The Cactus Trip Diaries

Sunday, 20 November 2011 – around Tarija: up El Condor Paso and back

Many of you have asked me how I go about writing up the Diaries. Today’s missive is actually written on 15 December, while I’m cozily tucked up in front of the telly in Amesbury, Wiltshire UK, but when ever possible, I like to get the daily report out ‘from the field (hotel)’ on the actual day. So how does this work? As soon as we check into the hotel I look for the bed nearest the mains socket and switch on my laptop. This allows fellow travellers to take showers, or find the bar to (hopefully) come back with cold beers or similar. First task is to down load today’s images, so that I can reformat the memory card and have a capacity for up to 739 images for the next day. Next the search is on for an internet connection. If found, I check if Angie is still up, for a quick chat – unless she is my roomy on the trip of course, in which case we have already been chatting all day and need a break. The MSN chat is a bit like a brain dump, a muddle of the significant events of the day in the order of their importance or the order in which they happened. Often I save these chats as MS Word documents that I can then edit, to get the events in the right order, run spell check (honestly!) and cut and paste them into wordpress. If time runs out, they may appear as ‘to be continued’ reports that need to be tidied up later, possibly at home. By now, the image download has probably finished (time for another beer! – cactus exploring is a thirsty business!) and I quickly open today’s folder (created by the download process) and look for the images that mark the start of each stop.

In the past, this marker image would be the hand held GPS unit informing me where we had parked the car. Now that I have a GPS unit on my camera that records the coordinates for every image I take (when I remember to switch the unit on) I take a close up picture of the car or anything else that stands out as not being a plant or scenery image.

These marker images enable me to quickly move the images taken at a particular location to stop folders in that day’s folder. Next, if time permits, I open up my Stop Database, created in MS Access, and by going through the images of each stop, I noted the taxa that we saw. Some of the Diary audience only read the Diaries for this information, so I cut and paste the plant stop information into the Diaries and pad it out. For today, the plant data reads as follows:

S2419: Opuntia sulphurea – in flower, Unidentified genus species – Tradescantia?, Echinopsis (Lobivia) mamillosa – this is reported from a few km south at BB1369.04.

S2420: Cleistocactus strausii, Echinopsis mamillosa, in bud and in flower (red),  E. (Trichocereus) sp, Rebutia (Aylostera) fiebrigii, R. (A.) heliosa, E. calorubra var. cardenasiana ?, Lichen.

S2421 and S2422:  Rebutia (Aylostera) heliosa var condorensis, R. (A.) deminuta ssp kupperiana – s.n. R. robustispina (reported at nearby BB 289.02), E. calorubra var. cardenasiana (reported at nearby  BB 289.03),  Lichen,  Echinopsis mamillosa.

I only started to record the presence of Lichen around this time and, when time permits, will go back and check images from earlier stops too. Rebutia s.l. were often found growing in ‘moss’ – I’m not sure of its botanic status. Some seem similar to a species of Selaginella that I have seen around other cactus habitats, e.g. ‘spike moss’ and Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp davisii south of Marathon, Texas, USA. The presence of such ‘mosses’ may be significant. In 2003, part of my collection survived a damp but relatively warm winter on Angie’s patio in Amesbury, Wiltshire, UK. Many of the pots of the smaller cacti developed quite a dense growth of ‘moss’ around the cacti, that as a result seemed to be more resistant to damp cold, almost as though it made the cacti more resistant to the fungi and bacteria of plants that were not ‘protected’ in that way. Could there be a symbiotic relationship? Should we use moss rather than gravel as a top dressing for our plants?

Saturday, 19 November 2011 – Camargo to Tarija

Our last morning at Hostal Cruz Huaso and we were all sad to say goodbye to the lovelycouple who had looked after us so well.

