Central Mexico

We have now travelled about 39,800 km (24,700 miles), which means we have travelled roughly the circumference of the Earth! Quite a cool statistic (thats more than Ewan and Charlie's round the world trip - 19,000 miles)!

From the warmth of the lowlands, we travelled inland into the mountains to Teotihuacan to see some very large, ancient pyramids (about 200 BC). Unfortunately, they are not very photogenic.

The town of the same name next to the ruins was a real dive, it even had police patrolling in fully armoured cars (like a tank without the gun)! The police and army are normally in pickup trucks, with men standing in the back with automatic weapons or sometimes a machine gun mounted behind the cab. Anyway, we stayed nearby in San Martin.

Not quite sure what this was all about!

We are now travelling through some regions which are supposed to be dangerous due to the feuding drug cartels so we are staying more on the main roads than we do normally. Problems are mainly between drug gangs but tourists have been targeted.

The beautiful Laguna Larga, but at nearly 3000 metres and in a room with no heating, so we only stayed one night!

There are a lot of hot springs in this area, also used for power generation, so at least we could have a warm swim in a pool beside the lake.

We stayed for a few days in the capital of Michoacan state, Morelia, which is really nice. Is different, as all the old buildings are made with pink stone. Our stay coincided with the annual classical music festival.
One evening we saw the National Indigenous Sports Games awards, which were opened by the army's band. The square the event was on was surrounded by police and army complete with riot shields!
There is an amazing library in Morelia...Phil says it looks like something out of Harry Potter!

Dee's favorite treat, 'Churros', sold on the street or in this case a specialist shop - yum! They are a bit like a thin donut.

On our way north on a toll road we came across another protest blockade where the protestors had taken over the toll booths. In this case all lorries were blocked but lucky for us, pickups, cars and motorbikes were being allowed through. And we didn't have to pay the toll!