and then saw the two icons of Rio ,
Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer I stayed on
Impanema beach and the lagoonand this is a photo of
there from above. The rest of the
beach.
Here is
Downtown Rio from above. We drove to see
Christ the redeemer up close Yes that is me, the
gringo in the blue shorts.
We then spent a great day at the Rio
de Janiero Orchid Show. They had a lot of great species
displayed and those photos are within the encyclopedia.
After spending time with my friend and
her daughter and parents we left for Sao Paulo. Arriving
late in the evening, I had no idea what to expect from
my Brazilian orchid sponsors. We had never met and only
been in contact by e-mail, was Dalton, old or young,
tall or short etc. Anyway after our meeting I never gave
another thought to the idea that the trip could be hell
because we didn't get along. Dalton was the perfect
orchid friend. Knowledgable, friendly, and ready to see
orchids. We spent the next day going to orchid nursuries
and photographing species orchids.
Bright and early the next day we
picked up Americo Docha Neto and headed to the
beach outside Bertioga.
Dalton, Americo, Marcos and myself spent a relaxing
evening discussing orchids at Dalton's beach house.
Marcos Campacci was my guide and encyclopedia as we
walked through all of the Brazilian wilderness. Dalton
and Americo were content with staying at the beach house
and discussing orchids. I guess they don't like to get
soaking wet and donating blood to the local insects. The
scrub to the right in the picture is where all of the
following orchids will be found.
As soon as we entered the brush we
spotted out first orchid. It was a
Cyrtopodium polyphyllum tucked up
under a scrubby bush. As we pushed a few feet
further into the hammock our first
Cattleya intermedia appeared. Many references state
that this species is extinct in the wild but I can
attest that we saw a few thousand of this species in
just a few acres and there is plenty of the same habitat
all up and down the Brazilian coast. I can see why
conservationists are concerned though, these hammocks
that support
C intermedia are right next to the beach and are hot
to be developed as more people move to the coast for
recreational homes.
Entering the hammock a bit further we
spot a giant
Octomeria oxychela . Trying not to stumble because
of the dampness of the trail I came to a tree covered in
Epidendrum plants with capsules At this point the
trail below began to became more like a muddy stream
than a path and the humidity was astounding, water was
dripping off of everything and as far as I could tell it
hadn't rained in a day or two. They had given me rubber
boots to wear and they were mostly good until I stepped
into the ooze and the water and mud filled the boot.
Then I felt a little better as I viewed
Epidendrum nocturnum on a tree limb. This hammock
seems to get wetter as we get into the taller trees,
everything is covered in moss now and it is dripping wet.
There is standing water everywhere and we slog along to
this tree with our first
Pleurothallis
Notice the moss and heavy lichen that
this tree has. Marcos and his nephew, Keller [a young
man who helped us do the
dirty work].
Octemeria oxycheila was a common plant here. Marcos
points out our first flowering orchid
Pleurothallis saundersiana. After a bit of slogging
through the water that now was more like a lake than a
stream I saw white out of the side of my eye and then
turned and saw the cutest miniature, a
Lankesterella . Here is another angle of the
same flower.
Flowering orchids were beginning to
appear on every tree in this area. Here is
Sopronitis cernua one of the brighter colored
miniatures of the beach hammock. Now I know why I can
keep this Sophronitis alive while the others languish,
it grows at sea level. This next orchid is
Epidendrum octans and is a large sized reed stem
epiphyte. After a couple of hours of slogging less than
1/4 mile through the beach hammock we came back out to
the beach. Here is
Marcos Campacci and his nephew Keller Stelari. as
soon as we got out to open air. Notice that it is all
dwarf Sea Grape here. As we prepared to leave the beach
area we were blessed with one last blooming orchid. It
was
Cleistes libonii and it was magnificent in its size
and brilliancy of color. The plants were
nestled beneath the Sea Grapes and the
flowers were held just above their top leaves. An
astonishing sight and excellent way to finish up our
beach exploration.
