endemic

  23rd March, 2011.  It was indeed a dark and stormy night, the mist blowing over the mountain ridge to chill us. Night fell quickly, too. I wished we’d brought more rum to warm our spirits. After two days travel, by plane, smaller plane, a comfortable 4×4, then a much less comfortable one, came the final stiff hike up the valley. I was thankful for the mules that carried our gear and wished more than once that I’d taken up the offer of a horse to carry me. Searching For Dracula As soon as I heard the name, I knew I wanted to see Dracula. “There’s one a few hours up the valley,” Luis Mazariegos told us that evening. He didn’t exactly explain that the last stretch would be a hands-and-knees scramble up a steep slope at the end of which we’d be covered in mud. We have to scramble down the same way, of course, the much more difficult direction. At 2500 metres (8200 feet) above sea level, the thin air reminds me that I am not 21 anymore. In time, we find Dracula, but not in flower. More time, more scrambling, more mud, and we find one that is. Yes, Dracula is an orchid, and to my tastes, a particularly lovely one. And the cloud forests of the northern Andes of Colombia that are its home are a very special place. Orchid taxonomist, Carl Luer, tells me “this looks like it belongs in the great swarm around Dracula […]