In Ensenada we were told it would be faster to get to Guadalajara if we returned back to the U.S.A. and drove to Tucson. The highways are straighter, the desert cooler and the hills flatter. So instead of passing through Tijuana we took the "libre" (all the better roads are paid and safer to travel) to Tecate border crossing. The Americans confiscated our bag of oranges (it didn't help arguing with them that we bought the fruit in San Diego) and on we went to Tucson. Slept in the middle of nowhere in the desert and the next day without a problem entered Mexico through Nogales. Driving through Sonora was depressing- everywhere garbage and poverty. We hit a roadblock policed by rebels sporting long machetes. Thankfully they let us pass, although all the commercial traffic was indefinitely stopped. Spent the night in a sex motel in Sinaloa- we didn't feel safe just sleeping along the side of the road and the rates were cheap. The next day in the late afternoon we arrived in Guadalajara. We had an address for a contact person where we could sleep but it seems street numbers are not taken seriously and after driving across the city a few times we gave up on maps and gps and after asking plenty of people we finally arrived at our destination. Joe helped me do a mechanical check of the van and the next day I said goodbye to him at the airport as he flew to the Czech Republic. Guadalajara was my longest rest stop, I spent about a week there.