Mary and Fred del Villar's desire to travel "the strange roads" of rural Mexico led to a 750-mile walk from Lake Patzcuaro to the Pacific Ocean in 1951. For three months they endured sun, scorpions, floods, and hunger, but also found warm friendship everywhere they went.

"The del Villars unfold a story that is not only entertaining but gives us an intimate glimpse of life in Mexico's back country—its hunger, its primitive values in some instances, its hopes for betterment, but above all its friendliness, warmth and color."—Christian Science Monitor

"The chief difficulty our walkers encountered was in persuading the poor families who lodged and fed them to take pesos in return. One gets a very pleasant—and fair—picture of the simple people who live off the traveled roads. . . . a fine little book for all of us tourists, a corrective for those who think they can find Mexico in its capital or in Acapulco."—New York Herald Tribune