Finally...

...it's happened to me, right in front of my face, fabulous, can't describe it. OK, that's corny, but I am actually celebrating my first day in Mexico without rain, woohoo! Now that was one thing I wasn't expecting when I came. When you see all those Hollywood films full of cacti, deserts and locals taking long siestas in the shade of their sombreros you expect the place to be as dry as a bone. But instead I have been greetd with a green and fertile country with a temperate climate due to the high altitudes and even the deserts seem to be teeming with plants.

So here I am in Creel, which is close to the Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre) national park. There are actually six canyons in the park each of which is deeper than the Grand Canyon. So I can't wait to get into the canyons and do a bit of trekking as the views from the bus were absolutely breathtaking, which is more than can be said for its speed, somehow I think it must have been suffering from a severe case of asthma. I think I'll probably be staying here for some time as it's so beautiful and the hostel is dead cheap: 4 quid for a bed, breakfast and dinner.

I was far less impressed by the city of Chihuahua on the other hand. The city is the administrative centre of the state of the same name (in which the Copper Canyon is situated) and I had to pass through there to get to Creel. Therefore I thought I might as well spend a few hours checking out some of the sites (there aren't many as Chihuahua is famed for being a bit of a dump, but there were still one or two that interested me). However I wasn't even given the chance to do that as the guy at the left-luggage counter in the bus station never turned up and so I couldn't pop into town (unless I wanted to trundle arond with a big backpack, a prospect which didn't make my heart race). On the plus side I did manage to spot a Chihuahua dog in Chihuahua city, which made me laugh. Small consolation I know, but you have to make your own entertainment sometimes.