The Cactus Trip Diaries

Just a minor issue as we went to fill up with fuel for our long ride over the Andes: the only official petrol station in town was unable to serve Diesel. We would have made it safely to Susques, the next fuel station, in Argentina, but it was a safe feeling that we managed to buy 10 litres of diesel at the break down garage where they had repaired our Toyota Hilux in 2001.

Just a slight hiccup at the border crossing, leaving Chile (on the outskirts of town) among the piles of papers that had to be presented to temporarily export the car was a car registration document, but unfortunately not for the car that we were driving. Instead, it was for another car with a very similar registration number that must have been part of the rental fleet. These things happen, and we were allowed through.

Crossing into Argentina was also a lot smoother than last time. Great.

S1915 were images taken during the crossing of the Andes. S1916 was the regular stop for Echinopsis atacamensis ssp pasacana. S1917 was for five more images of our crossing of the Salinas Grande, a huge salt lake. S1918 was for our regular stop to see Eriosyce umadeave that David nominated as best looking cactus ever. S1919 was the marvellous descent of the Cuesta de Lipan. It was then a short drive to Maimara were again we stayed in Hotel Posta del Sol. Fortunately they accepted US$ for payment, although I’m sure that we did not get the best rate.