Just returned to our Hotel, Hotel Brennan (no, they don’t serve Guinness, in fact I’m not sure how many generations ago there was Irish blood in the family, but they speak English and have an internet wifii connection, so all is not bad.
There’s not much in the way of hotels in the guide books for San Carlos and the CSSA Tour last year moved right on to a Paz. But I had the Creeping Devil, Stenocereus or Macherocereus eruca high on my list of ‘must see’ plants so we arrived early, booked in and then went to take a look around. Turns out that Isla Magdalena is opposite San Carlos, but it’s a good 100 km on dirt to get there OR to take a panga (whale watching boat) across the bay, which is what we allowed ourselves to be talked into by the son of the hotel owner.
Our car is just not built for dirt roads and we got stuck again this morning, but managed to get out once I realised that I had the hand brake on! At least we know that the hand brake works!
Having booked our boat trip (yes, we’ll have to cross a bay full of Grey Whales, so another touchy feely session with blubber is on the cards!) we went back on the only road in, to see if we could find a plant that Alain had spotted out of the car as we flashed by at 70 mph. We found it and confirmed it was the first (so far) cristate Ferocactus (F. penninsulae ssp townsendianus) and, as luck would have it, Stenocereus eruca was all over the place around it! Also found a nice Mam that I’ve tentatively IDed as M. louisae.
So live continues to be great, as temperatures are up to a comfortable 80F during the day, but still cool at night.
We should be back from the Whale Trip tomorrow around midday and will then attempt the 400 km journey to La Paz.
The Cactus Trip Diaries 
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