was a good choice as this was a jam packed town with lots of live Mariachi music, good cafes and a real party atmosphere. There were lots of Mexican tourists so we really felt part of the culture for a while.

MANZANILLO. This trip took us high over the mountains and we felt nauseous and had headaches. You do not retain your ability to cope with altitude once you descend. Fortunately we had chosen to travel deluxe so laid back and enjoyed the scenery in style. There were miles of neatly lined coconut palms, smaller banana plantations and, of course, blue agave on the way.

This town on the coast was a huge disappointment. While it had some nice (if narrow) beaches with gloriously warm water, it had very little else to offer. It was dirty, rundown and expensive, though this didn't seem to deter the many Mexican holidaymakers who had chosen to visit. Added to all this the weather was very hot and humid, making it very uncomfortable at night, when the only way to keep cool was to take regular cold showers! After two fairly uneventful days we'd had enough, and headed up the coast to ............. 

PUERTA VALLARTA (PV).  We travelled on a 2nd class bus (no choice) which rattled and wound its way along the coastal roads, stopping everywhere to pick up and drop off locals. The up side of this was the opportunity to see rural life close up, and not surprisingly there were many similarities to the backwaters of South America.

PV is a tourist resort, much favoured by American visitors. We found that if we affected a southern drawl and just used our forks to eat we fitted in very nicely! It was less humid, although still hot, and in our four days we were able to explore a lot. Accommodation was hard to find and we paid a hefty premium to be near the beach. Very careful timing when sunbathing (30 minutes each side!) still led to some sore bits but hey - we aren't missing the rain back home.

The old town, where we stayed, retained some charm, our side of the river being the cheap end, named the romantic area on local maps. The "posher" end of town had some amazing sculptures along the pebbly waterfront, and further round the bay high-rise hotels accommodated all the package tourists.

PV was a good place for us to rest and relax and we enjoyed it very much.

Finally we returned to Mexico City to take in (along with most of the local population) the free entry zoo, to explore some other parts of the city using the excellent metro system that costs just 10p for any journey, and to change hotels again. We realised that where we had been staying was primarily for ladies who work at night. Not a problem for Yvonne, who can sleep on a washing line, but Rob was kept awake by the constant door slamming and general bumps (grinds) during the night. So hotel/hostal number three it is. We are just off the main plaza in the historic centre of the city and next door to the Sun Gate - Rob is now a happy bunny, as is the barman who beams broadly whenever we put in an appearance.

(Mark has our photos to load, and when he does our Dads need to spend time identifying the orchids. Also, there's a prize for the best caption for the photo of Rob mid-haircut in Cuenca)