The Cactus Trip Diaries

Thursday, 14 October, 2010 – San Pedro de Atacama to Maimara (Argentina)

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.

Wednesday, 13 October, 2010 – Taltal to San Pedro de Atacama

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.

Tuesday, 12 October, 2010 – Chañaral to Taltal

Today was was a relatively light day, driving wise, as we had planned to do our usual trek into the south of the Pan de Azucar National Park, visit the view point El Mirador, on to Las Lomitas and then down towards Planta Esmeralda.

Great plan! but ……

We stopped as usual just before the southern entrance of the park, where the Copiapoa cinerascens were also showing the effect of recent moisture. Here (S1904) they grow on dark coloured rocks, making for a very nice picture with the Pacific Ocean in the background.

A bit farther along, where C. cinerascens was actually labelled and growing abundantly on sand, the paint brushes came out again (S1905). This is a sure sign that we were going to be looking for Thelocephala, this time E. (T.) kraussii, known originally from this Ritter location as T. malleolata. It turns out that I had always been looking for these a bit farther along on Playa Blanca. By the way, the paintbrushes are used to brush away the sand and dust that usually hide the plants from sight.

We made a quick stop at the ranger’s centre to see if we could get the key for the chain that blocks the track to El Mirador. Bad news! The whole northern part of the park is now out of bounds to visitors. That includes El Mirador and Los Lomitas! The excuse given was that this was to protect the guanaco, but we know that these animals are already well protected and that numbers were increasing dramatically over recent years. Ingrid had heard that a group of visitors on scrambler motorbikes and doom buggies had torn through causing lots of damage. OK, so there is a need to prevent repetition, but surely this is a little heavy handed, with some very interesting cacti no longer accessible.

Juan and I will be contacting the senior heads to see what can be done for our next visit in November. I would love to inspect the Eulychnia at the Penguin colony on Isla Pan de Azucar to see how their nesting habits differ from those on Isla Chañaral.

S1906 was for the stop at the new barrier across the track to El Mirador, but also taking in the field of C. cinerea ssp columna-alba where Angie has a date, each time that we pass with an ondividual plant that she’s christened ‘Smiler’, due to the elongated crested head.

S1907 was an impromptu stop for first one, then several Eriosyce rodentiophila. Usually these plants occur as one or two isolated individuals, but here were quite a few plants growing in close proximity from each other.

So we were forced to leave the National Park by the eastern exit, turn north on to Ruta 5, then turn left again towards Chifuncho, then south towards Planta Esmeralda.

S1908 was for some Portulaca sp at the turning to Quebrada La Madera to point the other car towards the Guanillos Valley (called Huanillos valley on sign posts).

In the Guanillos Valley we first made for the traditional C. laui  stop, (S1909) where C. esmeraldana was also looking good and in abundance. I fail to see the reason for giving these plants a new name, C. angustiflora, as they look identical to plants growing with C. laui and C. grandiflora to the north of La Madera and at Las Lomitas.

S1910 was our usual visit to Alan Craig’s memorial. The Thelocephalas (T. esmeraldana) that had escaped me on previous visits were now up and reasonably easy to find, but not in flower

S1911 was a quick visit to Ritter’s Type Locality for C. columna-alba. As it was getting late, the low sun made the dense stand of plants here even more impressive.

It was really much too late to look at the population of red flowered Copiapoa near the turning to the road to Taltal. These large mound forming plants are called C. taltalensis ssp desertorum these days, but as at every visit I have only encountered red flowering plants I assume that Ritter named the plants twice to sell twice as much seed. Today, numbered S1912, it was the last stop on a very full day.

We stayed the night in Hotel Gali and had dinner in Club Taltal where we were recognised by the staff. Hotel Gali had been extended and there is now a lift to take you to your rooms on the third floor. A nice positive change after the less pleasant changes at Pan de Azucar NP.

Sunday, 10 October, 2010 – Lonquen to Huasco

Today was planned to be a driving day, to get away from Santiago and into cactus country. We still managed the traditional stop at Pichidangui (S1895) that confirmed that everything looked greener than on most previous visits.