A small change to plans meant that we had stayed an extra night at Camargo. We had an extremely good night sleep as the trucks and coaches had seemed to have taken the night off. But on thinking about this silence, this might actually be bad news, as it could indicate yet another blockade on one of the feeder roads. We are purely reliant on what we see on the TVs – always on in restaurants – and what our hosts in the hotels tell us. And all this information is based on hear say and can change any minute for better or worse.

Soon after we left town, John took us on a track into the mountains towards the village of Culpina. We made one stop (S2410) soon after leaving the main road as large golden spined Parodia and Weingartia lined the road. The Parodia was P. ritteri and the other plant was Rebutia (Weingartia) fidiana ssp. cintiensis. But our goal for the day lay farther into the hills and our first two attempts (S2411 and near by S2412) were disappointing. We had hoped to find Parodia occulta / P. subterranea here. Both plants are reported from the area but none of us were too sure of the current status of these plants. Are they the same or are they different? For now I’ll refer to them as one ‘name’ that may well be corrected once I have done my background reading. [PS: a search on the internet suggests that the current accepted name is P. subterranea Ritter 1960, with P. occulta Ritter 1980 as one of a number of synonyms. There are a number of variety names that are perhaps no more than population names].  Photos were taken of one shallow hole in the ground with the remains of a plant, found by Chris, that certainly would have been hidden (occulta) and below the ground (subterranea). Also there were battered Oreocereus celsianus, and the omni-present Opuntia sulphurea and Echinopsis (Lobivia) ferox, with the usual very long spines, hence its synonym Lobivia longispina.

We drove through the village of Culpina with the Saturday market in full progress. We did not take any pictures as we did not want to upset the locals – we had to come back down the hill after our next stop!

Our next stop (S2413) started encouragingly with some white flowers above the desert soil, similar to the flowers that we saw in on our walk to see Weingartia neumanniana near La Quiaca in 2010. These flowers belong to a bulb and for convenience sake we referred to it as a ‘crocus’ although non of us believed this to be botanically correct. [Zephyranthes andina] Also found lots of patches of small magenta flowers that in California or Mexico I would have called sand verbena. So at least there was plant life here. Next I photographed O. sulpurea, just for the record, and two different Lobivia sp that had recently flowered. As you can see, I have lots of detail to look up once I get home and these ‘sp.’ reports will help me to look at the images with reference books alongside during dark winter evenings in months to come. And then, there it was, P. occulta / P. subterranea level with the ground with just the dark straight central spine above the soil level. A bit of blowing and brushing aside the dust and debris that had collected between spines revealed much larger plants than I had anticipated.

Soon we were also finding plants in flower, both the Parodia and Lobivia as well as a new red flower on the ground Rebutia albopectinata, that looked at first glance like R. heliosa that we hope to see tomorrow. Many pictures have an ant crawling over the flower for scale. These are big ants! I should perhaps carry a supply of standard size plastic ants with me to stage the images!

This was a great morning among the flowers in the sun. Across the road the same plants were joined by another mystery couple. Cumulopuntia rossianus / subterranea (and again I’ll have to check later if they are in fact Maihueniopsis) appeared, including one plant with yellow flowers. It seemed that each of us had their own concept as to what name belonged to what plant. They grow together, so are they in fact within the variability of a single species?

We made another 4 plant stops, to be reported in detail later.

Images of S2418 start with pictures of our car with a variety of legs sticking from underneath the car, with the bonnet (hood) up and warning triangles along the road. We had developed a badly slipping clutch! Not good news in mountainous Bolivia. Unlike my previous experiences of this problem, where the clutch eventually refused to do its job, in 1999 in Brazil in Brian Bates’ car and again in 2001 in Chile on the road east of San Pedro de Atacama, there was no ‘hot asbestos’ smell. Had health & safety forced a change in compound used? We decided to drive on until the clutch packed up. Brendan’s car carried a tow rope and could get us to safety. John took over the driving as he is clearly the most mechanically orientated of the three of us.

Three and a half hours later, John had somehow managed to tease the car up and down two high passes (over 3,500 m) and into our town for the next four nights: Tarija.

This trip is certainly not without adventure!

