Road from DF to Oaxaca, Tuesday 8th September 

Having said goodbye to some of the group the night before, there was some new members joining us in DF. The crew were unaltered being Zoe and Seb. There was still Steve, Clare, Tracey and myself who had started this leg of my trip in Anchorage and Lawrence who had joined in Banff. New on the bus that morning was John from Essex, Kate from Wales and Nicole from north of Sydney whose accent to my ear sounded exactly like Tracey's.

On reflection there were three things that struck me about Mexico and Mexico DF. The country was a lot greener than I had expected as I had seen too many Westerns with cowboys riding through desert which does exist up towards the US border but its a big country and there is also a lot of green.

The famed DF pollution isn't so bad but given that it is the rainy season, the rain rinses the air but there was always a haze despite it raining the day we arrived and it rained last night. The famed traffic wasn't so bad for us as we left DF but then it was early and we were going out of town whilst the roads into the centre on the other carriage ways were clogged.

It was a peasant day as we headed eastwards through farming countryside and lots of maize fields. After Puebla we went through some hills and we saw more cacti.

The mountain road was dramtic but as we were leaving the foothills there was a heavy storm. Visbility was reduced and the gutters were full. Water was washing mud, sand and stones down the hills and across the road. Yet just a little further on the skies were clear and the road dry as if nothing had happened.

We reached Oaxaca and found a hotel, and a street scene outside the Hotel Aurora.

We walked to a local square and had dinner  outside whilst the thunder and lightning played on the hills surrounding the city.

L to R Tracey, Clare, Kate, John, Nicole, Zoe and Seb. I am taking the photo and Lawrence and Steve are out of shot, my apologises for not getting the whole group. .

Afteer the meal some of us went to a local bar and I wasn't going to join the others until I saw the location nd just had to go in and see the architecture. We had several cocktails and I had some mezcal con gusano. Mezcal is distilled from cacti but uses several cacti varieties rather than just blue agave as used in tequila. As for gusano, this was an additional ingredient discovered by Jacob Lozano Paez in the 1940's which allegedly improved the flavour. Don't take my word for it but check out gusano in mescal on the internet.

The outside in this photo looks benign but part way through the cocktail evening I was ready to go. However it was raining very heavily as if the city was standing under a waterfall. The runoff completely obscured the gutter as it rushed down the road.

I had also forgotten to pay my share of the bill so its not surprising that I was called back and I had little resistance to having another mezcal whilst i waited for the rain to ease off.

I was also the last to get my bags onto the bus that morning (not my fault, I blame Starbucks as they were slow to serve me) and together with my trying to leave without paying my bill at the bar, had there been a bollocking award to be presented that day, I would have got it!