I emerge from the mountains into the town of Choix. I am the only non Mexican, except for a couple running a Chinese restaurant. I am such an oddity that a student turns up and asks if she can interview me about Tourism in Choix. She cannot speak English but her brother, who is in Phoenix, Arizona does. She calls him up, asks him the question, he then asks me in English. I reply and he then explains to his sister. We have a lot of fun!

Look up Choix on Google and you will understand that Merita has a great career ahead promoting tourism. However, the frightful paradox, because there are no tourists, it is completely authentic and fascinating. There must be an algorithm comparing number of tourists to authenticity that predicts when the whole system breaks down.

The shops sell mainly horse stuff.

I eat very well.

There is nothing to see in Choix except Choix itself, which turns up all kinds unexpected delights.

I head of for the legendary San Fuerte and, skimming over the tarmac, arrive an hour latter. Changed days. I meet my first non Mexicans, ok Chinese restaurant, for nearly 2 weeks. They want me to have lunch with them to swap tourist stories. I explain that I have rabies and shoot off like a frightened cat. El Fuerte s very pretty.

The Apache curse has followed me to Mexico. The morning I left Ulrique I woke with seriously impaired vision in my right or telescope, camera viewfinder eye. My vision is very blurred with very active particulate Brownian motion. This makes bird watching very difficult. I only know 2 causes of blindness. One is gin and the other we will not talk about. As neither have been high on the agenda on this trip, I cannot understand why I should suddenly be blind in one eye. I suppose it will go away.