After leaving Phoenix behind, we drove southwest.

 The Lukeville-Sonoyta border is one of the smallest there is, as the idea was to sleep at an RV park in the desert about 10 kilometers from the border, so that we could cross it very early the next day.

I’m not sure why, or exactly how, I fell ill this time.

 We had been in Phoenix for 3 weeks, where I had been giving free lessons to the members of the local amateur recorder players association. Of all the places in the United States, other than Alaska, that's where I have felt a real and beautiful connection to people.

The Arizona light is remarkable. The tone of its blue is different than in other places, of great beauty, as it is cast upon the ground, the buildings, the cactuses. Crossing that desert called Organ Pipe National Monument was quite a sight: the cactuses are shaped like organ pipes, and together they fill up the landscape in that beautiful light.

It was extremely hot when we got to the RV park. There was hardly anyone else but us. I walked through the desert among those strange cacti, but I was already starting to feel bad. The light of the setting sun was extraordinary; pink, purple, yellow, orange... The cactuses and the earth bathed in the different colors of light. Being in the middle of the desert is a unique sensation...

The temperature dropped considerably. My headache rose in equal measure. I hardly ever have a headache, but this was something of unknown measures. Sinusitis. In my life I have never had sinusitis. The headache was a world on its own throughout that cool night.

We crossed the border and the headache only increased. Those two days, driving through northern Mexico, I was largely semi-conscious, my head resting on a cushion on the table. I could barely get a glimpse of that strange, new, poor, dangerous world...