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no one said it would be easy

on a high plateau at 8,000 ft and to get there from the north you leave the low-lands and sidle along the slopes for several hours, only slowly climbing. It was a perfect day which morphed into the perfect ride with no traffic slowing us and Penelope performing at her finest. We danced our way along, flopping to the left, and flopping to the right in a rhythmic sequence of moves. It was wonderful and seemingly endless. Soon we had romped away from the others, not caring … bound up in the ecstasy of the moment. If something happened to one of them and I had to go back … well, how wonderful would that be! In fact, back behind me, Roly suffered the scary sight of Lawrie sweeping past him onto the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing an oncoming small truck. Lozza had got quite proficient at riding … but there hadn't been many corners up to this point, and he had just frozen mid-bend. Not for the last time was the omnipotent one above kind to us.

Mexico City was a bit of a nightmare, the camp expensive and barren, the air pollution as memorable as noted by others … and there was no mail. We did a side trip out to Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods, which we were very impressed with. Here were pre-Aztec pyramids to rival those of the ancient Egyptians. This had been the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas with possibly 125,000 residents, which would have made it the sixth-largest city in its epoch. Often attributed to the Toltecs, the construction still contains many mysteries and for me rivalled the old-world magnificence of Ephesus and Persepolis visited on the ‘Ernie’ ride. Even still being fit from rugby and the continued exercise, walking around the vast plazas and concourses was debilitating in the thin air.

Roly had decided that the oil consumption of the Panthers needed to be addressed and to that end, we managed, with much sign-language and hand waving to obtain correct size piston rings for both Penelope and Samantha. These were for a Dodge truck but deemed fit-for-purpose and fitted. Only time would tell if they made a difference.

We still had a few days up our sleeves before the 15th Jan, so decided to relocate to the Pacific Coast at Acapulco, to rest and recreate. This was another magnificent day’s ride as it was all downhill to the coast. The road down twisted and turned, with spectacular drops ensuring that we kept the focus on the riding rather than the views. Later we would read in an English-language publication that recently there had been an appalling bus accident on this very road. Something like 45 people had perished, with only one survivor. When asked what was the driver doing at the time