A 5600 Kms TOUR IN MEXICO

 

(By Oliver Gluch, August/September 2009

 

Part 5 : From Puebla to Sierra Juarez .

The next morning we were driving the way back towards Pachuca. It had rained a lot the night before, as the rivers we crossed had a lot of brown water. Not to imagine, how the Toliman river now would look like, probably we would have never got to the plants on that day. At Ixmiquilpan we stopped at the road for breakfast. As there were a lot of cars standing, it must have been a known and hopefully good place to eat. It turned out that people from the nearby village were preparing sheep, cooked in a hole in the soil covered with banana leaves. The sheep meat (really unusual for Mexico) was very delicious and we continued our way to Pachuca.

Breakfast in Ixmilquilpan.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 

 

There were a lot of new highways we could take, therefore we were faster than expected. After Acaxochitlan we turned south and continued on highway 119 to Zacatlan. From there we were voting again for the "shortcut" towards Teziutlan, also to explore a little more the mountain area in Puebla. But what a road! Small, winding up and down, no chance to pass any car or bus, and millions of "topes", we continued our way like a turtle. The landscape was pretty, eventhough it was raining a lot during the way, but we passed quite some nice canyons, where there must have been some Pings growing. After the village of Ahuacatlán towards Tepango on Puebla State road 108, we found a very nice population of P. moranensis at about 1400 m altitude. Colouration of the flowers were ranging from dark violet to magenta, not very spectacular, but a nice population. There were also different terrestral orchids around, one species even flowering with nice small cream-coloured flowers. It was getting dark already, when we passed by the village of Zacapoaxtla, a site were also P. emarginata was found, before we finally arrived in Teziutlan, where we stayed the night.

P. moranensis site at Ahuacatlan.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 

P. moranensis flower.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 

Some flowers of P. moranensis showing some variations in shape.

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 

Another flower of P. moranensis.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

P. moranensis rosette with impressive veination.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

P. moranensis rosettes exhibiting showy colours.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

The next morning we continued our way direction Atzalan, where there was another site of P. emarginata. We stopped the car before the bridge Fernando indicated us and were looking for the path down into the valley. There was a very thick vegetation, with a lot of tree ferns. It was a kind of a cloud forest, as humidity was not only coming from the river but also clouds were coming into the valley quite often. But where was that path to get down to the waterfall? As we were not finding anything, we walked towards the small village nearby and asked some people for the way. As they were not seeming having anything else to do this day, we hired them as a guide and they took us down to the river. We explained them that we were looking for a waterfall called Cascada de Oliguí(as the plants shouldn't be to far away) and it seemed that they were knowing, of what we were talking. After a slippery descent down to the river, we were in front of a waterfall, but the vegetation was that thick, that no Pings could grow here. Further we had to cross the river on a mossy, slippery tree trunk, that was laying over the river. On the other side the Mexicans continued with their machete to made us a walkable way and we continued in the wet and humid forest. It was a really nice walk, but we were not seeing any Pings. Another waterfall. Were the Pings somewhere here? We looked around, jumped over stones to get to the other side of the river again, but no Pings at all. Then we continued back a small steep path up towards the road again. We were already hearing the cars driving up, as we passed by a very shady cliff, and there they were!!! About hundred P. emarginata plants were growing on a wet cliff. None of the plants were in flower, so definetely this species is not flowering all year round.

The rosettes were all green, none of them showed any reddish colouration, as the clones in cultivation do. The rosettes were also not very compact and we could not find a single plant that has shown a winter rosette. Was this the site Fernando has seen some years ago with the big variation in flower colour? We were not sure, but when we continued our way up the hill, after just 100 m we ended up again at the road, pretty close to where we have parked the car. There was definitely an easier way to get to the plants and not walking around for hours to cross that jungle. But we have seen a lot of this habitat, very different compared to many other Pinguicula sites. Wet of sweat and rain and muddy all over, we changed clothes and continued our way towards Veracruz, where we wanted to stay the night in Tuxtepec. We drove down towards Puebla and took the highway towards Cordoba, passign by the highest peak in Mexico, the volcano Pico de Orizaba (5610 m) and turned southeast into Veracruz. The landscape now was very dominated by sugarcane plantations and the area was very flat, as we were not to far away from the coast. As it was getting dark, we finally stopped in Cosamaloapan, a city close to a swampy area, which resulted in huge amounts of mosquitos everywhere. But there were not to many options to stay that night, tourists probably not coming to many to this area.

P. emarginata valley.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Group photo with guides.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Crossing the river.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Orchid.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

Another cliff inhabitant.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

Cascada de Oligui.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

P. emarginata on vertical cliff.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 

P. emarginata rosettes.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

Poisonous caterpillar.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

P. emarginata rosettes.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Pico de Orizaba.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Next day the plan was to get into the Sierra Juarez to see P.hemipepiphytica again. But more about in the next postcard.

Oliver Gluch