S1895 - Pichidangui flowers

A quick stop at the Pronto at Los Sorcos, just before the Fray Jorge National Park for a hot dog and a cup of coffee.

S1896 was another old favourite stop, overlooking the village of Los Hornos and Quebrada Honda. We failed to find the crested Copiapoa coquimbana that we had seen in previous years but found a cristate Echinopsis (Trichocereus) coquimbana instead. Checking up my notes indicates that on past stops I had always reported E. acida growing here, but this time, easily distinguishable by its flowers and hypanthium, E. breviflora can also be confirmed to grow here. Useful information to add to the Eulychnia book that Paul Hoxey and I have been working on.

Juan had phoned ahead and booked us into Hotel Skitniza.

This trip promises to be more like a cactus tourist trips, visiting old places rather than extensive exploring. For David of course, everything is new and he has been heard to mumble that it’s like having died and gone to cactus heaven.

Sunday, 10 October, 2010: Lonquen to Huasco

After a sound, solid night’s sleep, I woke up 5 minutes before the alarm went off at 7.  Amazingly, we all woke up and got ourselves organised to wave goodbye to Flo at 9.

Nothing too exciting to report. We made two cactus stops

S1895 was our traditional first plant stop at Pichidangui and S1896 again was the car park above Los Hornos, north of La Serena. Flo had booked us in at Hotel Skitniza, familiar from previous trips.

Along the road we noticed that everything looked comparatively lush and green, but no evidence of the spectacular Desert in flower yet.

Wiebe asked if there were still new things to see? Certainly! At Pichidangui I managed to get the photos I wanted for the Eulychnia book that Paul Hoxey and I are writing (the draft failed to arrive on time for our departure), and there were many Nolana and Calandrinia in flower. The weather was quite overcast and we even had a light drizzle on a couple of occasions.

The excitement for me came at Los Hornos, where I had recorded Eulychnia acida before, but this time also spotted a few plants of E. breviflora in flower. Flower sections were taken and photographed. I don’t recall this as a place where we have seen the two growing together before. No sign of intermediates etc.

By 8 p.m. we were sitting down to dinner – excellent sea food – and by 10 were snoring our heads off.

So lets hope that on Monday we see signs of the flowering desert!!!!

Saturday, 9 October, 2010 – greetings from Lonquen, Chile

Hi folks,

Yes, this winter’s cactus circus has started again. Tonight, the clocks in Chile change to Summertime.

Yesterday Ian and Cliff were supposed to leave Heathrow on an earlier flight than Angie, David Neville and myself. Ian was first to arrive and, while waiting, was able to arrange for all of us to join an even earlier flight to Madrid. There Angie, David & I would leave on about an hour before Ian and Cliff were due to take to the air.

All plans are great, except if they are foiled by our plane (due to arrive from Frankfurt) was late, so that Ian & Cliff took to the air first. Eventually we left 2 hours late, so that it became quite a tiring day.

Arriving at Santiago Airport was like arriving home. Andres, our regular rental car supplier, was there to meet us. This was my sixth trip in cars supplied by him, so over the years I have come to regard him more as a friend then as a business contact.  

I surprised myself by being able to find my way back to Flo’s place where we were treated to lunch and enjoyed a nice relaxed afternoon, preparing for tomorrow’s travels.

The plan is to leave around 8 a.m. and drive north along the PanAmerican Highway, Ruta 5, aiming to spend the night at Huasco. Hope that you’ll tune in tomorrow to see how those plans fared.

Friday, 8 October, 2010 – Durrington to Madrid

Days were getting shorter, weather was getting more and more autumnal, so the time had come to disappear South, to Chile, where Spring was starting and stories of the Desert in Flower were causing quite a stir.

Peter was kind enough to drive Angie and me to Heathrow where we were met by veteran Chile travellers Cliff Thompson, Ian Woolnough and newbie David Neville. There was an earlier flight to Madrid than the one that we were booked on, so we proceeded straight through the usual security & immigration procedures and off we were.