The Cactus Trip Diaries

Monday, 14 February 2011 – trip to Isla Esteban

What would a cactus trip in Baja be without a boat trip?

So today we set the alarm for 5 a.m., watched the sunrise and around 6:35 we were on our way to Isla Esteban. This is one of the more difficult islands to get to, half way between Isla Tiburon (technically part of Sonora) and Isla Angel de la Guarda that protects Bahia de los Angeles. The reason for this boat trip? To see Echinocereus grandis and Mammillaria estebanensis, two species that are endemic to the island. 

Kyle joined us for the day. He had used our Capitan, Pancho, many times for the Field Study trips that focused on Marine Biology. We would spend some three hours on the water to reach a bay that Kyle had selected on Google Earth as the most fertile looking site on the island. Despite the forecast for a nice sunny day and a sea as flat as a mill-pond, I had taken the precaution of putting on a T-shirt, Shirt, jumper, safari jacket and windproof jacket, as these boat trips can be very chilly, particularly first thing in the morning. No regrets there.

We interrupted our journey as Kyle had spotted a pod (?) of whales – not the grey whales that we were used to seeing on the Pacific Ocean side; these were sperm whales. Much larger and much less willing to interact with us. They seemed to be sun bathing, occasionally taking a deep breath and short dive. They were not bothered that our panga drifted close to them. As they moved by, a pod of dolphins provided the entertainment by swimming around and underneath the boat. All very useful fodder for cameras – still and video.

We passed by Isla Raza (??) where millions of birds were amassed on the rocks, flying off in all directions when our panga approached.

And so we arrived at Isla Esteban where Pancho found a nice bay with beach suitable for landing. We have become experienced enough cactus explorers not to expect the plants you are looking for to line up and greet us when we arrive at a location name from where plants are said to come. Do they live on the hills, a day’s walk away from our landing or on the other side of the island? Another 3 hours in a boat to reach?

But Lady Luck was with us (again) and as soon as we were off the shingle beach – there they were: Mammillaria estebanensis and Echinocereus grandis, together with Agave desertii, Stenocereus gummosus, Cylindropuntia sp and Pachycereus pringlei. Although not reported from the island I had half expected to find a Ferocactus as well – but not this time.

The Mammillaria was larger than I had expected, based on plants that I owned and killed in the UK. It is variable in spine colour from almost while to yellowish and some heads have hooked spines while others do not. E. grandis looked much like the plants in cultivation – but a bit more battered by the elements. Their habitat on a rocky hillside made for excellent photos. Kyle and Eunice went on to explore just over a low hill and found the same plants growing on flat soil. They also saw and photographed an island endemic iguana.

We were in good time and took up Pancho’s offer to stop by another island on the way home. Our landing on Isla Salsipuedes was less productive. Once we were off the shingle beach we were confronted with a solid wall of Stenocereus gummosus, with Pachycereus pringlei dotted in between, right down to the beach. We tried farther along on sand rather than shingle – same story. There were Cylindropuntia here as well. I took some close-ups of the hillside to enlarge at the hotel, but so far these have not revealed any small stuff like Mams, Feros or Echinocereus.bThe Pachycereus looked different from their main land brethren in that they branched right from the base, rather like Stenocereus thurberi, the Organ Pipe cactus, instead of a meter or more above the ground.

Back on the boat, we spotted our pod of sperm whales again. It may well have been the same group that we had seen in the morning. We counted 14 individuals, including at least one calf – the size of a boat! As you can imagine today’s picture count was in excess of 600, with probably a number of rejects where the whale or dolphin had disappeared below the surface just as I pressed the shutter.

We arrived back in Bahia de los Angeles exhausted and after a meal of grilled fish were in bed before 9 p.m.

While we had been enjoying ourselves, Angel, the young lad who is caretaker at Raquel & Larry’s, had arranged for his father to take a look at Elsie. When we came back the hose to the power steering pump had been replaced and the dodgy electrics had been replaced and taped up as well. Tomorrow we can be confident when hitting the road again!

Sunday, 13 February 2011 – Guerrero Negro to Bahia de los Angeles

I proved my worth as a prophet when yesterday I wrote “Elsie behaved fine so that tomorrow we will be brave (foolish?) and attempt the drive via San Borja to Bahia de los Angeles.”

