It’s another misty morning. We are up and packed by 10am ready to go to the bus station. Edgar has turned up and has kindly offered to drive us to there. He is such a sweetie. At the bus station we check in with no problem - today our seats are allocated. I go off in search of brunch as we don’t know what we will get on the bus. I choose a small pizza and chips from Dominoes, wrongly assuming that it will be fast food. It turns out that the guy behind the counter is not only responsible for taking the orders, but also making and cooking the food. I see my pizza made from scratch and half an hour later it is ready! We wolf our food down as there is a long ... read more

I am pleased to report a good nights sleep - I know that I have been snoring loudly as I have woken myself up several times! Unlike an airline, the overhead lights here are controlled by the driver, so he decides when we should sleep and when we should wake! The first six hours are passed in complete darkness, the lights being switched off practically as soon as we stepped onboard! Our first stop is at Gomez Palacio on the outskirts of Torreón, with a second stop in the town centre bus station five minutes later. Both stops are signalled by loud announcements over the tannoy and part lights in the cabin. It’s 6.30am and we have gained an hour, having passed out of the mountain time zone back into central. Now we have a 20 ... read more

We slept well and after a quick sprint to Oxxo for our morning coffee and chocolate doughnuts, we are off to visit the Museum of the Revolution. Originally the house of General Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa, the building was donated to the State by his widow in 1982 and contains many personal and military artefacts of the Revolutionary era 1913-1916. Villa was just one of several leaders fighting the Federal Government in the period with varying degrees of success. One problem was that the leaders all had differing views of what they wanted, leading to division of effort and even in-fighting between factions. At one stage the US Government even offered a $5000 reward for Villa’s capture. Eventually Villa was paid to ‘retire’, although he was later assassinated in 1923. This was a very large and interesting ... read more

Our bags are packed and ready to go. Check out is at noon and the bus is booked for 2.30pm. We go down for breakfast - a large one today as the bus journey will be a minimum of four hours. Back in our room, I check our itinerary file for the bus tickets. Glancing at the spreadsheet - something is not quite right. It is the 20th today...isn’t it, I ask Ian. No, the 19th he replies! Well we are not moving on then! Doh! I go downstairs to speak to the owner - yes, we have booked and paid until tomorrow. OK, so we are not leaving today after all...surely he must have known that when he asked me if we were leaving today? So, on the plus side, Ian has not lugged our ... read more

Neither of us are feeling great today. We are both suffering from a touch of heatstroke - we hadn’t realised just how hot it was yesterday and though we drank plenty we are still somewhat dehydrated and extremely sunburnt. Ian is looking a bit like a tomato whilst I am leaning more towards a beetroot! At least neither of us feel cold now. We stay in bed until 11am! We decide we will go out for breakfast and both opt for hot cakes (thick pancakes) with maple syrup. Very naughty. There seems to be a bit of mis-communication at the cafe this morning. First our pancakes turn up with no cutlery - I’m sure they don’t expect us to eat them with our hands? Then my papaya juice turns up in, what looks like, a jam ... read more