The average Wall-Street banker thinks he takes a risk when peeing in the shower of his sport-club. Some people believe their life is spicy if they go to a strip-club or add a bit of chilli to their salad dressing.

I say: Drive in the middle of the night through a military control in Mexico, your car having no lights due to the four consecutive days of rain, some river crossings and the resulting electricity malfunctions. That’s fun. Even more so when the short guy in uniform is eagerly swaying his gun because he is pissed that we don’t understand a word of what he is saying.

David, being a security-soldier in Switzerland himself, asked politely if he had time to smoke a cigarette while the dwarf-like soldier wanted to search our car. I however, did not want to let him in the car before I had not removed our wallets, the mobile phone, passports and camera. Mr. Short, who was a bit nervous by now, had brought along two friends of his, all standing narrowly together. David used the opportunity to explain them that in case we were bad guys, this would be an ideal situation to shoot all three of them with one round. Luckily, they did not understand him.

After this, we put David’s blinking head-light in the back window, so that we had at least some light indicating our position.

Of course we had tried to fix the problem before – but it never lasted longer than 5 minutes. Too much water had gotten into the back lights and it was not possible to dry the sealing while the rain was still pouring down. We decided that we would stop at the first motel we see and to repair everything tomorrow.

However, before we could stop by ourselves, the police decided to stop us. I could understand them. A foreign car with strange number plates driving through an actually non-touristy part or Mexico without lights? Well, that’s quite something.

The police officer and his associate were friendly and asked us where we were from. Being told that we were from Switzerland the officer kindly asked us, whether he could see some Swiss money. David, freshly coming from the homeland, pulled out a coin of two Swiss Francs and handed it to the police man. He was very happy about this “donation” and asked whether his partner could have one, too. David handed over the next coin and the police officer shock our hands, pointed out that we should drive carefully since it could be dangerous to drive without lights in the night and wished us farewell. Well, did we just meet two collectors of rare foreign coins or did we bail us out of a bad situation for exactly 4 Swiss Francs (equals. 3.5 US $)?

The last four days of rain had been intensive for men and material, but they were not without charm. On the one hand, our drive through the muddy paths of the copper canyon was a great and very scenic adventure and we made friendship with many super-friendly Mexicans. On the other hand we met a great bunch of travellers yesterday evening in Creel. It was great to share experiences, drink Tequila and listen to the stories of the far travelled guys and girls from all nationalities.

And, we could not believe our eyes, two days ago we suddenly saw a white Land-Cruiser with Zurich number plates! In the middle of nowhere! Where no card showed any roads! Gabi and Ivo travel through North- and South-America with their Swiss Cruiser! What a coincidence! We rode together to Creel, had breakfast and I am looking forward to see them again. They share the same spirit which drives us and do not fear any mud or much water carrying rivers!

Talking about spirit: Right now we sit in a “Tequila Drive In”. Believe it or not: In Mexico you stop your car, lower the window and order some Tequila shots, a bottle maybe or just some beers. I call this, arhm, interesting. Vaya con Dios!