With the benefit of hindsight it was a foolish move, but all’s well that ends well. We got safely to the turning on to the track to San Borja. All was well and we made a nice stop (S2224) where we found Dudleya gatesii, as well as Cylindropuntia sp., Echinocereus maritimus, Ferocactus sp., Fouquieria columnaris, Mammillaria dioica, Pachycormus discolor, Stenocereus (Machaerocereus) gummosus, Yucca valida.

Soon after we got going again, my ipod, connected to Elsie’s in car stereo, stopped, in the middle of a Frank Zappa track. Not too big a disaster, but soon all the controls on the dashboard went to zero and warning lights started flashing. Then the engine cut out.

Yesterday’s attempt to look knowledgeable under the hood seemed to work. Wiggling similar wires did the trick again – but a few minutes later everything went dead again. This happened another half a dozen times, once even just because Eunice let the hood down a bit on the hard side. We had worked out that the cause was a dodgy wire from the car battery. Eunice had tape in her car’s first aid box and we managed to improve things by double taping the perceived dodgy wire. But the problems continued. Then we spotted that another wire, looking a bit more robust, was connected to a box labelled ‘Main 1’. Or was it? Intermittently? As soon as we had performed emergency taping to this wire, Elsie behaved until we reached Raquel & Larry’s where we had stayed in 2008. We were the only guests, so no problem with lack of space.

Eunice has a friend, Gary, in Verracruz, Mexico and he told her that he has a cousin, Kyle Nessen, who was working on an educational  Field Station project in Bahia de los Angeles. So Eunice had contacted Kyle and announced our intention to stay in Bahia de los Angeles. Kyle was keen to meet us and so we met for a chat and then for a meal in town – where we were joined by Jose Mercade, the Director of the project. We not only had a very interesting evening, but also very useful, in that they knew just the guy to take us out to Isla Esteban.

And so we had an early night as we had set the alarm clock for 5 a.m.

Saturday, 12 February 2011 – around Guerrero Negro

Today was the sort of day that is practically inevitable when you spend so much time on rough roads: car problems.

Throughout this Baja trip, Premium Gasoline, the kind preferred by Eunice’s Landcruiser, has been in short supply. This gave rise to the occasional cough and splutter but nothing worse. We had given the car fuel additives that seemed to slightly improve the condition. We had just filled up, ironically with Premium Gasoline, when, still in view of the monument that marks the border between Baja California Norte and Sur, the car coughed, spluttered and then died. We were still in phone reach of Guerrero Negro so Eunice called the hotel who promised to send someone out to collect us and look at the car.

Although my knowledge of cars that go wrong can be written on the back of a postage stamp we did take the cursory look under the hood. Yep, the engine was still there! I confirmed that leads attached to the distributor were still in place and suggested that we’d try staring one more time. LC (pronounced Elsie, short for Land Cruiser) immediately kicked back into action. We called the hotel and cancelled their rescue mission, but decided to head back to town, especially as coughing etc was still a feature of the ride back.

Our would be saviour  was there to meet us and suggested that he would take us to a near by garage, experts in fuel injection, for a quick diagnosis. Bad fuel was the general consensus, especially as we had to take some fuel from an unofficial seller at Catavina – Elsie guzzles fuel.

The filter was located, cleaned and re-fitted. We were on our way, but returned even before we had left the town – same problem. Again, Elsie was put on the diagnostics computer. Distributer cap? Rotor arm? Another test drive and back for more tests as none of these seemed to be the cause. In the end a caple connecting the battery to the on board computer had shaken loose and was sending confused messages to the ignition system. Bolt tightened – and all was fine. Phew!!!

Inconvenient, but this could have happened hundreds of km away from civilisation! A lucky escape.

With less time than planned, we decided to stick to MEX1 for now and drive north to near Miller’s Landing. We made three stops and found Dudleya acuminata.  Elsie behaved fine so that tomorrow we will be brave (foolish?) and attempt the drive via San Borja to Bahia de los Angeles. Wifi there might be iffy, so anticipate delayed Diaries!

Friday, 11 February 2011 – San Ignacio to Guerrero Negro

Today was much more than a drive along MEX 1 between San Ignacio and Guerrero Negro. Not discouraged by yesterday’s drive into the Sierra San Francisco, today we took another road into the mountains but this time heading for the village of San Francisco de la Sierra. Our target plant was Dudleya rubens that is said to be not common and to grow in out of the way places.

