After all the tales of hassle at the borders, armed patrols on the roads and watching for bandits as we travelled through the USA, it was a very uneventful crossing.

We bimbled up to the border around 8:30, had the sense to stop despite being waved through, park the bikes, walk over to the USA customs and hand in our white visa cards. I can see why so many people fail to as the USA guards are not interested in south bound traffic at all.

We then got pulled over for a search at the Mexican side, which gave us a chance to ask where to obtain the tourist and vehicle visas. The Mexican official was very nice, spoke slowly in Spanish for us and then walked us to where we had to have papers copied and paid for. In all it took about an hour.

Fortunately all fees are done in dollars, as we had no Pesos until we found an ATM, and headed into he mountains.

Pretty aren't they.

We were stopped once in the mountains, 25 miles in, for a documentation check, this is where people usually find they have failed to pay a fee and have to go back. Then after another 20 miles it was a military road block. Manned by what looked t be 17 year old boys. They were more interested in the fact Jean was riding a bike and after a brief look in the panniers had her pose for photographs.

Our next encounter with a local was outside Chihuahua, we were trying to make sure we did not go into the centre. A car stopped, and the man asked us if we needed help ( he spoke excellent English) , we explained where we wanted to go. As he tried to explain, he realised how hard it would be for us because the road signs are so bad and decided he would lead us, before getting into his car he even recommended the hotel we are now in, in the centre of Cuauhtemoc. He then led us on to the ring road and made sure we were headed the right way before waving good bye.

I think we will like Mexico.