Wed 20 Jun - Arrived in Los Mochis after the overnight bus from PV and managed to check into 1 star hotel at 3 star money - at least the cockroaches we could see were dead! The whole reason we were there was to go on the famous Copper Canyon railway so it was only a 1 night stop but what a sh&thole! Absolutely nothing to do and temp in the high 30's on max humidity. Found an expensive restaraunt and dragged out a buffet lunch to 3 hours then went back to hotel and died under a cranky old air conditioning unit.

Thu 21 Jun - Got up before dawn to go on the Copper Canyon railway. Stunning trip as the train goes from the coastal flatlands up, over and through the Sierra Madre mountains. In one place the railway does a full 360 to get up and over one mountain and gets up 2400m before a long run across the plains to Chihuahua. The Copper Canyon is 4 times bigger in area than the Grand Canyon in the States - its stunning bt not as visually impressive as the Canyons aren't the classic sheer sided drops but stunning scenery all the same. Get into Chihuahua late and luck out on a lovely hostel that sadly has availability for just this one night. Local laws say were not allowed to buy alcohol after 10pm so we buy a carton of milk and empty half a bottle of Kahluha we had been given on the timeshare presentaion back in PV.

Fri 22 Jun - Spend the morning looking for another hotel and eventually find the happy medium between cockroaches and butlers! Bars on the other hand seems remarkably hard to come by - you have buy food to get your beer it seems so we wander off to the local Supermarket buy beer by the litre and entertain ourselves back at the hotel. Lovely bottle of wine with evening meal and go back and finish the night off with more Kahluha and those lovely White Russians. Edit! Forgot that when we were out looking for something to eat that evening (no camera) we came across a load of fire engines gathered around one of the flea pit hotels we decided not stay in - a wise choice it would appear!

Sat 23 Jun - Went to see a museum dedicated to the life of bandit turned revolutionary Pancho Villa. Up until the 9/11 twin towers thing he was the only person in history to lead an attack on US soil back in the days of US vs Mexico when the US was busy nicking half of Mexico. Before you say "Pearl Harbour" apparently Hawaii wasn't part of the US back in the 1940's.

Sun 24 Jun - Got up early (5am) and watched the British Motorcycle Grand Prix on ESPN. Ho ho ho - what s*** weather! 14'C and rain. Meanwhile 20 degrees hotter we got on a plane and headed to Tijuana on the border with US. Blackpool / Costa del Sol and Americans all rolled into one on first impressions and nothing like the rest of Mexico at all. We'll see how long we can stand it and roll into the US in the middle of the week. My Mexican visa's a bit dodgy and accomodation is looking scarce in San Diego on and around the 4th July for some bizarre reason but we'll figure it all out I'm sure.