Most of the tourist activity in this area is whale watching, with pre-historic cave paintings a close second. Obviously, the whale watching happens along the coast but the cave paintings are found in the mountains. The Cueva del Raton (Cave of the Rats) is one such cave and the CSSA Dudleya Special Edition journal makes mention of D. rubens growing on the rockwall next to the cave. 

As we turned off MEX1, sign posts told us that we had to drive 38 km to get to the village with the cave being near by. Eunice had been on this track for Christmas 2009, but on that occassion it had been very wet and some of the cars in the party just had city tyres and could not make the track that was covered in mud. That was then. This time we were faced with a newly tarmac-ed road! I had seen this before and expected the hard top to turn to dirt after the first bent. Not so. After some 12 km the inevitable happened and the nice smooth road surface turned to dust. Never mind – we had already covered a signifacant distance, so we had our bonus in advance and had already reached an altitude of 342 meters when we made our first stop (S2215). We found: Agave cerulata, Bursera microphylla, Cylindropuntia sp., Dudleya cultrata, Echinocereus brandegeei, Ferocactus sp., Mammillaria dioica, Mammillaria heyderi ssp meiacantha, Myrtillocactus cochal, Pachycereus pringlei, Stenocereus (Hertrichocereus) thurberi, Stenocereus (Machaerocereus) gummosus, Tillandsia sp. Not bad for a first stop!

The list for S2216, farther along the track, was very similar but the star of the show here was an Echinocereus that at first glance looked nothing like any Echinocereus that I had seen or grown. Reid Moran’s field notes suggested E. engelmannii grows here and on closer inspection, there was some resemblance to this species, especially when I found just a few plants with the more familiar (but variable) strong spination.  A quick email to friends at the Echinocereus Study Group confirmed that these were indeed E. engelmannii (Thanks Martina & Andreas). The plants were coming into bud and the flower remains from the previous season were still in evidence, but no fruits.  There were also large clumps of Mammillaria (Cochemia) pondii ssp setispina and another small globular white spined Mam. with black hooked tips to the spine. (M. fitkaui?).

For S2217 we arrived at the Ecotourism facility of San Francisco de la Sierra, or so the sign claimed. There was no one in – a lady from a neighbouring house confirmed that nothing was open. A farmer came by with a truck full of goats milk. Did we want to see the cave paintings? No thank you, we were here for the plants. We asked if he knew where we could find ‘Semperviva’ – this is the local name for Dudleya (and Echeveria and probably all of the Crassulaceae). Yes, they grew in the hills but it was very dry and they would be more easily found during the rainy season.They would lead us there in their car, after dropping off the milk. They drove off in the opposite direction that we had understood. Perhaps they were going back to take the milk home and would then come and find us? We went tto the nearby Cueva del Raton. This is where an article in the CSSJ Dudleya special had reported seeing the plants. We found the caves, with a most formidable barbed wire fence making sure that the ancient art treasures were safe.  

We took a look with zoom lenses along the edge of the rock face and thought that tere might be Dudleyas growing there. Our hopeful pictures confirmed that we were right once we were able to zoom in on the pictures at our computers (S2217)

We took a look in the hills above the village, but had to keep an eye on the clock as I did not want to be stuck on the mountain in the dark. S2218.

Time had come to turn back. We approached a steep rockface along the side of the trac., heavily in shadow. I bet if they grow any where it will be here. We allowed ourselves 10 minutes (S2219) to point our zoom lenses at the rockface and snapped away in the hope of obtaining some reasonable picks. It worked!

S2220 was for odd pictures taken on our way down to road. We had already reserved rooms in Guerrero Negro so arriving as the sun set was not too much of a worry.

Another great day. 

Thursday, 10 February 2011 – around San Ignacio

Today’s explorations were along the track from MEX 1 to Santa Martha. I have written up a full text for today’s report, but it’s on the other laptop that has a battery that’s flat in seconds.

So for now – some pictures – with the relevant text below.

Today’s activities continue the theme of this short venture into Baja California, to seek out some Dudleya at locations reported in Reid Moran’s Field Books and to explore for Dudleya in the area around such finds in the hope that developments since Reid Moran’s explorations from the 1940s through to the 1980’s have not destroyed some of these locations. It is just as likely that new developments may have opened the area, so that places that were previously inaccessible can now be reached in the comfort of an air conditioned 4×4. In short, we’re on a Dudleyathon.

