PUERTO ESCONDIDO & ZIPOLETE

WHERE:Puerto Escondido and Zipolete, then back to Puerto Escondido

WHERE (less detailed): the West Coast of Mexico

WHEN: 2st July to 6 Aug - our longest stay in one (actually two places) on the entire trip

WEATHER IS: beautiful sunshine, but a little cloudy a couple of days

FOOD IS: home cooked, and then through a straw for paul after his surfing accident

A MEAL COSTS: still managed to find a couple of cool burrito/taco places where dinner was $9

A BEER COSTS: thanks to the fridge in our room we bulk bought Corona's which came in at 49p a bottle

PEOPLE ARE: very nice, apart from the fat American who owned our hotel who Rhaani didn't like because he didn't ask how Paul was after the surf accidient

HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS: up until Paul's accident the place was great, right next to the beach, lovely little pool, Paul actually mastered surfing to an extent until his surfboard attacked him... he should have realised things were not heading his way when the surf ripped one of his surf boots off the day before ... picking a piece of the surfboard out of Paul's teeth ... a trip to a non-English speaking dentist was an experience, as was his use of thick black thread rather than dissolving stitches ... four days of yoghurt and slurping wasn't fun for either of us ... above all the most enjoyable aspect was not having to pack up our bags every other day.

UP NEXT: Mexico City

CHICHEN ITZA, UXMAL, PALENQUE

Chichen Itza, one of the 7-wonders of the world

WHERE: Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Palenque

return of the obligatory arty shot

WHERE (less detailed): three ancient Mayan sites in the Yucatan (bottom, near Cancun) part of Mexico
WHEN: too close to the end to even think about

Rhaani cleans up the town

WEATHER IS: as usual stifling, run from the sun, hot
FOOD IS: awesome, fantastic fajitas for dinner, subway sandwiches for lunch
A MEAL COSTS: buttons, £3 for a large portion of fajitas

Palenque in all its glory

A BEER COSTS: once again 70p for a bottle of sol. Mexico definitely makes the 'Top 10 places to drink yourself to death on the cheap' list

vest, beer, Paul makes Britain proud

PEOPLE ARE: pretty nice. A kind taxi driver stops his cab in the middle of the street to inform Paul that he has a 7 inch tear in his shorts, thus revealing his buttox to the world.... Our planned hostel was booked out and they kindly pointed us in the direction of another place. When we ran foul of a double booking the lady who ran the hostel gave us a lift to another place

there´s always someone who hogs the limelight

HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS: Rhaani in fits of giggles as Paul tries to hold his newly torn shorts together whilst booking us into our hotel ... pretending we were still 14 years old by drinking beers in the park, our park drinking was because Rhaani didn't want to risk death by entering any of the wild-west swing door saloons on offer ... ... Paul shows the true meaning of the word charity by handing over a bag of disgusting tortilla chips to a homeless person, for some reason he didnt feel quite so charitable with the tastier packet we devoured earlier ... yet another "Is this it? moment from resident culture-vulture Clemo as we arrive at Chichen Itza (one of the new Seven Wonders of the World)...

Palenque ruins, one of the best things is you're left to wander through the temples

... haggling with 12-year-olds shopkeepers in Chichen Itza ... hearing a Shakira Shakira concert from our hostel room ... discovering that we missed the last bus to the ancient wonder Uxmal because we had to lick 1,000 stamps to send a 3kg parcel to Oz ...

all we saw of the ancient wonder of Uxmal of our stamp licking exploits meant we missed the last bus to the ruins

... being far more impressed by Palenque which, though smaller and less well-known than Chichen, is far more aesthetically pleasing ... visiting the awesomely named Mr Taco and enjoying 5 Tacos for 30 pesos (£1.65) ... despite having clocked up over 10-days worth of bus travel Rhaani is unable to get comfy on our final long-ass (19-hr) bus-ride from Palenque to Puerto Escondido   

UP NEXT: Puerto Escondido, home of the famed Mexican Pipeline and Pauls last chance to get some decent surf pics.

one way of coping with the heat