Conifer-Hunting in Mexico

Day 7: Thursday, February 10

We woke up predawn and Bob and I recovered our car and drove out to the Arból del Tule, arriving at dawn for a session of tree-gazing and photography. We returned to Bonnie and the hotel for breakfast, and I then photographed the cone collection and separated the keepers from the chaff. Afterwards we made a quick run downtown to pick up a current road atlas, and then we hit the road. We took the toll road back to Puebla and around the north end and then down to Cuautla. The toll road is expensive—about a peso per kilometer—but fast; we were mostly moving 130-140 km/hr. Along the way, we managed to find some interesting trees. About 80 to 100 kilometers north of Oaxaca, we passed through some fine stands of Juniperus flaccida, with a few relatively large trees. In the desert country on the Oaxaca-Mexico border, we saw some crazy-looking yuccas and cacti, and southeast of Puebla, we found a stand of Juniperus deppeana--these trees are close to the southern range extent of the species. In Cuautla we took a room for 380 pesos (a pretty common rate, it seems) at the safe, clean, very pleasant (Bonnie loved it) Hotel Defensa del Agua. We're in Morelos now. Cuautla is a very Mexican town, meaning, not a tourist town. Finding a restaurant was tough; we ended up at a deluxe hotel in a huge bland dining room where we were the only patrons and even the staff were mostly absent. The food was good, but expensive. Afterwards we watched The Terminator on TV, with Bob repeating every line in English, from memory. We then called it a night.

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