In an attempt to be unpredictable we thought we'd send another update before you were expecting it! Since the 'Copper Canyon Update' we've, well, been back to the Copper Canyon. It was so good we decided to visit the Southern end of the canyon chains once we had got our new tire in Chihuahua. The Southern end of the canyons is every bit as fantastic as the Northern end but the canyon walls are a little more shear. We rode the bike along yet another dirt road for 20 kilometres or so to a look-out point in the middle of nowhere. To be honest we weren't expecting much of a look-out but when we got there it was worth the bumpy and wet ride (a couple of river crossings on the way). To get the full impact of the view Chris suggested leading me to the edge of the look-out while I kept my eyes shut. Like a fool I agreed. He led me 20 metres or so and then put my hands on the guard rail (thank God). When I opened my eyes it felt like I was suspended in a huge chasm. The ground just fell away beneath me and I had a huge attack of vertigo as my knees turned to to jelly. Once I'd got over the shock, and hit Chris, I just stood and took the view in. It was incredible. Unfortunately things were brought to an abrupt end as the heavens opened, but not before we got yet more photo's.From there we seem to have put on a bit of a spurt and ridden mile after mile, day after day through the colonial heartlands of Mexico. The towns are mainly founded on silver and gold mining and you can see the greater prosperity in all the towns as compared to the those in the North of the country. They just have a lot of sand! As well as more prosperity there are more Missions and churches. They're everywhere and not just a couple in each town but often ten or more. Religion seems to have done well for itself here. Aside from prosperity, Missions and churches we've started to come across more Mesoamerican and Mayan ruins. The ruins are often a couple of thousand years old but still in good condition considering the elements they've had to endure. We spent a full day at the ruins of an entire fortified town outside Chicomostoc. The town was inhabited between 1800 and 1200 years ago. After 600 years or so of serving as a trade and economic centre for the region and supporting 200 turquoise and hematite mines the town was raised to the ground by a huge fire. In its heyday there were several thousand inhabitants in and around the town. From what we could see there were temples everywhere and enough human bones from all the sacrifices to keep a very large pack of dogs in heaven for a very long time.

In the last couple of days we've been in Guanajuato, a UNESCO World Heritage City. Its a really odd place as it stands in a narrow gorge. The river which runs through the city has been covered over and several underground streets opened up. The surface streets are really steep and narrow as they fallow the contours of the hills. The upshot is that the town is pretty traffic free with plazas and quiet cobbled streets to mill around in. Its all very beautiful with its colonial architecture and reminds us of Spain. Its the nicest City we've visited so far without a doubt. More importantly though. There are restaurants that don't serve re-fried beens. We had a real blow-out yesterday in an Italian Restaurant. If it was a Italian restaurant in Italy or even the UK we'd have been disappointed with the soggy pasta etc but after a couple of months of re-fried beens it was heaven. Still on a food theme, Chris was a little upset yesterday when he bought 2 hot-dogs and was then literally mugged for them by two drunk 'hot-dog muggers'. Luckily Chris decided not to put up a fight but as the muggers made off a passer by then proceeded to give chase and beat the ................. out of them! Even more fortuitously the muggers showed no interest in my chocolate cake! Seriously, while Chris was annoyed, there was no real harm done - to him at least.

CENTER>

We've now started our loop back up into the States and Canada (hopefully) so we can avoid the rainy season further south. We're aiming to cross the US boarder again in 2 weeks and then head first to North Carolina to meet up with a load of like minded (and probably mad) motorcycle overland travelers like ourselves. Should be fun. We'll let you know!