We love a road trip. The freedom to pack more into the day and go at our own pace makes self-drive travel the first choice for us whenever possible. And we are not shy about trying more challenging trips like driving over the wide open spaces of Namibia, fording rivers in Iceland or dealing with tetchy Jordanian police.

But spending one month on the road in Mexico was by far our most challenging and stressful road trip to date. We started our one month Mexico road trip in Mexico City, then ventured south through the states of Puebla and Oaxaca to the Pacific Coast, before swinging east through the waterfalls of Chiapas to the tourist-friendly Yucatán. With 62 different indigenous peoples, Mexico is a bustling, artistic mess of different cultures, cuisines and experiences. And as we moved from state to state, it was often like entering a totally different country. Different regional dishes, different dialects, different loyalties and an ever-changing quality of infrastructure

Here are our images from trip – the highs and the lows, the challenges and the rewards.

Contributed by @Raven + @Jim