The Wall loomed at the top of Mexico. Crossing the Rio Grande into the USA felt like a mahuuusive milestone in our travels. Not merely the end of Mexico, but Latin America too. Almost exactly four years after we hopped on the ship in Germany to sail to Uruguay, we ended our Latino trail entering the Lone Star State of Texas. Yes, we were absolutely looking forward to greeting Uncle Sam, but our crystal ball predicted change… big change. Some good change, some bad change, but definitely change.

You know what…? Even after a year around Mexico, this place never ceases to amaze us. Not many overlanders tour north east Mexico, they usually dig the western delights of Baja California and Copper Canyon. We did those too, they’re great, but we wanted to start USA in Big Bend National Park. It made sense for us to exit Mexico on the eastern side into Texas. Leaving San Luis Potosi, we steeled ourselves for some long days of tedious driving to the border. But Mexico had a few final tricks up its sleeve. Who knew that north east Mexico had some real little gems???

Durango. It’s a town, it’s a state of Mexico, it’s one big wild-west movie set, it even lent its name to a movie, and there’s a notorious John Wayne connection. There are few places more ‘cowboys and indians’ than Durango. There we were… just moseying-on through, minding our own business when the whole wild west ‘thing’ just grabbed us by surprise and got us to hang-out for a few days. Why, in the name of Duke’s boots, had we never even heard of this place before?

Oaxaca. What kind of a name is that? And how do you even say it??  Well… it’s both a city and a state in south/central Mexico. For the uninitiated, the name’s of Aztec-Nahuatl origins and pronounced Wa-ha-ka.  It’s a pretty colonial city, with nice architecture, history and most importantly, some good coffee shops. There’s lots to do for Christmas in Oaxaca and the icing on the proverbial cake, is at around 1,500m asl it has one of those perfectly sunny-but-not-too-hot climates. Nice. It’s a top place to park-up for the festive season, check out some radishes (yes… you’ll see) and to deal with a grumpy glow-plug. It might even be an opportune spot to take delivery of a new windscreen for Cuthbert. We live in hope.

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