Day 3  Sunday february 12 From Metztitlan to Gilo than Chacaya and back.

Ferocactus glaucescens with Bertus Spee, in the back Agave difformis

Like yesterday we were up at the unearthily hour of 5 am again, this is not normal and the shower gives us only more freezing cold water! Wim makes this morning coffee but the cord of his coffeemaker is to short, he must always stand until the water has boiled. It was to early for the braekfast and the shops are still closed, it was also cloudy and cold so we decided to visit the beautiful nature. Wim knows the site where to find a very beautiful large Ferocactus glausescens, but also growing here Epiphylum, Nopalea and Echeveria, bic clones of Mammillaria geminispina and naturally the Cephalocereus senilis the "Grey-haired old man Cacti". But Andre is our own Gray- haired old man for the rest of our trip in Mexico! On the corner we are looking for a big colony of A. xylonacantha on another vertical rock wall similar to yesterday. So we make a lot of pictures, after one or two hours ( we take the time) we co back to Metztitlan to enjoy our braekfast and do some shopping also making telephone calls to Holland and Belgium. The telephonecall cards we have buy in the centre.

We are satisfied if we go to the North to Hualula, then we take a sideways diversion to Gilo, here we find Agave garciae mendozae, its still very cloudy and cold thad day, on the road by Hualula we make the first stop with Agave Garciae Mendozae from Gilo, after Gilo we make a trip down under into the Barranca until we reach Chacaya, here we make a stop for 3 hour. After having a break for lunch we cross the street and climb into the mountains finding the Agave xylonacantha again but now in flower! But also nice forms of Astrophytum ornatum. Luck was only for Andre and Marcel after they found the rare Mammillaria schiedeana at this location! At the end of the day we all have to go back to Meztitlan. Arriving in Meztitlan we do some shopping for souvenirs and then have a dinner of chicken, pasta an potatoes to finish a magnificent day, and Bertus having his favourite drink always Modelo Negra!

Picture 1 A. garciae mendozae
Picture 2 A. garciae mendozae
Picture 3 A. xylonacantha by Gilo start flowering  
Picture 4 A  xylonacantha start flowering        
Picture 5 A  xylonacanthn vol lower                        
Picture 6 A. xylonacantha flower close by.

day before

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