The second half of a tour east of Mexico City and the first half of a tour west and north of Mexico City

Hello from Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

After my last update, we went to Rancho Esmeralda to visit the ruins of Tonina and ride horses. Then we went to Agua Azul waterfalls to look around. They were a little blue, but still pretty muddy from all of the rain. That night we went to Lacanja. Lacanja is near the border with Guatemala. There were lots of bugs around that night. The local Lancadonian people wear long white tunics and have long black hair. They are definately unique looking.

The next morning we toured the ruins of Bonampak and then hiked through the jungle to a waterfall. The water was pretty high and I was the only one in the group who went swimming. From there, we drove to Palenque and toured the ruins there. We also stopped at Misol Ha waterfall and it was huge also.

From Palenque we went to the ruins of Uxmal and then up to the city of Merida. After a brief stop at the ruins of Chichen Itza, we went to the beach for four days. My friend Sarah, from London, was there and hung out with us during our days on the beach. We went snorkeling in a cavern, hung out for the day at the Xel-Ha marine park, visited Cancun for a few hours, partied in Playa del Carmen and generally had lots of fun in the Caribbean.

From there, we went to Bacalar and took a sunset boat ride on the Lagoon of Seven Colors and stopped for a swim. The next day I said goodbye to Sarah and drove to Isla Aguada with my group. We spent a bit of time on the beach there then moved on. We stopped in Villahermosa to look at the zoo and then spent the night in Acayucan. The last night of the trip was spent in Cholula, a suburb of Puebla. We finished up in Mexico City on the 21st of October and said good bye to four of the eight. The other four have joined me on the next 19 days of this trip.

On the 22nd, I took my nine new passengers and my four passengers who were continuing with me to the ruins of Teotihuacan. We spent that night in San Miguel de Allende. The next morning I drove them into town and got my first flat tire ever, with Trek America. About ten feet from where I intended to park, the curb sliced into a tire and it went flat very quickly. I had lots of people to help me change the tire and I spent the rest of the morning buying a new one. In the afternoon we visited some hot springs and then drove to Guanajuato.

On the 24th, we toured the city and visited the mine and mummy museum. Then, after a shopping stop at Wal-Mart, we camped in Patzcuaro. The next day I got to take one passenger to the hospital. He was allergic to mosquito bites and needed a shot and some cream. He got his shot in the surgery room. I got to watch a doctor sew up what was left of someones fingers. It was not pretty. The doctor was so excited to practice English, that he dropped his instruments. He kept excellent eye contact with me as he tried to simultaneously speak English and perform surgery. That night we moved on to Paricutin, the volcano.

Bright and early the next day, nine of us set off on the 19 mile hike to the top and back. It was the normal hard hike, but I enjoyed it. Especially the part in the middle when we run full speed down the steep ash slope. One person fell and hurt is ankle, but for the most part we all survived the run intact.

From there we went to Guadalajara for a quiet night. The next day we toured a Tequila factory. But first, we had to bring someone to the hospital. Laura had what we suspected was bilharzia, a parasitic worm in her feet from Lake Malawi, in Africa. She had cool track marks on the top of her feet and they got longer every day.

Then it was on to the beach. We camped in Sayulita. On the 29th, I took Laura to the airport and she flew home. That night we went to party in Playa del Carmen, but first I had to take Patrick to the doctor. He cut his finger on a tree and it swelled up. He got his first ever tetanus shot and some pills.

On the 30th, some of us took a boat out to some islands and snorkeled around for a few hours. They have some really nice tropical fish there. Yesterday we drove to San Blas and toured the swamp in a boat. We stopped at a crocodile farm and watched them tie one up to weigh it and move it to another cage. Then we boated over to a swimming hole. There was a four foot crocodile laying in the water, right at the bottom of the entrance stairs. I got pretty close to him, but he would not move. Eventually, someone tapped his tail and he swam off. Once he was about 15 feet away, it seemed safe and I dove in. After a while the crocodile stayed more than 30 feet away and a few others joined me. They have a great trapeze bar there and I practiced my back flip off of the trapeze bar into the water.

After the swimming, we came up here to Mazatlan. Today is a beach day. We went on the banana boat earlier today and bounced around the waves a bit. We drove over to the El Cid Mega Resort and hung out by there pool and played on their water slides. Later we will go back to camp.

I have never been in Mexico during the rainy season before. It is great. Places that usually have thousands of tourists are pretty much empty. Prices are cheaper and it is warmer. But, I am looking forward to coming back down here early next year, when all of the waterfalls are not so muddy and I can swim in them.

Oh, and before you start thinking that three hospital visits in a week is a lot for my current tour, read back to April of 1998. The last time I did this trip, I also brought three people to the hospital for relatively minor things.