After a great lunch with Marcos sister
we ventured a mile or two away from the beach towards
the
first of the foothills above the littoral plain.
This first line of hills above the plain has a distinct
climate. Notice that the top of the hill is in the
clouds. The elevation difference between the beach and
above is only 150 meters but there is a cloud forest
there at the top. Just getting to the skirt of the hill
there is a definite change in climate and the next group
of orchid photos comes from this area. As soon as we
left the road and entered the forest we came across
this tree with
Bifrenaria inodora and Dichaea pendula on it. Here
is
Cirrhaea saccata and
Promenaea rollinsii. Orchids definitely have their
own specific requirements as this foothill is just 2
miles away from the beach and has very little altitude
difference as we were along the bottom where hill met
plain and not a single orchid that grew on the beach
grew in this area.
There were also many different
Bromeliads in this area. The jungle here was very
thick and very little light entered from outside. As we
walked we had to move very slowly so that we would see
what orchids were around. Here is
Aspidogyne argentea, a very pretty terrestrial
orchid that I almost stepped on. Our first and only
blooming orchid in this area was
Encyclia patens. The afternoon was waning and even
in the bright of day it was hard to see in this dense
rainforest so we trudged back to Marcos' sister's House
and had
dinner with Dalton, Marcos, Americo, Keller and
myself.
The next day Marcos and I arose early
and headed up to the top of the foothills near the town
of Salesopolis at an elevation of 1030 meters. Here is a
waterfall on the way there. After getting sandwiches
in the town we drove to the higest point in the area and
parked at a microwave tower on a high ridge. The wind
here was fierce and we were in the clouds. It was quite
cold and I was glad when we ventured into the jungle
along the crest of the ridge because it cut down the
wind. Our first orchid here was
Maxillaria cerifera. Our first flowering orchid was
Bulbophyllum atropurpureum. Here is the
flower photo closer up. Notice that we were in a
mist forest, all day and it never got brighter than this
and there were several moments when it was much thicker.
There was a light drizzle to a pounding rain all day as
well. I was soaked through and through and, as I live in
Key West,
frozen to the bone. It was 55 degrees out and it was
a normal day for the Brazilian fall at 1000 meters. We
have all heard the term
cloudforest or mistforest [this photo was taken at
one of the brightest moments during the day] but until
you can actually see it or feel it is is difficult to
understand. Here you are only 600 miles to the south of
the equator and the elevation is only 3000 feet yet it
is cold and there is an almost perpetual haze of
humidity.
Here is a closeup photo of
Sophronitis coccinea on a tree trunk with thick
moss. Here is the
same even closer still. Here is
another. All of the Sopronitis are miniature,
Cattleya alliance orchids with brilliant red or yellow
flowers and even in a
haze are quite visible midway up the trunk of forest
trees. Onward through the fog we went seeing hundreds of
orchids out of our direct site as they were high in the
trees, but then a low branch near the trail and viola! a
flowering specimen of
Epidendrum proligerum appeared. A common epiphyte in
this area was
Gomesa glaziovii which has a very spread out growth
habit. Orchids grow on the ground as well as in the
trees here so you much walk slowly scanning up and down.
It can make for slow yet exciting going. Here is a
Cyclopogon species on the ground.
We came upon a large, fallen tree and
found this
Protheschea and
Octomeria tricolor. Here is the
Octomeria tricolor plant. Notice that Marcos, who is
only 10 feet away, is obscured by the mist. The downed
tree also had
Dichaea cogniauxiana growing pendantly on it's side.
All day Marcos has been saying that this was the place
to see
Scuticaria hadwenii but we had gone for a few miles
and not seen a one. I got to calling "Scuttie, scuttie"
as if they were a dog that would come because of the
cold. If we saw one we could head back to that nice warm
car. Then Marcos pointed up and said "Scuttie" and there
they were 50 feet over our head, yes they are the little
sticks hanging out over the side of the branch. We never
got a better look at one so I guess I have to go back
soon to find them closeup and in bloom. At this point
soaked and cold as we were we decided to head back up
the ridge towards the Microwave tower where the warm car
was parked. Climbing back we noticed a plant of
Maxillaria madida. On the way back up the sun made a
rare appearance and this
tree with a Sophronitis coccinea and a bromeliad
made a bright sight over the ridges edge.
