We crossed the river at El Salto and headed up some almost impenetrable scrub - thorny dwarf acacias, ground covering Agave lechuguilla and hechtias growing on a very steep incline made the going extremely tough. At the top we saw a small cluster of Hesperaloe funifera (below left) - a plant I was pleased to find.
Then we struggled back down again to the other side into the sunlight and into a beautiful lost landscape. A dry river bed cut into steep limestone cliffs with water worn cobbles and boulders - the cliffs studded with agaves, cacti, palms and cycads. Eagles riding the thermals overhead, colourful butterflies the size of tea plates flitting past - it was enough to make you weep with the beauty of it all.
The picture shows me standing beneath a glorious silver brahea - the first plant that overwhelmed my vision when we got there. A brahea - but which one?
Well, according to Henderson it should be B. dulcis. We saw B. dulcis elsewhere and it didn't look like this. Brahea brandegeei comes from further south and the description doesn't really fit. What does fit exactly is a defunct description of a defunct name - Brahea berlandieri. So I will call these palms Brahea berlandieri, even though they are supposed to be dulcis.
But whatever they are, here are some pictures anyway. The dark dots on the hillside beyond are more of these beautiful palms, many must have had 10m trunks.
Here are a group of cacti growing out of the cliff, possibly Ferocactus histrix:
And here a Dioon edule:
And finally, if the plants weren't enough, a series of natural pools of the clearest water cutting fabulous shapes in the rocks. The water looked so temptingly cool after a hard climb and walk - so we jumped in!
We then made the trek back to the car and the drive to just north of Victoria for our next stop over - and a little luxury!