Breakfast at a cafe/tienda, stacked with figures, mugs, bowls, plates and a complete Nativity scene.

On the ferry “Chihuahua Star” for the next 14 hours, heading for the Mexican mainland. Jungles, ruins, rainforests and await.

Five days of Spanish later and I’m ready to get back on the road. The school and its teachers have been first-rate, readying me for the next three months. It’ll take a little bit more vocabulary and sone studying, but I think I’m good enough to interview people to get the info I need. Omar, one of our teachers, below. And a useful guide to a pig.

Stunning blue sky today, fruit on the trees and mucho Español.

After breaking a ball joint & shock absorber on the painful road to and from the whaling stations, we were not amused to see the road to San Francisco. It was 27 km of rocks, and took about three or four hours. I vowed to get the shock replaced *after* the return leg, hoping we didn’t take out anything else… Update: good point, Top Gun… It’s the road from the highway to San Francisco Sierra - the first 9.5 km is tarmac and then it’s a nightmare :)

Well the offending ball joint has been replaced with a less offensive one, but the shock absorber looks and sounds buggered, too. It’s not a stressed point, though, not in the same way as the joint, so I’m slightly more relaxed about replacing it: time to turn the music up if it bothers me. I’m now filthy, having watched the stupid mechanic dislocate the driveshaft from the CV joint, allow the brake pipe to take the entire weight of the shaft + brake + hub, and fumble about trying get ge shaft back in. Anyway, time for a shower and a nap.

Looks like we took out a nearside lower bush on the car while driving on Baja’s worst road. Ah well, better it goes now than in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, found a nail AND a screw in the offside front tyre. No love for the front end today. Luckily Nico Lopez appears to be a top, top man.