Thursday 15th November and Friday 16th
November
Straight
on the road at 7am – we stopped at Real de Monte for a look around and then had
breakfast just out of town. Pastes! Big thing in that part of Mexico, pastes everywhere,
a legacy of the Cornish miners. Mark had
some exotic fillings but I had plain meat and potato and I reckon they’d gave Philps a run for their money
– extremely tasty!
We
headed off east through the horrible city of Tulancingo
to some fields just outside - a spot both Mark and I had been to before to find
a trunkless, clumping nolina. I’d previously seen a few individuals near to
the road, Mark had been a couple of kilometres further
to a canyon beyond the woods (looking for dahlias) and seen a big population,
which is where we headed. No sign of
flowers or even recent flowering but loads of plants mixed in with a grass that
it superficially resembled. Except, when
you got close, the grass didn’t cut your hand at the slightest touch, unlike
the nolina.
This is different to those we had seen anywhere before this trip, making
the tally of ‘no ID nolinas’ to 3.
On the
way back I stopped to have a look at some Agave
applanata – some young plants and a couple just
getting towards adult size and shape, but no real big ones in the immediate
vicinity. An
interesting and peaceful landscape of mainly grazed/short grass with islands of
stipa, opuntia and the odd
tree.
Some
colour in the undergrowth.
We
still had most of the afternoon ahead of us, so we took a chance on a road that
headed north from Tulancingo. It turned out to be an interesting drive,
with the road passing through a fairly high spot at one stage into cloud
forest. We stopped at a roadside comedor for a good lunch, although Mark was feeling a
little out of sorts and didn’t do it justice.
Chicken escalope, enchiladas, papas, frijoles and
‘tortillas negras’ – ‘black’ tortillas. They were actually blue, but the colour was
from the maize, not food colouring. Interesting and with a slightly different flavour. And the meal was 130 pesos for both of us.
We
eventually ended up on the main road leading back to Mineral del Chico, MEX105,
passing through an amazing spectacle of several kilometres of giant cactus
forest.
We
returned to Mineral del Chico as it was getting dark, filled with fuel ready
for the off the next day and, as town was still closed apart from a small shop,
bought a few things to eat in our room.
Nothing
much to say for Friday – up at 5.30am and drove into
Mexico City. Sat Nav
took us straight to the airport on a route we wouldn’t necessarily have taken
but which proved to be a good one – apart from the last bit, where it directed
us to the back end of the airport. Car
deposited at the rental office with no problems regarding our earlier accident. At the airport I had a gargantuan breakfast
(well, I had missed some meals…) after which we checked in and met up with
Billy and Neil.
A great trip, full of variety and interest. As usual, I
am left with as many questions as I have had answers. Hasta la proxima…
2nd/3rd,
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th,
9th,
10th,
11th,
12th,
13th,
14th,
15th/16th,