Via Mexico: Heading south from San Diego, destination Guatemala, with a month to kill and one country separating me from my next guidebook project. At the time I was frustrated by the over zealous guards that police the heritage monuments of Mexico, enforcing a brutal regime, keeping unfriendly hours and pursuing a relentless search for that most illegal of contraband, the humble tripod. But I prefer to remember quiet, sleepy villages lost in time on the Baja peninsula and colourful, cactus filled canyons that lie across the gulf, towns covered in vibrant patchwork quilts of brightly painted houses and sombrero sporting hombres on horseback, Volkswagen taxis and street side taco stalls...