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Two solid days bus ride from Belize city, including a long overnight trip and I arrived back in Mexico city. Mexico suddenly seemed a very civilised and safe place to travel in. Probably an illusion, but my attitudes and confidence have obviously changed over the four months that I have been travelling now.

My trip to Mexico City was goal orientated. The acquisition of additional kit to make my time travelling easier, and facilitate the production of many new and cool web sites, plus I felt the need to obtain new toys. At the risk of being stalked for the contents of backpack I'll list here the cool things I carry:

Water filter - makes clean water safe water.
Head torch - lasts 70hrs, brighter than a maglight, and is hands free.
Speakers - just add batteries and music and instant party.
Lots of MP3 CDs - just add laptop and 100's of hours of music.
Laptop - I wouldn't be without it now, I know I'm a geek.
Battery charger - not really that interesting but useful as hell.
Digital Camera - over 4000 photos taken, you only see the best here.
Guitar - a mini travelling guitar

More Roadworks Mexican Style
that gets interest at customs and gains instant friends with anyone that plays a guitar. Made in Mexico - bought in England for 100 pounds.

On the trip to Mexico City I wanted to find two important items, a USB CD Burner and an MP3 CD Player. I had had an MP3 CD player by Panasonic that I had bought in Antigua, but after 3 weeks of faithful service went crazy in the middle of the night, and started randomly playing tracks, pausing and adjusting the volume. Fortunately I had returned to Antigua and after not being able to get a replacement had got my money back.

A little asking around and I learnt of a fantastic place called the Plaza de Computation. A huge market filled with nothing but cheap and cool computer things. Everything from CDR's to Laptops, digital cameras, every kind of ripped off software you could imagine. Found a Iomega Predator for $130 an external USB CD Burner, so now I can send home all 4000 of the photos on CD with out having to pay $5 a shot. It's only 4x write but at any time I can make a CD.

Day two and I found Plaza de Electronica, 100's of shops doing everything from repairing Playstation 2's to selling MP3 CD Players. Just what I needed, found the new version of the model I had had in Antigua, and bought it for about $100.

With all these new toys I feel ready to move on, kitted out and loving Mexico City more than ever, Tottenham Court Rd is nothing compared.

I purchased a ticket to Los Angeles, and did nothing touristy. Stayed at the Hostal Modena and yet again met some very cool people, two of which, Fred and Tori, I will see in Australia in a few months.

Side note: Half of Mexico City was being dug up, street after street, I didn't find out why, but people were just allowed to walk right through it. I tried to imagine the same thing happening in London and couldn't. I hope the photo gives some idea of the state of it.

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