After making our way back up to the
car and a dry shirt Marcos asked me. "Should we go down
the other side now?" I like any orchid addict, said
,with chattering teeth, "sure why not". Here is an
Encyclia euosma growing on a tree trunk on the
windward side of the ridge, [we had been on the leeward
side before where it is nice and warm]. After a bit of
stumbling about we found this
Maxillaria flower. This side was much steeper than
the other side and I had to really think about not
pitching over as I took this picture of
Bifrenaria stefanae. Bulbophyllum are common in
Brazil in deferance to the rest of South America. Here
is a
Bulbophyllum napellii. After this find I turned to
Marcos and Said "I'm done" so we climbed back up to the
car and headed down towards lower ground.
As we drove we saw this
Habenaria sp in bloom so we had to stop. Looked
around a bit more and saw this
Habenaria species in bloom. There was also a plant
of
Sauroglossum nitidum. Off we drove lower and lower
and we came upon a rocky outcropping with black rock and
a
Zygopetalum intermedium. Here is a
flower closeup. Driving a few miles farther we came
across a Cleistes limbonii gathering. There were some 20
plants right along the side of the road. Here is a photo
of the normal version of
Cleistes limbonii and right beside it a
Coerula variety. It was getting to be late in the
afternoon but we just couldn't stop finding more
blooming orchids. Here is an
Octomeria grandiflora photographed against the hood
of Marcos' car. Around the next bend we found a pool
with a giant
Habanaria speciesgrowing in the center of the bog.
and then a few feet into the brush on the other side of
the road was this
Trichosalpinx montana. Marcos Campacci, my guide and
fast becoming good friend, pointed to a tree beside the
bog and said "There is
Epidendrum campaccii". Sorry about the lousey photo.
A few seconds went by until I asked "Campacci?" and he
said "yes that species was named for me by Hagsater &
Sanchez back in 1993."
I got to asking more questions and
found out that Marcos has also described some 23 new
species, the most famous being Cattleya tenuis. I was
with an orchid luminary and I didn't know it. I also
found out that Marcos is the editor of 2 orchid
magazines in Brazil, CAOB [A Brazilian Orchid Society
Membership publication] and Brazil Orquedias a full
color for profit, general magazine sale publication with
a circulation close to 11,000.
Dusk brought on another rainshower and
as a last surprise for this wonderous day a
rainbow. We drove in pitch dark roads for an hour
and a half before we got down to a paved road and then
made our way back to the coast and to Bertioga where our
other Brazilian friends, Dalton and Americo, awaited
us. As I wearily went to bed after hours of spirited
talk with the guys I found this
moth awaiting me on the floor upstairs.
The next morning Marcos and I were up
early and said goodbye to Americo and Dalton who had to
get back to their regular lives as Marcos and I were off
to meet up with Solange and Celso who were going with us
into the Alto da Serra de Mogi das Cruzes an area with a
middle elevation of some 500 to 800 meters. On the way
there we discovered a plant of
Eulophia alta on the side of the road in full bloom.
It was at least
5' high. Solange drove us up to the middle of the
highway and let us off and we jumped into the forest.
Immediately we spotted one of thee rarer orchids that we
would find on this orchid safari.
Pabstia modestior which had two encapsulated flowers.
On a tree near by was another, also with
two encapsulated flowers.On the steep slippery banks
of the forest florr we found a
Prescottia species. A little farther down the slope
we found a thin moss covered tree that had a fairy
garden of several Pleurothallidinae and Oncidinae.
Hundreds of yellow and red
Pleurothallis hians?, an orange
Pleurothallis colorata, and a pendant
Pleurothallis hypnicola and
Phymatidium delicatulum covered this beautiful tree.
