Agatha and her family are simply heroic. There is no respite for them as they are overseeing everything and it is a huge itinerary. Poor Alberto had to sort out a puncture first thing before meeting us at the hotel, together with Raul – the crazy Mexican Indiana Jones equivalent – and driving us four hours into a stunning reserve. Raul gave me a lesson in how to handle a deadly rattlesnake (he did all the grabbing as it was extremely angry – he had o let it go at one point as he couldn’t hold it anymore) but with skilful calm, he got things back under control and I had my ‘lesson’. On the vet side I treated a cow with a damaged leg and horse that had suffered a suspected snakebite.

Fairly long day – none of the crew have had lunch any day of the shoot so far and it was about 40 degrees where we were with the rattlesnake so are all fairly beat by now. Scot matches Adam for stamina and is being ultra hardcore – as are Marc and Nathan. The next few days are at the shelter so should be a bit steadier which is brilliant because it is such an amazing place. Need to fundraise to get them some water in the op room – requires some plumbing and a few pipes but would make a world of difference.
 

On other fronts, Bruce is thinking of adopting the name Lupe for this trip after a hardcore Mexican cowboy we met. It is also a Mexican girls name which means ‘little’ but I’m not sure he knows that. I suspect there is a touch of irony in the hardcore Mexican’s cowboys name but would hate to break the news to Bruce.