On the face of it Team Elephant had a quiet week. We tasted some tequila, packed and departed Guadalajara and made our way to Mexico City by way of two Mesoamerican sites and the cutesy tourist town of Guanajuato; all happy-travelling stuff. The trouble is, we didn't feel at all happy as we wound out through the Guadalajara suburbs. We just felt flat.

Our week had started well with a visit to Tequila, the town that gave its name to that uniquely Mexican drink. Apart from the chance to see the stuff made, Jo and I had a great day just mucking about with Ernesto and Andrea. I am, however, not sure either of us are tequila  converts just yet.

Then, as if determined to better our tequila adventure, Ernesto and Andrea organised a farewell luncheon for us so that we could be sent-off from Guada' in style. We were more than a little surprised by the attention, especially when Elephant appeared in the foyer of the house so that we could play show-and-tell with the guests. The best taco lunch we have had in Mexico (which means the best ever) was just a bonus.

The middle of the week wasn't too bad either. The Mesoamerican sites at Plazuelas and Peralta were both well off the usual tourist route, deserted and spectacular. Both had modest but modern and elegant museums with useful information and some very special artifacts. We were both taken with some of the intricately carved jewellery and well-made domestic items such as pottery and pipes.

The town of Guanajuato, a favourite of many folk, was an interesting stop without being spectacular. It had some quirky features like a network of poorly signposted underground streets built in an old river bed and  designed to make navigation as difficult as possible. There are also plenty of little coffee shops and bars as you would expect from a university town. It is far from our favourite place in Mexico but it was easy to see why it is the first place we have seen a few foreign tourists outside the Baja.

If the week ended with the simple business of getting ourselves and the bike secure inside Mexico City, this was still a sweet success for the Team. Getting lost in the gnarly traffic of a mega-city like Mexico is the stuff of nightmares so our small navigational victory was some of that “small stuff” worth celebrating.

No, all of this was good. It was just getting out of Guadalajara that dragged us down. The navigation was perfect and Elephant treated the rowdy autopista crush with the disdain of pro but, despite this, we rolled along in glum silence. The problem was simply that the time had come to leave our friends and leave behind a little of our heart. In some sense this is why we travel the way we do and we shouldn't be surprised at our own reactions. The bike changes the nature of our journey and forces us to commit tof the world around us, to be open to the experience and, hopefully, to be changed by it. We invest emotionally in our journey and with that investment comes a sense of loss when we leave behind those we have come to love. It is enough to take the gloss of the best day on a motorcycle and to have us planning our return.