GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Nov. 20, 2003 – The LONGITUDE team bid a fond, and amazingly clear and sober, farewell to the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico, at the crack of 7:15 a.m.

Delayed by a mandatory pause in town to capture on film the contrast between the bright white, orange, and blue Discoverys and the classic spaghetti-western Mexican pueblo, the team was itching to make up some time.

Today is a national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, and all of Mexico is festive. Bright colors, red and white balloons, and hordes of smiling faces are a dead giveaway that today is special to Mexican culture.

An hour-and-a-half from the boys and girls dressed in traditional dresses and sombreros, the boys sporting toy rifles and penciled-on moustaches, is the city of Guadalajara and LONGITUDE’s first Land Rover Adventure Center sighting.

Like caballeros dismounting their trusty steeds after a long stint in the saddle, the team pulled its 2003 Certified, Pre-Owned Discovery expedition vehicles into the Land Rover lot.

The Center was closed for La Revolucion, making it impossible to visit with la familia, but the team was satisfied with some good photographs and a brief pause for homage.

“It was fun seeing the Mexican Land Rover center,” said Nick Baggarly, expedition leader and Drive Around the World founder. “It bore the same familiar countenance as an American center, except the sign out front said ‘Gracias por su visita.’”

After the visit and a quick stop for gas and tortas to fuel the vehicles and team members, respectively, the four Discoverys hit the trail to continue along their route toward Teotihuacan, approximately 525 km to the south east. The visit would be another important study in Mexican culture.

“We’re going there to visit the pyramids of the sun and moon, erected for the gods of rain and water, two givers of life. So it’s fitting that, along the way, we first visit the main giver of life for our expedition,” said Baggarly.