The Cactus Trip Diaries

Sunday 5 March – around Villahermosa

What did you do on Sunday?

We visited Comalcalco, is a city located some 60 km northwest of Villahermosa in the state of Tabasco. Near the city is the Pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Comalcalco, and that’s where we spent a pleasant morning strolling between and climbing the two large pyramids. They are said to be the most western Maya settlement, and due to the lack of limestone in the region, it is constructed of fired bricks, held together by mortar made of oyster shells. We made the local Mexicans laugh by turning our backs on the pyramids and taking pictures of epiphytic cacti growing in the tops of the trees.

We then visited another local attraction, Hacienda La Luz, where Ana Parizot Wolter, of the third generation of the Wolter family, gave us a private tour of the gardens in perfect English. She explained that it was important to keep with traditional methods of growing cocobeans that require the shade of taller neighbouring trees to produce the tiny flowers from which the surprisingly large fruits are produced. It is a complete ecosystem. See http://www.haciendalaluz.mx for more. Very interesting, with lovely chocolates made material to finish!

As it was still early in the afternoon, we went on to the beach, similar to the one visited on a rainy day a few days earlier, but this time heaving with people. We clearly stood out as foreigners and were viewed with curiosity.

I had forgotten to enter the coordinates of the hotel in SatNav, and yet, when we got closer to town, Alain’s mobile phone SatNav and my Garmin brought us to the same place.

We had seen a Steakhouse in town, on the internet, and so took a taxi that way, enjoyed a T-bone steak and some beers before taking the taxi back to the hotel.

That’s what we did on Sunday!

Saturday 4 March – Coatzacoalcas to Villahermosa

We’ve reached Villahermosa, capital city of the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in the southeast of the country bordering the states of Campeche to the northeast, Veracruz to the west and Chiapas to the south, and the Petén department of Guatemala to the southeast. It has a coastline to the north with the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the state is covered in rainforest as, unlike most other areas of Mexico, it has plentiful rainfall year round. For this reason, it is also covered in small lakes, wetlands and rivers. The state is subject to major flooding events, with the last occurring in 2007, which affected eighty percent of the state. The state is also home to La Venta, the major site of the Olmec civilization, considered to be the origin of later Mesoamerican cultures. Even though it produces significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas, poverty is still a concern or so says Wikipedia, and they are right.

We reached our hotel at about 13:00 hrs after the usual testing time of driving through a major Mexican city. Rather than staying in the hotel that had been earmarked, but which was not where SatNav told us, we picked the nearest hotel to the spot that is perfectly adequate and a fraction of what we paid at the last hotel. We’re here for two nights.

This afternoon we walked into town to take some touristy shots, then found a terrace for the traditional margarita and a litre of cerveza oscura (for me, similar for Alain) followed by a Chinese buffet, cheap but adequate and the luxury of a taxi home to the hotel. According to the Marvin Gaye / Paul Young song, where ever I lay my hat is my home. Yes, I bought my third hat, more typical of the state of Tabasco, and perhaps more for special occasions than the two already bought earlier.

Tomorrow we are going to Comalcalco to see the pyramids and chocolate farms to which the Aztec civilisation owes much. I photographed one cactus, yet to be identified – an epiphyte doing its best to strangle a tree along the roadside in town. We’ve made some adjustments to the journey back to Mexico City, but you have to read the following episodes to learn  how we did it in the end.

Friday 3 March – around Coatzacoalcos

So what to do when the forecast is rain? We decided first to go to the bank, to enable Alain to do a bit of milking (of ATM machines) for himself. Wow, not only was it wet, but the wind was so strong that it nearly blew the doors off the car. A bit like Patagonia! Alain’s legs still look like a localised infestation of measels, but he is putting a brave face on things.

Alain suggested a drive to the west of town, to Las Barrillas, that at the peak of the tourist season must be heaving with visitors, but today, in the strong winds, we were the only visitors. I posed under a palm tree, hand covering my head, in case a coconut should come down. An optimistic skipper asked if we wanted to come out for a boat ride on the lagoon. We said no thanks, wondering when the men in white coats would come and take him away. Still, you have to admire his optimism!

I put my finger on the SatNav, on the hilly bit more to the west, across the lagoon. The name Pajapan lit up, so we decided to go and have a look. It seems that the people dig up the roads, leaving huge potholes to get the materials to build topez at much too frequent intervals. Fingers crossed that this does not catch on in England! I’m all in favour of Health & Safety, but imagine doctor’s surgeries full of people who have put their backs out. At Pajapan we followed the signs to the Playas (beaches) where we took a few pictures before being asked over to an empty restaurant for a cup of coffee (me) and a beer, surrounded by five of the owner’s turkeys and their chicks. Henceforth this place is known as Turkey Beach.

Alain had spotted a new building bearing the name Be Irish and suggested we’d have a beer, only a few hundred metres from the hotel. Two Margaritas please, we asked over the noise of the local sound system. Sorry, we don’t do cocktails. OK, two pints of Guinness please, and what ever Alain is having! Sorry, we don’t have Guinness – even though it was at the top of their beer menu. We ended up with two glasses of Blauwe Chimay, one of the best Belgian Trapisten beers! It’s what I called ‘Diesel’ at one of my first ELKs, years ago. Very nice.

