Tropic of Cancer.

I finished visiting little villages and then headed for Guadalajara.
I had hoped to avoid this very large city but the route through the mountains that I had picked out seems to be not feasible. The people I ask keep warning me that it is very bad and I should not do it, so OK I'll listen to them.
I drive South on a relatively significant road Im chosen ... but not a freeway since these are straight and boring and have toll booths in Mexico.
The road starts to drop down out of the high country and it becomes very windy and lots of fun. I must have dropped about 1000m in the afternoon and the vegetation has changed from arid alpine to quite lush and almost tropical. I crossed the tropic of cancer this morning but the mornings up here in the mountains are still really cold and I am wearing both fleeces and grip heaters are on till about mid day.

I didn't make it to the big city as I had planned because of my extended side trip to see the little villages so I spotted a good place to camp on the road heading down the mountain and I pulled up. There were a couple of people there near a car having a beer and I asked them how I would get permission to camp there.
It turned out however that the guy was a motorbike rider and he promptly offered me a beer and then invited me to stay at his place in the city. All the people I talk to here seem to say the same thing and that is that you don't drive at night because there are very bad people on the roads. In USA I take this sort of thing to be American Paranoia but here I see military road blocks every second day and they are obviously looking for drug traffickers. The people I am talking to here are very sincere and I'm inclined to believe them. For the same reason I am cautious about heading off down little side tracks to find camp sites - wouldn't want to be somewhere where certain people would not want me to be!

It didn't take me long to decide what to do - Yes please I'll stay at your place :)