Friday, 18 November 2011 – around Camargo: to Culpina and back

We’re now in Chuquisaca Department, with only 35 km as the crow flies to go to our original goal of Culpina, but neither Google Earth nor Google Maps could find a road to cover the distance. But then we have John as navigator! John suggested that as Culpina only has very basic accommodation and food, we’d stay in Camargo and make a day trip to the Culpina sites.

Now (15 December and back in the UK), with today’s stops plotted, GE confirms that we travelled on some interesting tracks with plenty of zigzags! Plants photographed:

S2403: Parodia maassii or P. ritteri var. camargensis

S2404: Rebutia (Weingartia) fidana ssp cintiensis, Puya sp, Asclepiad sp.- yellow flowers, Unidentified genus species – low, white stemmed trees, reminiscent of Pachycormus discolor in Baja California, Mexico

S2405: Parodia subterranea, s.n. Parodia occulta, Rebutia (Weingartia) fidana ssp cintiensis, Parodia sp – like P. maassii, but clustering; some white spined, some golden spined (P ritteri?), Cumulopuntia chichensis, Austrocylindropuntia shaferi, Puya sp, Echinopsis sp.

S2406 and S2407: Echinopsis (Lobivia) ferox, yellow flowers, Rebutia sp., red flowers, Oreocereus celsianus, Llareta – Azorella compacta, Cumulopuntia chichensis, Echinopsis (Trichocereus) sp –  T bertramii? Oreocereus celsianus, Lichen, Cumulopuntia boliviana or C. chichensis?, Puya sp

S2408: Cleistocactus sp., Echinopsis (Trichocereus) sp – T. tacaquirensis?

S2409: Opuntia sulphurea, Parodia sp, Echinopsis (Trichocereus) sp – Trichocereus tacaquirensis? In flower, Cleistocactus sp.

Thursday, 17 November 2011 – around Camargo

Our hotel is near the entrance to Camargo and is located on a small plaza where all the long haul coaches seem to stop and go – all night long – with engines running full time! So I went to sleep with my ipod on, to block out their noise. The exhaust fumes combined with our altitude (2,406 m) took care of any mosquitoes, so we had a buzz free night.

John had promised us an easier day, after yesterday’s driving day. We returned to Padcoya, as it was already too late yesterday to look for another miniature: Cintia knizei, or Rebutia (Weingartia) cintia (S2396). A choir of cameras clicked as we spread out and found our own plants. If I had not known better, I would have thought that I was on the Yavia cryptacarpa site in NW Argentina, with the same horizontal slate strata! After John had pointed out the first miniature, it was possible to walk anywhere in the area along the road, get down on your knees and take pictures of two and three plants without moving from the spot.  A remarkable little plant! Also here, Weingartia fidana ssp cintiensis, Lobivia sp. one or two with orange flowers from near their base. And Llareta (Azorella compacta) is here as well, as is to be expected at these altitudes: 3,515 m above sea level.

We drove back to Camargo and once again crossed the bridge over the Rio Honda (there seem to be quite a few rivers by that name in South America). When we came out this morning we could see some Echinopsis (Trichocereus) tarijensis in flower. They were now in the sun and even more photogenic, so became S2397. At the other side of the bridge a most peculiar event was in progress as twelve Bolivians had made a sort of dam in the river and had filled the space upstream behind it with a lorry load of carrots. They were now trampling these in their wellies in an attempt to clean them. Very colourful! But check the labels on the carrots at Tescos etc. They may be organically grown but have they been washed in this fashion in a river with a fair-sized town up-stream using the same river for its sewage? I’m off the salads and sticking to steaks!

