We had a great week in Puerto Vallarta, chilling, trying to learn Spanish, scuba diving and not riding much, just as well as James almost got a police ticket for turning left at some traffic lights. He managed to charm them with his cheeky gringo ways and was let off scott free.

As our ticket for the Stahlratte sailing ship is on 14th November from Carti, Panama, we're having to scoot through Central America and the rest of Mexico.

We got caught up in the madness that is Guadalajara then managed to get ourselves on the toll roads, although I could quite happily live my whole life without seeing another "prepare sua cuota" sign as they were darned pricy. We did get great views of Popocatapetl and the surrounding amazing volcanos near Mexico City, so it wasn't all bad.

We rode through the agricultural heartlands of Mexico, with those classic crops of agave (tequila), coffee, tobacco and chilli. It's pretty tricky finding a decent coffee though here, it's all instant nescafe, most odd. The different crops make for glorious scenery, the UNESCO area of the agave especially making the hills shimmer with a blue/grey hue.

As we made good time, we took the coast road with great views of the Gulf of Mexico, plus the standard starving dog limping towards us, hoping for a snack every time we stopped to soak up the view.

We had to do one awesome archaeological site, so we chose Palenque, staying in a cabaña in the jungle so we could get to the ruins fairly early. It really does take your breath away to see these incredible structures rising up from the jungle, with howler monkeys screeching overhead. We found one last "secret" ruin, Pomoná, just near Tenosique and the caretaker let us in to zip up there, muy rapido. Glad we did as it was spectacular, deserted, and just, well, there, with huge stone blocks creating these wonderful pyramids and buildings. Alas, this meant drop number 7 as the ruins were up a deep muddy track. A heavy AT in that? Not a chance. The biggest upset was that it has just been cleaned after 4 months of road grime and desert, well, these bikes weren't meant to be shiny!

Now were at the end of a month in Mexico, here are our riding tips: ask for petrol by colour, with "verde" being regular ole 87; be aware of the topes (speedbumps), yes, they are as bad as everyone says and at Every. Single. Village; dogs are everywhere and in various injured states, or lying by the side of the road having lost a fight with one of the many semis that hurtle around over the potholes; road signs - not many about and those that you can find tend to tell you where you are, not where you want to go. And of course, never ride at night. Be safe everyone! Mexico was great, good food, amazing scenery, the people were friendly and keen to chat, plus some fabulously entertaining roads and riding.

Next up: how to cross central American borders and how we fared.