The Field Books suggest that he did not botanize in the area around Santa Martha in the Sierra San Francisco and so the track from Mex 1 to Santa Martha (a collections of half a dozen homes with a number of small farms along the track) was the subject of today’s outing. My eyes were playing up again, despite a pair of goggle-like sunglasses that fit over my prescription glasses, so we only made some brief stops for plants along the side of the track. Cactus and other succulent plant vegetation wise there was nothing that we did not see already in 2008 along the track farther north, to San Borja.

All pictures today are recorded as S2214 and the only note as an addition to the 2008 plant list is that the Agave with the banded pattern on its leaves is A. cerulata. As we got back at a reasonable time and I had only taken 56 pics I include a small selection of images taken today.   This rare treat is specially for Alain, to show him that it’s the author and not the software that is to blame for the relative lack of images. In Chile and Argentina, Juan would make up for this by posting his pictures on his Flickr site. Perhaps Eunice should be encouraged to do the same.

Wednesday, 9 February 2011 – Guerrero Negro to San Ignacio

Today we decided to explore the Vizcaino peninsula, south of Guerrero Negro. We had been here in 2008 but experienced our first double puncture that tended to distract from cactus exploring a bit.

This time we decided to stick on the main road, hard top according to the map, but in reality there was a badly graded section that probably loosened most of the fillings in my teeth!

We made four stops (S2210 to S2213) but more for scenic than floral records.

The hope was to get to Punta Eugena, right at the end of the Peninsula, opposite Isla Natividad where we saw some interesting cacti last year. However, today was about time and fuel budgets. We had to turn around at 2 pm yto get to San Ignacio before dark. There was supposed to be fuel at Punta Tortugas, near the end of the peninsula, but ‘supposed to be’ and finding it, are two different things.

In the end we made it to the fuel stop but there was only ‘normal’ fuel, not the ‘premium’ that Eunice’s car runs on. But by now we had used up our time budget, so never reached Punta Eugena – never mind.

Based on advice from fellow travellers at the Desert Inn, we had booked ourselves in for two nights at the San Ignacio Springs Bed & Breakfast. (http://www.ignaciosprings.com/) this is an amazing place alongside the lagoon, amidst a forrest of palm trees. Accommodation is in ‘yurts’ – Mongolian tents, but these are furnished with solid beds, better than many of the beds that I have slept in these last few months! Gary and Terry made us feel very welcome and excellent food was presented in the communial sitting area with wifi, from where I type up today’s notes.

The surprise of the day was running into Ruth Bataista. Ruth was at the Larry & Raquel B&B in Bahia de Los Angeles in February 2008 and had helped us to arrange a trip to the islands in March that year. She was now helping out here – what a coincidence!

Tomorrow we go plant hunting in the Sierra San Francisco.

Tuesday, 8 February, 2011 – Cataviña to Guerrero Negro

Prologue:

Regular Diary readers will have noticed a gap between my flight to the US on 3 February and today.

Just as I was about to take up my squat outside the admin office at the Desert Inn – the only place where you can pick up a wifi signal – the generator shut down for the day. Without electricity to power our laptops or the internet router we took breakfast and hit Mex 1 for a day in the Desert.

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S2205 was at km 195 and was just an early morning legs stretch in an area that I had photographed extensively in 2008. Plants photographed this time: Senecio sp. Ferocactus sp. Mammillaria dioica fa. Echinocereus engelmannii, Fouquieria columnaris, F. diguetii, Pachycereus (Lophocereus) schottii, Cylindropuntia sp. and a Solinaceae sp. in flower and in fruit

S2206 was a short comfort break where I spotted some nice Ferocactus sp.

All the above plants were seen again at S2207. A lovely blue sky with windswept clouds enhance the mainly scenic pictures taken.

S2208 was a specific stop to see Dudleya gatesii. To me the plants looked very similar to D. cultrata that we had seen yesterday – more reading to do and no doubt seeing these plants in flower will help. There were lots of Agave shawii around but my eye was caught by two plants that had exceptionally fierce large teeth along the leaves and the single spine tip of the leave was twisted like a corkscrew. Very nice plants!

We arrived in Guerrero Negro in time for a drive to the lighthouse (S2209). In 2008 Alain and I did this in the morning and were entertained by huge flocks of migrating birds – geese, ducks and a range of waders. As we were here almost exactly at the same dates as in 2008, I was expecting a similar spectacle, but I was disappointed, particularly as the light was not good for photography of the few birds that were within camera reach. 

