Blogs from Chihuahua, Mexico, North America

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

The bed is comfortable and the air in the room a bit chilly, so we do not rise early, although we do Skype our parents back in the UK. First task today is to deliver our sack of washing to the laundry. Slightly worryingly the assistant quotes a price of 80 pesos for the load, about half that we have been charged elsewhere, and a completion time of only 3 hours! We somehow doubt this will be the price when we come to collect - it’s a pretty big bag and 80 pesos is only just over £3! We return to the hotel and decide to try their breakfast, largely as I have seen that they serve fruit and yoghurt. Ian sticks to scrambled eggs and ham, something that they never get wrong. So now we ... read more

Today we are going on a tour with Claudia, her husband and five year old son. We are pleased to see that we have blue skies and the sun is shining. Breakfast is scrambled egg with ham and mashed beans. It’s nice. I spot a set of weighing scales in the breakfast room - first chance for a weigh in since leaving home. I am pleased to note that my weight is exactly the same though Ian points out they may not be as accurate as our digital scales. Nice one. Well yes, but nothing to say these scales aren’t telling me I weight more! We set off for the Mirador for perfect views of the mountains and valleys which were obscured by mist yesterday. We can see down to the river in the Urique valley. ... read more