After we had passed Mexico City, we continued to the city of Morelia. We cycled through forests and mountains where we could smell the great scent of pinetrees again. Again, a lot of climbing but the scenery made up for a lot of it.

After the surprisingly modern city (center) of Toluca, we decided to take the toll road because it was faster and a bit easier. That turned out to be not such a good idea, it was very busy and the shoulder was covered in rubbish like tires. It didn`t take long before we had our first flat tire and not long after the first one followed the second. And then yet another one. All of that in just 10 kms (6 miles)! We had had enough, were fed up with it and checked into a hotel in the nearest town.

The next day we continued on the regular road and that was a good decision. The route was beautiful and took us through pineforests and mountains.

We stayed a few days in the city of Morelia and we had a good time. We could cook our own food in the hostel and another cyclist arrived, Tim from Seattle. Morelia is a Unesco World Heritage site because of its beatifully restored and maintained historical, colonial buildings. It also has a huge cathedral and many churches. We walked to the historic center and it really was a nice city.

After 3 days it was time to go.

We wanted to pass around another big city, Guadalajara. We cycled through the town of Tequila, where the famous liquor comes from. Tequila is made from agave, just like Mezcal. Everywhere we looked we saw fields of agaves. When we came past one of the big or small factories, we almost got drunk by the strong smell.

Around Toluca, we were at pretty high altitude; between 2000 and 3000 meters (6000 – 9000 ft). It was very cold in the mornings and we were even cold during some days. We had to wear our longsleeved jacket again for the first time in a very long time and we even used the long legpieces. We stayed pretty high till the city of Tepic, but there we plunged down about 1000 meters (3000 ft) to sealevel. The heat was back, even though we had expected it to be a bit hotter. A cold drink once in a while was very refreshing, but because we were cycling on the toll road again there hardly was anything to buy. The toll roads over here are not like we`re used to at home; over here there are no gas stations with everything that comes with them. Over here, you only find them on the regular roads. So, most of the time, we had to drink the water from our waterbottles which got warmer every minute.

The last days were long days on the bikes, we cycled about 450 very hilly kms (270 miles) in 3,5 days. But then we really were in Mazatlan! Another final point reached!

We spent a day (afternoon) on the beach and the next day it was time to go to the harbor. There, we left with Baja Ferries to La Paz on Baja California, a desertlike peninsula on the west side of Mexico. After exactly 3500 kms (2100 miles) in 7 weeks, we rode our bikes onto the ferry. We had decided that we wanted to get some sleep during this nightly cruise, so we booked a cabin. We had our own toilet and even a shower. And we did sleep very well, most likely a whole lot better than the people who didn`t have a cabin and had to spend the night in sort of an airplane chair whilst the tv was playing way too loud.

Now we`re in La Paz, where the beaches are beautiful white and the water is a stunning blue. Another day of rest and then we`ll start the last part of our trip through Latin America. We expect to need about 3 weeks to get to the US border. Then we`ll (sadly) say goodbye to this part of the world where we`ve spent so much time and have gotten so used to that it will be weird to have to deal with many rules again and speak a different language again.