Next morning we left town and parked in a lay-by near the tunnel entrance. A chance comment in Gentry's agave book made us climb the hillside here looking for Agave macroculmis.
Well, we found it!
Absolutely stunning. Seeing that plant in it's setting was worth the trip.
We stopped on the road back from Real to look at an agave full of seed - our attempts to dislodge pods attracted the attentions of the old man who obviously owned the land. Toby chatted him up and the next thing I knew he toddled off back to his house to get his machete...
From there we started a long drive through more interesting roads - back to Matehuala then immediately off on smaller roads to a town called Doctor Arroyo.