The Cactus Trip Diaries

First point on today’s agenda was to get the rear tyre on our car checked. It seemed to be slowly losing air. We knew exactly where to get it looked at from previous trips and sure enough, a large nail was retrieved from the rubber and the hole fixed, all for 4,000 pesos, just over five pounds. Today was all about covering the c. 440 kilometers, so the only stops were leg stretchers and toilet stops and not plant stops. The exception was the traditional stop (S1913) at the statute of the Virgin above Paposo. It has been a regular stop since 2001 but I had never seen it before with so many wild flowers. The Eulychnia here, E. taltalensis was not yet in flower but stems were showing some new growth. Their flowering is later than E. acida and E. breviflora seen earlier on the trip. After an otherwise uneventful trip, we arrived at San Pedro de Atacama and were successful at the second time of asking to get accommodation for the night. Television was dominated by the Copiapó mine workers being brought to the surface. S1914 is for the usual pictures of the Church as the sun was setting. I bought two llama woollen jumpers to replace the one that I had left in the field yesterday.