Mexico Field Trip

Day 14 – February 27^th, 2005

 

Go to Pictures

Return

 

After a quick detour on leaving our hotel to book a table for tonight at the hacienda, we drove without stopping this time to Venados, and made the first stop just above Venados with great views of the Barranca and Cephalocereus senilis, together with Ferocactus ingens on the hillside above the road.

 

PICT1721         -           View towards Venados

PICT1722         -           View to the right of previous, showing where we had stopped for lunch yesterday

PICT1723         -           Cephalocereus senilis and Ferocactus ingens

 

We spent a while looking for Puente de Dios, but no-one we spoke to seemed to know exactly where this was. So anyway we made a stop on the way to Metztitlan and shined up a very rocky hillside which had Astrophytum ornatum, Mammillaria longimamma, Mammillaria geminispina and Coryphantha erecta in abundance.

 

PICT1724         -           The steep hillside with a Cereus as well as all the above (from a distance)

 

We then stopped just outside Metztitlan and found at about 20 feet or so above the road on the right, Thelocactus horridispinum.

 

PICT1725-6      -           Thelocactus horridispinum

 

As we were waiting for Norbert to come down from the hillside, a Mexican couple stopped to talk, and we chatted for a while. I asked if they knew where Puente de Dios was, but again drew a blank. So off we went in search of San Cristobal. As we drove through small villages, we saw either a Hylocereus or a Nyctocereus growing through the trees. It seemed slimmer than we had seen earlier, but was still three lobed and somewhat scalloped. We missed directions after San Cristobal, and stopped for lunch on our way back towards San Cristobal for the second time!

 

PICT1727-8      -           Our lunch spot, with white egrets or something like all around.

 

On the second pass through San Cristobal we found the right road, which kept the river on our right hand side, and quite a way on, we found the object of our search – Neobuxbaumia polyopha growing with its yellow tops amongst the white topped Cephalocereus senilis.

 

PICT1730-36    -           Neobuxbaumia polyopha and Cephalocereus senilis on the hillside.

 

We did make another stop on the way back to San Cristobal, but I chickened out as it was very shaly and steep, and although Norbert, Michel and Laurent made the effort, they found only a couple of Echeverias. This time crossing the new bridge on the way out of San Cristobal, we headed towards Amajatlan. As a result of Philippe and Norbert having a disagreement about directions, and a refusal to stop and ask, we somehow made a complete loop over steep mountains via a new road and back to Metztitlan! So once more, we headed towards San Cristobal and  this time turned left in the next village we came to, which was the right road, and as we started to climb, I spotted a plant hanging onto the rocks beside the road. It turned out to be a Coryphantha, but not of a species that any of us knew.

 

PICT1737-40    -           Unknown Coryphantha, probably octacantha (clava).

 

And when we stopped to take in some views a while later, we also saw a young Ferocactus, about 5 inches in diameter, again of an unknown species.

 

PICT1743-6      -           Views over the Metztitlan valley as we headed over the hills.

PICT1747         -           Young Ferocactus species.

 

Then as we came up to the top of the hills, the land flattened out and we stopped to find in a cowfield on the right hand side of the road, an area with huge mounds of Mammillaria magnimamma, some well in flower and also with bright red seed pods. The heads themselves were flat and very broad, one huge single head was 12-15” in diameter.

 

PICT1750-5      -           Mammillaria magnimamma…magnificent.

 

After we passed through Eloxochitlan and on the way to Molango, we came across a rock face beside the road with some Agaves and on the other side of the road some spectacular views of the mountains. Just a bit further on, and again on the rock face there was a beautiful Echeveria in flower.

 

PICT1760-2      -           Agaves on the road to Molango

PICT1764         -           Echeveria sp. in flower

PICT1765         -           Echeverias and an Agave.

 

And so after heaving and sliding the other car out of a culvert, we headed back to our hotel to change and then head to dinner at the Hacienda (rather expensive buffet and not so good!).