Or Mexico D.F (District Federal) as it is known, or just Mexico. It does not seem right following signs for Mexico while in Mexico.

The Mexican motorway service areas are a little different from ours, a line of restaurants appear with ladies waving brightly coloured flags to attract our attention.

We had some nice Chorizo Verde tacos, everything in it was green, including the taco.

Jean does not think I should mention we had green poo the next day.

The next morning we had a shock, it was cold. So cold that I had frost on the bike, it was our second reminder that it is winter as the previous night we had gone shopping and had been assaulted with Xmas tunes.

The temperature swings from hot (25C) to cold (4C) because we are now around 10,000 feet high. Are we really in the Tropics ?

As the city is a nightmare to navigate, it has 22 million people and 3 separate weather forecasts, our host Garry met us at our hotel and led us all in.

The first part of the trip was a bit like the M25 but after we left Jim, Gavin and Tony to be met by their host the roads and drivers got a little bit more "interesting". We were not sure of the rules, if any actually exist, so just did what Garry did and hoped for the best.

After a week with our "Tres Amigios Viajes" we finally parted, they wanted to carry on south with us but they need to turn north and start heading back. Hopefully they will take up our invite to visit us in the UK next year.

Garry works in an English Language school, and every November the 5th he does a roast beef dinner for the teachers and students, we emptied one of my panniers and put the entire meal in that, including gravy, and Jean went pillion as we followed Garry back into the city at a reasonable speed. Between the "topes", the pot holes and traffic I did not dare take my eyes off Garry to see where we were going.

We finished they day by riding back in the dark at 22:00. All I had to follow this time was his tail light.

Today we sat and watched some traffic from the middle of a "roundabout", both sides were used.

Whatever the unwritten rules are, they work as no one hits anyone else.

Pyramids

Just north of the city, is the excavated city of Teotihuacan, which also has two Pyramids that you can walk up, they have been restoring them. We spent a day there with Garry and Iyvonne, wandering around streets and rooms that had been excavated.

The Sun

The plaque at the bottom explained that they now believed it was a temple for the water god, I doubt they will rename it.

The Moon

As we left spotted a motorbike with Eire registration plates and pulled over for a chat. Pat (yes, and Irish man called Pat) has been on the road since July, he has been to Alaska, and was heading to Panama to catch a boat to Columbia on Nov 27th, so this would be his only cultural visit.

Bike Fettling

I've had to do a lot of work on the bike this weekend, mine is obviously the sick one, the list comprises of.

* Full beam not working (Baton Rouge fix)
* Horn not working (no power to it)
* Rear light/brake light intermittent
* Petrol fill catch release not working. (I've disabled the lock now)
* Wires to coil causing intermittent stalls.

I had to take the panniers off to check the rear lights, only fault found was a bent bolt for the pannier frame.

I'll start taking bets now as to how far my bike gets..