As I am playing catch up in wifi-less Camargo, the following stop details were prepared later, in the UK with sleet and snow flurries passing past my window. We made five more plant stops and saw:

S2398: Echinopsis (Lobivia) pugionacantha – may be var. haemantha? Opuntia sulphurea, Austrocylindropuntia shaferi, Rebutia (Weingartia) fidana ssp cintiensis – s.n. W. fidana ssp. cintiensis var. lecoriensis, Tunilla corrugata.     S2399: Opuntia sulphurea, Parodia maassii – s.n. var albesence      S2400: Rebutia (Weingartia) neumanniana, R. (W.) fidana ssp cintiensis     S2401 and S2402: Echinopsis (Trichocereus) strigosa? P. maassii – or P. ritteri var. camargensis? Rebutia (Weingartia) fidana ssp cintiensis.

I make no excuses for the large amount of  ‘sp.’ names and question marks. Especially when you visit an area for the first time, finding so many different cacti without name tags is disconcerting, but on reflection, I would probably disagree with any name tags anyway, as I frequently do in botanic gardens, as the task of going round to update the names would be impossible. On reflection, it would not be too bad a job, to be paid to travel through cactus habitats with a bag of previously prepared labels and ID information, including habitat pictures that enable me to make the match. Now I just need to find out where to sign up for this job – should be easy as there will be a long queue of interested parties already in line.

I have no problem with readers writing in and pointing out obvious howlers – it’s the only way to learn and I’d be happy to provide images that may help to firm up on the right names. So do check up in months to come to see if I have made any changes / corrections. Ultimately I retain the right to act on the advice given, or, if in doubt, to keep it for further consideration.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011 – Sucre to Camargo

As mentioned earlier, we were joined by Brian Bates, resident of Sucre since early 1999. It was good to see him again after some 5 years and to learn of his intention to visit the UK in 2012 – there’s a bed for you in Amesbury when you need it!

Attention turned to plans for the days ahead. Having beaten the blockade coming into town, would there be one at the other end to prevent us from leaving? The quickly revised plan was to make another long drive to Camargo, from where we would be back on schedule. The main road would take us through Potosi, but there were rumours of a blockade there, so John had designed a detour to bypass the town, once famed for its silver and tin mining. As everything was new to all but John, there were no complaints and off we went.

Camargo is located 350 km south of the department capital Sucre, along Ruta 1, one of Bolivia’s major roads which is 1,215 km long and goes from the Peruvian border in the north to the Argentine border in the south. There are intensive road works in progress, as attempts are made to build a new super highway Ruta 1, from La Paz to Villazon, on the border with Argentina, where the road will join up with Ruta 40 that we travelled extensively in 2010 from La Quiaca, south into Patagonia. Both Bolivia and Argentina are still a little miffed that they are not on the Pan American Highway that in South America runs along the Pacific Coast through Peru and Chile.

Back to today and the cacti: S2391 was at Millares, for Blossfeldia lilliputana, easily accessed with huge numbers of plants on rocks along the river. Also here  were Weingartia platygona and a Gymnocalycium pflanzi ‘Millaresii’.

S2392 was prompted by yellow flowers appearing from the ground: Cumulopuntia (or is it Maihueniopsis) rossiana. Also here were Echinopsis (Lobivia) cinnabarina and Harrisia tetracantha. There was more of the same at S2393 and S2394.

At S2395 Echinopsis (Lobivia) tarijensis ssp bertramiana was in flower, with flower colours ranging from white to bright red to yellowish.

As in most of South America, there are plenty of Eucalyptus trees everywhere, but not arranged in plantations as was the case in Brazil. It is also worth noting that there is no need to cross fences to get to the cacti, although the land they grow on does belong to private individuals, as we discovered by being blocked in a few days ago, because we looked in on somebody’s land without asking permission.

The intensive road works in the area, especially around Potosi, caused a bit more confusion. Roads that were on shown on maps (dating back to the 1960s) were no longer there but there was a new ribbon of black tarmac – not on any map and not yet open to traffic. Along this ‘tarmac river’ (that’s what it looked like from the hills) were a number of service roads. We got lost around the town of Belen, driving some 30 minutes in the wrong direction before we realised and had to go back.