Sunday, 6 February, 2011 – Around San Quintín

Three days after leaving the UK and I had yet to click a shutter with the camera pointing at a cactus or succulent in habitat. The shutter finger was becoming impatient! Eunice had promised to take me to see Dudleya anthonyi in habitat. 

From the hotel, we could see low hills along the coast to the north of San Quintín. The newly acquired Baja California Almanac told us that these were three volcanoes, long time inactive. They stood out clearly in the plain around San Quintín, so we were soon at the foot of one of them, the one with a microwave station on top.

S2196 was a quick stop to allow Eunice to get her bearings as a warren of tracks went off in all direction. During my short stroll I managed to spot just one Dudleya, D. cultrata, growing with Euphorbia misera and Mesembryanthemum chrystalinum. The first shots had been fired!

S2197 was called as soon as we saw large silver white Dudleya growing to the left of the track. The habitat was quite difficult to negotiate as it was an old lava flow with the gaps between the jagged clumps of lava hidden by shrubs. The lava itself was covered in lichens and algae. D. anthonyi is a beautiful plant in habitat. It is notoriously difficult to distinguish from D. brittonii and D. pulverulenta that also form large rosettes of leaves covered in white farina.

Dudleya anthonyi (s197)

D. brittonii invariably has bright green forms growing side by side with the white farina covered forms. whenever I have seen them in habitat, they grow on vertical cliff faces. D. anthonyi is not reported to have a green form. The plants here all grew on volcanic rocks on the flat. All mature plants found were growing on a formidable stem that looked at least three times its true thickness, due to a thick layer of blackened dried up leaves covering the true stem. I have not seen these trunks on the other similar white leaved species. Comments in literature suggest that the only reliable way to distinguish the three species from each other is to compare flower structures. Flowering usually takes place from April to June, when I have not been able to visit Dudleya habitats.

Fortunately the three species do not seem to share habitats with each other as far as we have been able to make out.

There were two other Dudleya species here: D. cultrata and D. attenuata. 

During the two hours at this location there was a thick wall of cloud – fog that hang over the Pacific Ocean a few km. off shore. Isla San Martin, that lies more or less opposite this location and is the Type Locality for D. anthonyi was repeatedly partly or fully shrouded with mist. The scene was very similar to the camanchaca that we are so familiar with from Chilean cactus trips. The lichen and algae that cover the lava rocks and shrubs suggest that these fogs regularly cover this area.

We drove back to the hotel, making a detour through San Quintín to visit a street market where I picked up my 2011 Mexican Cowboy hat and a couple of souvenirs.

Saturday, 5 February, 2011 – Bellflower to San Quintín

Today was a driving day. We crossed the border into Mexico at midday. Amazing how easy and relaxed this all seemed compared to February 2008 when Alain and I were a touch anxious about our first ever crossing into Mexico. Practice makes perfect I guess. The Mexican authorities responded well to our attempts at speaking Spanish and helped us in perfect English.

We had arranged to meet José, our guide on the Isla Cedros tour last year, for a snack outside Ensenada. It was great to meet him again and catch up on this and that.

In 2008, Alain and I had planned to spend the night at the Desert Inn at San Quintín. We had been surprised by the earlier than anticipated sunset and in the dark had managed to get the car stuck in wet sand. We had failed to find the Desert Inn but had succeeded in finding very acceptable accommodation at Hotel Marie Celeste. 

Due to chatting with José for longer than planned, we again arrived in San Quintín in the dark. This time we popped into every petrol station along Mex 1 and each time the instructions were to go on to the next station. We passed the ill faithed turning that we took in 2008, but stuck to the instructions to carry on to the the next petrol station.  Here we were told that we were very close and should turn off Mex 1. The track came to a cross roads and a sign to the Hotel Mision Santa Maria – yet another change from the Desert Hotel / Hotel Pinta that was in force in 2008. Finally we found our target – a very nice hotel but where internet connectivity was limited to the reception area and restaurant. This is where I discovered that an adapter for the small laptop is still in Amesbury (hopefully) or lost. The battery died while chatting with Angie, so ‘hunting for a Dell cable with US/Mex plug’ has been added to the itinerary.

No photo stops today.

Friday, 4 February, 2011 – Rest day in Bellflower

As today’s subject suggests, while Eunice rushed around dealing with last minute panics I sat around and rested.

No pictures taken today.

It was a restful rest day – much needed!