The Cactus Trip Diaries

Not the best of days. Today the clocks changed, both in Mexico and in Europe. Ian had suggested an early start as we wanted to go to a location near China – still in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, but a good long drive away. Bart and I were the only ones up on time and there was no breakfast to be had, other than a hot chocolate and a piece of cake at the OXXO near the Hotel. My laptop played up again, I probably tried to shut it down while it was doing a mega software update, so this morning the system just hung.

We arrived at our destination and walked around a set of coordinates for almost two hours without any different outcome. Astrophytum (Digitostigma) caput-medusae was as impossible to find now as it had been last March. This time the herbacious ground cover was even thicker and only the more robust cacti pocked out from between them – Echinocereus viereckii and Mammillaria sp. to name but a few.

Disappointed but not entirely surprised we headed back to a main road and nother longish drive to Ramos Arispe where tomorrow we have some more nice target plants.