Bolivia’s main roads are toll roads, even though some are little more than gravel roads. They are – at this time of year – in good condition. Tolls are not high. There are about 10 ‘Bollies’ to the pound (8 to the US$) and the usual toll price is 5 Bollies for a variable length. You have to hold on to your last ticket to show at the next one where it is either stamped or has a new ticket stapled to the previous one. Because we had by-passed Potosi, we had missed out on some stamps so were charged 10 Bs even though we had not used the stretch of road for which stamps were missing.

It was dark when we arrived at Camargo, but as we are here for three nights (no wifii!) we’ll get a better look in days to come. The town has a population of about 6,000, grown by some 50 % over the past two decades. There are again plenty of road works as Ruta 1 will pass close to it. We’re staying in a nice family run hotel with a very friendly couple warning me continuously to mind my head on the low doorways. The atmosphere reminded me of the small family run hotel in Bustamante, in Coahuila,Mexico. John had stayed here many times and was welcomed like an old friend. There were four German cactus explorers also staying here and we cautiously exchanged some information of where we had been and where we were going. With accommodation sorted, our mind turned to food. Although there were plenty of eateries, they were all of the Bolivian fast food type, serving very tough beef, hamburgers on stale rolls and chicken, all served with chips, boiled rice and a boiled potato.

Tuesday 15 November – Mizque to Sucre

Yesterday, we had turned off the Cochabamba to Sucre road at Aiquilla, just to drive some 40 km to Mizque, the only place with a comfortable bed in a comfortable hotel. So we already knew the first 40 km of today’s drive: back to Aiquilla! Brendan might argue that his camping approach to cactus trips avoids this, but then he is lugging 39 (?) kg. of luggage up three floors to hotel rooms each night, while I weighed in with 12.3 kg at Heathrow and only take my computer & camera bags to the room plus toilet bag and clean undies.

S2386 and S2387 were new hills for all of us, as John suggested we’d explore along the ‘new’ – still work in progress’ – Aiquila by-pass. We found Sulcorebutia mentosa and some plants tending towards S. flavissima. Many plants in flower, although it seems that flowers rarely open fully on any of the Sulco’s that we’ve seen so far. I managed to encourage a few to open by sticking my finger in.

Past Aiquilla we stopped (S2388) at Puenta Arce, the bridge where you cross from Department Cochabamba into Chuquisaca. We were treated to Gymnocalycium pflanzii (below the Rio Grande) and Parodia sp plus some ‘different’ Opuntias and Neoraimondia herzogiana.

S2389 was another short stop – we are still trying to make up time with quite a way left to go to Sucre. We found an Echinopsis sp, Jatropha sp. with not unattractive peeling bark, a Cleistocactus sp. and, much to John and Chris’ delight, some white flowers that were attached to bulbs.

As the end of daylight approached the outskirts of Sucre appeared on the hills in front of us. It was strange that there was so little oncoming traffic coming out of town. Increasingly we found trucks parked up along the road, but we continued, following a bus and a taxi. Until …… yes, the blockade that we had driven two days to avoid at Oruro had spread, or rather the local dispute at Oruro had now turned into a truck driver’s dispute who wanted to show their displeasure at the Government’s intention to ban all ‘illegal’ trucks and trailers – as far as we can make out, anything over 7 years old; which would cover most wheels on the road. Worse case scenario we would be stuck in this stationary queue of cars, lorries and coaches. The taxi in front of us dropped off his passengers, who could walk through the barriers and did a U-turn, signalling to us to do the same. We drove back about one km. when he slowed down and pointed up a side road. We were a little unsure if he was just a good Samaritan or setting us up for a drive into nowhere.  S2390 records a limited number of images of the road block – it’s unwise to ignite a potentially explosive situation by winding up short-fused Bolivians by taking pictures of their way of life. In addition I took some pictures out of the car window as the track wound itself down the hills to a dry river bed, then through the dry river bed, by instinct, until we met a car coming the other way. The driver, surprised, asked what we were doing here, seemingly unaware of the blockade, smiled and confirmed that we were on the right track. Eventually we found our way out of the river bed and as we climbed back up the hill we saw the reassuring outline of the Cement Factory, a famous Sucre land mark that seemed to have been the target for the blockade. Had we come far enough past the blockade to be able to  enter Sucre? Yes!