We moved on to another flatter,
brushier area and found this
Cranichis candida in full flower. As I was taking
the picture I noticed a
pink smudge moving among the flowers. I used my
camera to get this closeup shot of the culprit,
a pink and yellow spider? If anyone has an idea what
this really is write me [jfal@sprynet.com] as I would
love to know. We also found this
catapillar not far from the Cranchis. Here is a
Vanilla edwallii growing up against a tree.
Maxillaria picta was a comon epiphyte in this area.
Another very common epiphyte was
Oncidium forbesii. A fairly uncommon terrestrial,
Psilochilus modesta was found in the deep leaf mold
of the forest floor and had a seed pod. There was also a
Cyclopogon species with gray green leaves. One of
the smallest flowered species in the Cattleya alliance
is
Reichenbachanthus reflexus a monmotypic genus only
found in Brazil.
Pleurothallis seem to like small moss covered trees.
The orchid species pictured here may be a
Jacquiniella, but if it is it is the largest one I
have ever seen. It was at least 8" in length. One of the
last orchids that we found was
Dichaea australis and I am not sure what it is.
Notice all the seed capsules. As we trudged back to the
rosd we encountered a blooming
Phymatidium delicatulum. We arrived back at Solange
and Celso's house and they showed me their
Victoria-reginae Lily that they had growing in a
large pool. This is the largest water lily in the world
and can have leaves that are 8' across. The flower in
the picture is at least 12" across.
Celso, Marcos and Solange at their house in Bertioga,
Sao Paulo State. After an amazing breakfast Marcos and I
piled into his car for the all day journey to Minas
Gerais where we hope to see many rupicolus Laelia. On
the way we drove along the
Mantiquera Range that runs between Sao Paulo state
and Minas Gerais. The highest point in this range is the
Pedra da Mina whose elevation is 2796 meters. We
arrived at our hotel in Congonhas late in the evening
and were up at dawn and saw this
view from the hotel window. All of the orchid
pictures in this next section will come from the
peak seen in this photo. We drove up a long dirt
road up to where the rock outcroppings began at an
elevation of 750 meters. The first blooming orchid of
the day was a terrestrial
Skeptrostachys sp. which was in the
grasslands with dwarf vellozia bushes surrounding
the rock outcropping. Here is a photo of the
plant and the inflorescence. As we entered the rocky
area I spotted an
Epidendrum saxatile in bloom. This epidendrum is one
of a very few epiphytes that we found in this area above
Ouro Branco and was quite common. Notice the vellozia
bushes growing out of the rock. Another terrestrial that
we found here was a
Habenaria species. Our first rupicolus species was
an
Epidendrum campestre and was not very common here.
One of the most common rock growing orchids that we
found in Minas Gerais was
Pleurothallis johanensis. Clamboring over the rocks
I came across a stand of
Bifrenaria harrisonae. Look at how these
plants just fill every bit of the crevasses and
cracks of this rock. Marcos and I scoured these
rock outcroppings for several hours. One of our
mostr exciting finds here was
Sophronitis brevipedunculata which grew both on the
rocks and on
Vellozia bushes
Below the rocks are small wooded
copses with some dirt and from it arose
terrestrial Oncidium and an
unknown species. We left this spot and moved a
little higher [elevation 900 meters] and discovered this
epiphytic, super-miniature
Pleurothallis species on a dwarf Vellozia bush. We
moved higher still to about 1000 meters in elevation and
this is the
view from there. Our major qurry in this area was
Laelia liliputana, the smallest of the Laelia and found
only on this mountain top. After much searching around
we came across the correct location and there they were,
Laelia liliputana. This species grows to an
astounding height of 1/2" and grows in the
cracks of the rocks on the
side of large outcroppings or
along the bottom fringe in almost full sun. Often
they can be
found near dwarf vellozia but never on the wood. The
rock outcroppings of this area are very dry, but get
heavy dew in the mornings and a wet spring. Notice that
only Vellozia bushes are visible.
