We stayed in El Paso, Texas last night, which is just across the border from Juarez, Mexico. The cities are separated by the Rio Grande river and comprise one of the largest binational metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of 2.4 million people!

This morning we decided we would have a quick trip over the border into Mexico before heading north toward Roswell, NM. We left the car in El Paso, took the foot-bridge across, and walked straight into Mexico - no immigration lines or customs officers, just a guard with a machine-gun at the end of the bridge! If we had left our passports in the car our trip back into the US may have been a little more difficult!

After walking a few blocks we turned around and headed back to "safety"! I say safety, because Juarez is a city known for its violence. The violence generated by the war of the drug cartels for control of drug routes translated into some 6,000 killings in 2008, with more than 1,600 of them occurring in Juarez!

Well, with our international visit out of the way, we made tracks for the White Sands Missile Range to the northeast of Las Cruces, NM. WSMR is the largest military installation in the US, covering more than 8000 square kms! We drove in and visited the "Missile Park" which displays a variety of missiles and rockets tested at White Sands. Very cool place!

Further along, we came across the White Sands National Monument, which really is (and we didn't get to experience it fully) amazing. It's considered one of the worlds great natural wonders. Out of nowhere, dunes of white gypsum sand cover the desert landscape...We could have sworn that we were right on the coast, just a few hundred meters from a beach! If we had more time here we would've driven in to see it properly, but we'll have to save it for another time...remarkable.

Between here and Roswell is also the territory of Billy the Kid - the 19th century American outlaw.