A bit worrying – we only saw three cacti today, quite damaged Opuntia, too ugly to point a camera at. We leave tomorrow morning for the State of Tabasco.

Thursday 2 March – Tuxtepec to Coatzacoalcos

We covered about the same distance as yesterday, yet arrived at our hotel, the very nice Fiesta Inn, right on the Malecon at around 13:00 hrs. Why? we had left the mountains and were now on a dead straight Cuota (toll road) averaging 110 kph. The terrain was similar to Holland or Norfolk, driving through hundreds of flat scenery, planted with sugarcane, rather than sugar beet. The only time we came to a halt was the ‘milking stations’, the toll boots where the authorities took some more money of us, but well worth it as an alternative to the Libre (free road) this time.

We’re here for two nights. The weather is has changed. It is still very hot, hotter than in Tehuacan and very humid. But there is a firm wind blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean, as we made a trip to some of the views: a model of a pre-Columbian monument and the piers to the harbour. All the palm trees had been bent by the wind, which suggests that it was quite a regular feature. Sand from the beach stuck to the sweat on our skins and Alain, in shorts, appears to have been given a good going over by midgets or similar during breakfast in Tuxtepec, while I have one bite on my left hand. Alain now smells of lemon like a living Deed commercial and has gone to long trousers, but the damage is done.

It seems that every time we stay in a somewhat more expensive hotel, they have a wifi connection that takes over my laptop. I have battled for two days to regain access and suddenly, this morning, working sequentially through the various wifi options, things suddenly came back, hence today’s double treat of blog backlogs. Now, if I can only remember what I did for the next time it happens!

A day of not seeing a single cactus! Well, that was expected from our research when we failed to find many field records for the state of Veracruz, and then to the north and farther inland, back in hilly terrain.

Wednesday 1 March – Tehuacan to Tuxtepec

Great day – six stops. If you search for Tuxtepec, you’ll find a few places with that or similar names. ‘Our’ one goes by the full name of San Juan Bautista de Tuxtepec in the state of Oaxaca (just) It was meant to be a reasonably short journey and we recognised places where we had been during the first part of Mexico 2017. Chris and Jonathan will remember stops such as the ‘walk through sugar cane fields’ stop and the ‘just in Oaxaca Stop’ where the lady serving at the snacks counter confirmed that we had found Ferocactus robustus in Oaxaca – just!

We only had one formal stop planned, for a plant of Fouquieria purpusii that we should pass close to, about 15 – 20 km, on our way to Tuxtepec. But first we made an ad-hoc stop (S3619) as we saw some Pachycereus weberi. There were many more Opuntia sp. Now covered in yellow flowers and some, that looked to me as the same taxon, with red flowers. There were a few trees around and in their shade were Ferocactus recurves, many more in flower now than when we visited the nearby ‘sugar cane stop’ weeks earlier (dates and stop numbers to be confirmed once I’m back home.)

S3620 was near coordinates provided by Eunice Thompson, who would have been on this, pt2, of the Mexico adventure, but who had other commitments that prevented her from joining us. We were looking for Fouquieria purpusii that probably grows at the Reserva de la Biosfera Tehuacan – Cuicatlan. Close to the coordinates given there was a large gate with a large lock and no one around. Following the wall with the gate, we turned onto a track that led to a warren or tracks and decided to make a stop (S3621) as we were seeing nice large clumps of Mammillaria. They appeared to me to be similar to each other, yet with sufficient differences to expect to see different names on labels in European nurseries. Yet all these plants were growing together in a relatively small spot – diversity within a concept of a single species? And F. recurves was also still around, including some very nice specimen, again usually growing in partly shaded locations.

We nearly got caught on a sandy climb as our little Chevvy was just not up to this off-roading. Alain found a way round the problem and soon we continued towards Eunice’s coordinates, now only 1.4 km away. SatNav showed that we were near a railway line although there were absolutely no signs of one until we found dismantled rails along the track and driving over the sleepers. We even passed through a short tunnel, not afraid to meet a train coming the other way as there were no tracks.

The nearest we got to the coordinates was some 30 meters, with a high rock face between us an the alleged plants – it seemed that they would be on that rock, but invisible to us. We took pictures of the spot, found some more F. Recurves and went back to the main road.

There we went through a village and out the other side, climbing into the hills. Twisting winding roads, at times with topez as we passed a house or school, large pot holes if there was no sign of people. S3622 was a scenic stop – it looked as though we were driving through the Swiss Alps in summer!

S3623 was to take images of trees bedecked with bromeliads. Great scenery, but a very slow road. Would we make it to Tuxtepec before dark?

S3624 were pictures taken as we got lost in the village of San Jeronimo Tecoatl – a case again of two SatNavs with different opinions of arriving at the same place along different routes.

It had just turned dark when we arrived at Hotel Tuxtepec – not the best we’ve enjoyed but more than adequate and with a restaurant that offered chicken or chicken. We had chicken.