Our next destination was El Morro do
Chapéu which is just outside of Belo Horizonte. This
area has red soil and small rock outcropping with lots
of small stones strewn throughout. There is a scubby
forest, where there is more dirt, of small bushes that
then open to the rockier areas where only rupicolus
orchid and some cacti. In the areas with more dirt we
found
Laelia crispata and
Oncidium gracile. The bushes protecting these
orchids were less than 5 feet tall and there was a lot
of leaf litter. We pushed our way out to an open rocky
area and low and behold there was a blooming
Laelia caulescens. It has very large flowers for a
smaller plant. This photo shows the
broken rock terrain that suits this species. Notice
that there is a lot more other type of vegetation around
than with the other Laelia we have seen so far. We came
adross this wonderful
four flowered specimen. This photo shows more of the
typical terrrain that Laelia caulescens enjoys. The
red things are Pleurothallis johanensis. As you can see
it has many other plants growing in close to them, which
is different than most of the pther rupicolus Laelia. On
one of the few free standing rocks in the area we found
this colony of
Bulbophyllum weddellii. A closer
view. Notice all the Pleurothallis johanensis
arising out of the declivities of the cap rock. Here is
a shot of the
hillside that all of these orchids were growing on.
There was only this one spot that had a depression in
the cap rock and it had a different orchid growing in
it, a
Protheschea species. The
motherlode of blooming
Laelia caulescens. After an hour or two at this spot
we hightailed it to our location to spend the night. We
were headed towards La Caraça, a Lazaran monastery. It
was built in the 1500's and has been a school for the
elite youth of Brazil up until the school burned down
after the turn of the 20th century. Now with only 4
monks and all of them over70 years old they have turned
to tourism to keep the site alive. They are situated in
the center of 4 mountains and have 70,000 hectares of
virgin wilderness surrounding them. It is an amazing and
serene paradise. We pulled in as they were locking the
gates for the evening and arrived at the church as the
evening service was being held. Marcos warned me
that something incedible would happen here tonight but
he would not let on what it might be. After the service
everyone went out to the front patio of the chapel and
we sat down in the dark. There was a set of stairs
leading out to the wilderness that encompassed the
monastery. The head monk came out and started chanting
"Guara, Guara!". I looked at Maarcos and thought UhOh
here comes some weird religious ceremony. The monk had a
large metal platter that he covered with scraps from the
dinner table and was pushing around on the floor so it
would make a loud grating noise. What the heck! Soon
everyone got quite and up the stairs came
something. It was pitch dark and all I could tell
was that something was there. Are we looking for hungry
ghosts? After a moment the preist said "take pictures
now and with the flash of the light we saw a large, tall
red and black
dog-like creature right at my feet. I didn't know
what to do, other than continue to
flash the camera. I kept asking "what the hell is
that? Marcos told me that it was a wolf. I was not aware
that South America even had wolves, especially red and
black ones. I had to get all the way back to the US to
discover what they actually were. The
red-maned wolf a solitary, 60 pound, very rare wolf
found in Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and is
extremely threatened by cattle ranching and
developement. We saw four different wolves here, each
came in a half hour apart as they are solitary animals.
An incredible evening sitting in the pitch dark.
The next morning we groggily got up
and Marcos said we were off on a 20 mile round trip hike
down the canyon. As soon as we got on the path we found
Zygopetalum mackaii in bloom. Here is a
flower closeup. As I have said before, Bulbophyllum
is a commonly found genus in Brazil and here was no
exception. Our first find was
Bulbophyllum warmingianumgrowing up the side opf a
large boulder. Pleurothallis also grow on boulders here
a case in point is
Pleurothallis prolifera and here is one
with a seed capsule. As we walked down the trail we
came to a wall of stone on one side and it had a water
seep. I scrambled up and found that 10' up it leveled of
to a steady slope and there where many dwarf Vellozia
buzhes with their roots in the water. Upon closer
inspection I saw
large psuedobulbs laying over and on top of the
plants and with roots onto the caprock below. After a
short search we came up with a flowering specimen of
Psuedolaelia irwiniana, a Schomburgkia to Psychilis
like psueudoepiphyte lithophyte. The plant has a long
inflorescence to 4' and has the successive flowers at
the apical end with only one to 3 open at a time. A
little farther on we encountered this miniature
Laelia fournieri and the
plant below. This is what they call
Lanium berkleyi there but is said to be the same as
L. avicula. I did not see it in bloom soI can not say,
but if Marcos says there is a difference then there most
likely is. Marcos and I found a spot where the river we
were walking along disappeared and took off down this
canyon underground to where it appears just before a
waterfall a half mile below.
