'Try this tequila oil, Hugito. Just as the alcohol hits your stomach, the chilli will as well and blow it back into your brain. It will take your head off.' Explorer Hugh Thomson takes on Mexico.

It's 1979, Hugh Thomson is eighteen, far from home, with time to kill - and on his way to Mexico. When a stranger tells him there's money to be made by driving a car over the US border to sell on the black market in Central America, Hugh decides to give it a go.

Throwing himself on the mercy of Mexicans he meets or crashes into, Hugh and his Oldsmobile 98 journey through the region, meeting their fate in the slums of Belize City.

Thirty years on, Hugh returns - older but not necessarily wiser - to complete his journey.

TEQUILA OIL was serialised by BBC Radio 4 as their Book of the Week. Hugh Thomson has led many research expeditions to Peru, about which he has written an acclaimed series of books: THE WHITE ROCK and its sequel, COCHINEAL RED. He also edited Hiram Bingham's classic account of the discovery of Machu Picchu, LOST CITY OF THE INCAS. An expedition to a usually inaccessible part of the Himalayas and the source of a legend resulted in NANDA DEVI: A JOURNEY TO THE LAST SANCTUARY. He is also a film-maker and has won many awards for his documentaries, which include INDIAN JOURNEYS WITH WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, and DANCING IN THE STREET: A ROCK AND ROLL HISTORY. He lives in Oxfordshire.