Marcos worked one side of the canyon and I worked
the other. Notice all the orchids at his feet and on the
side of this large rock. Each side had it's own distinct
species which grew only there and not on the other. On
my side I found
Pleurothallis hamosa which has the odd, stiff,
curled leaf with the flowers protected inside.
We both did a lot of
climbing for old guys. Here is a
Bulbophyllum warmingianum hotel.
Marcos is standing at the edge of the chasm that has
the waterfall below. On our way back towards the
monastery we found a plant of
Sauroglossum nitidum and
Prescottia stachyoides which had two inflorescence
arising. After a couple of hours climbing back up the
canyon we could see the
monastery ahead. The
chapel was built in 1775. Each night the same monk
calls the
Guara' and they come in to
eat a scrap of meat. We both hit the beds and feel
fast asleep knowing that tomorrow would bring a 20 mile
climb up to the top of the Pico do Carapusa elevation
1995 meters and we were sleeping at 1100 meters.
The dawn came and we both jumped up
eager to assail the mopuntain or or muscles. On our way
up we picked up our guide. To go to the top you needed
to pay a local guide who hopefully could get us up to
the top, but more importantly get us back to the bottom.
He had a lot of knowledge about the local plants that
were not orchids.
Vellozia bushes are the norm in Minas Gerais and
there are close to 20 different species. It is a soft
wood tree and has a very rough bark and can be dwarfed
such as this one or can attain a height of 12' and have
a trunk 2' around and all of them
flower each with a different shape and color. Our
guide told us to rub the leaves of this particular
Vellozia and then rub our exposed faces and hands. It
had a wonderful smell and he said that now no bug would
get within 10' of us. He was right. On a side note, very
few mosquitos or other biting insects bothered me
duriong my entire stay in Brazil. I don't know if it was
just that it was fall and the bugs are light or there
just aren't any. Either way it was nice not to have to
scratch much after a day in the woods. I only found one
tick on me during the whole stay as well.
As we climbed up and over all the
rocks we came across a
Maxillaria villosa in flower. We made this climb to
find
Laelia longipes and one other orchid that will be
discussed later. The Laelia were plentiful but we were
there at the very end of their bloom season and after
scouring the top mountain for 3 hours we only came up
with 2 blooming specimens, even though there were
thousands of plants. This is a
closeup of one and you can see how damaged by age
the flower is. This species grew on the rocks but did
like to have a lot of
moss around the base. After a bit of wandering on
the mountain top we also found this
Habenaria species. We also came across our first
blooming
Prescottia species. Here is a
flower closeup and an even
closer one. The second
Laelia longipes that we found was a little fresher.
Here I am at the peak of the Pico do Carapuça with much
of the
valley that the Monastery of Caraça occupies. Here
is our
Guide Jaio and Marcos at the top. Marcos had
intrigued me earlier by telling me about the odd orchid
that grew at the top of the Pico do Carapusa named after
Mr Irwin of the New York Botanical Garden back in the 30
& 40's. We were hunting for the higher altitude
Scuticaria which differently than with all others in
this genus grows erect and is called
Scuticaria irwiniana. We scoured the top of the
mountain to no avail fro several hours and only after
deciding that we didn't have to find it and we were
already descending we came around the same boulder as
when we went up but there it was, looking more like
Rhyncholaelia glauca,
Scuticaria irwiniana Check out IOSPE for the flower
picture, unfortunately it was not in bloom when we were
there. As we climbed down and under large rocks we came
to a vantage point to see the
mountaintop that we had just climbed. And here is a
view from a bit farther down. We finally arrived at
the monastery as the sun was setting and at a good meal
and went to sleep so we could get up early the next
morning and see our last 4 locations in Minas Gerais. We
headed north west to get to the Parque Serra do' Cipo'.
It is rolling high plains with large skeleton like rock
outcroppings scattered here and there. We stepped off
the road and not 20' in was this beautiful 4' tall,
Oncidium spilopterum, in it's full splendor, arising
from the
edge of the rock and the grasslands that then
stretch on for several miles to the next outcropping.
This areas rocks had cracks running horizontal to the
ground and the
Laelia ghillanyi loved to be in and fill the cracks
on the
vertical surface. Notice how dry it appears. Other
than morning dews this area only gets water in the late
winter and spring. We got back in the car and stopped
soon before Presidente Kubichek a small Minas Gerais
town, here the rocks were strewn more at random and
there were many flat rock formations with stoney sand
spots inbetween that held
Laelia breigeri, this one with a seed capsule and
Laelia rupestris which grew more up on the rock
surface but still in a declivity with sand, rock and
dwarf vellozia and was also was carrying a seed capsule.
WE got back in the car and traveled 20 mile to inbetween
Pres. Kubichek and Datas where we stopped again, this
time for a great dragon back ridge of rocks that snaked
next to the road. Here i got out and found this
Laelia in flower, although it is on it's last legs,
at the base of the outcropping in the wash off from
above.. After Marcos came to look at it he stated that
it may be a new natural hybrid and it was most likely
between L briegeri and L rupestris but he had to get
back to SP and his databank to be sure. He joked about
it being Laelia x pfahlii if it had not been described
and thought the sound of pfahlii [pronounced fallii] was
pretty funny in Portuguese. Did I fail to mention that
most of the time, Marcos and I spoke in Spanish as I am
fairly fluent as my wife speaks spanish and I love to
travel in latin countries. I have had 28 years of
practice with my in-laws and my wife as well as my 2
boys [12/17] who speak english first but soon found out
that spanish helps with the latin girls even here in Key
West. Anyway it actually is
Laelia x christinae and here is how it looked as a
plant. This was our last orchid stop of the trip and
it proved to have a couple of other oddirties. The first
is a terrestrial orchid called
Pelexia laminata which was also found in the scree
and erosion area of the larger rock outcropping and here
the
plant grows in a grass clump. We also found a
lithophytic
Cyrtopodium species, which one I have no idea.
MArcos took this picture of me at the last stop. I am
looking at a
Laelia rupustre. We got back in the car and started
to drive like mad to get as far south today as possible
so we could get into Sao Paulo early the next day,
saturday as I had a flight out at the crack of dawn on
Sunday. We drove and drove and I must say most all the
roads we were on that were paved were excellent but
after we got to Corvelo things went nightmarish. It was
1 am and we had done 100 miles in a red haze of almost
opaque dust, avoiding wideflung holes that were filled
with the red dirt of the area and semi-trucks weaving
across all four lanes of traffic trying to avoid them.
None of us were having much success and the jolt of
ending up in one was teeth jarring. Trying to see
through the dust was unbearable and as aproaching semis
with their lights on high made for a blinding experience.
All of a sudden there was an orange light and I said
Marcos there are traffic cones , so he veered off to the
right and went 30 yards or so and I said Go left!!!
There is a cop. We just barely missed him and I said to
Marcos "I think we have a flat, man" and he Says "naw,
bgut I need a cup of coffee. WE turned in 200 hundred
yards ahead got out of the car and sure enough we had a
flat, we take the car to the flat fixeer and start to
wait when up walks 2 giant policemen. One Asks me" Why
did you try to run me over!" and I said "talk to him he
is the Brazilian" After a bit Marcos cools the cop out,
we fix the flat and we decide to go to the next hotel to
sleep. He got me to Dalton and Dalton got me to the
airport the next day. WE had several goodbyes and I was
off to Florida. What a wonderful adventure that AI will
cherish forever. I am already figuring out how to do it
again!