Fortunately John recognised where we were and managed to find his way to Hostal International, owned by German Max Steiner, who runs this and some 7 other hostals as a backpackers / European Volunteer hostel. With all the international guests, it had been worthwhile for them to install free internet wifii; an opportunity to send the first signs of life back to family and friends. This included Brian Bates, resident of this grand metropolis, who joined us for breakfast the next day.

But first, John took us to Bisoneti, a restaurant famed for its huge steaks and more. A good end to a somewhat uncertain day.

Monday, 14 November 2011 – Cochabamba to Mizque.

Well, Oruro had been the plan, but John’s quick look on the internet showed that the Municipal workers in Oruro had put up blockades to prevent people entering or leaving the town. Such rumours and reports are frequent, some are for real, others are just sable rattling to add force to their arguments (which we are not sure of). You’d think that with such regular blockades etc. they’d put up a website to alert people to the latest troubles. They did put up a website – but it has been blocked for the last three months!

We decided not to take the risk of driving a full day and then not be able to get into town for however many days that the blockade persists and to head for Sucre instead – too far to get to in one day, hence the stop over in Mizque. It’s great having John onboard, as he knows alternative options to get us around the problems.

Oh, nearly forgot – today’s cacti! ‘Only’ 5 stops, mainly along the side of the road.  By the way, the roads have so far been remarkably good. Many are gravel roads, but are well maintained. Apparently a few days of rain can change that in an instant. We’re in two Toyota Landcruiser Prados. Ours has two petrol tanks built in, holding a total of 180 litres! But at approx. 60 pence per litre, it costs about the same as filling up our cars back home.

S2381 gave us a charming little Parodia, P schwebsiana, Coryocactus melanotrichus, Cleistocactus sp., Echinopsis sp. and Opuntia sp in flower. This was probably not an endemic, but imported years ago for its huge juicy spineless pads.

S2382 was for a location that John referred to as ‘Gertel’s Island’. I remembered John mentioning that this is the type locality of Sulcorebutia tiraquensis var electracantha, described by Willy Gertel and now lumped under R. steinbachii, if you follow the New Cactus Lexicon as a starting point for selecting a name from among the long list of synonyms that takes your fancy. After posting this report, Brian writes to tell me that I suffered memory failure (again): “This is Rancho Zapato and the TL of S. tiraquensis var. longiseta not electracantha. Which was described by Cardenas not Gertel.” Ah well, we do our best and thank you for the correction.

There was also a charming little Opuntia (Austrocylindropuntia?) with bright red flowers. And I should mention the many Puya, probably several species and so far all smaller than the ones that I have become familiar with in Chile.

S2383 was a stop for a nice red flowered plant that we called Sulcorebutia oenantha. I’ll have to check when I get home what the NCL calls it. [PS: It is another synonym of R. steinbachii] Angie, please pack my copies of the NCL. By the way, I don’t necessarily agree with everything it says, but it is the most useful central reference from where the synonyms can lead to a name I like.

S2384 was still R. stainbachii (s.n. Sulcorebutia oenantha), but very few.

I should say that at every stop there are other cacti too, usually Echinopsis sp, Cleistocactus sp and Roseocereus sp. but I intend only to mention the keynote plants from each stop.

S2385 was for some huge (3 m +) shrubs of Quibentia sp., one of those few cacti with leaves. There were some dozen flowers on each plant.

Another excellent day, finishing in an unexpected modern hotel, but unfortunately without wifii.

Monday, 14 November 2011 – Cochabamba to Oruro

Just an unusual brief note first thing in the morning as I wait to go into breakfast.

Although our plan is to drive to Oruro today, John has just picked up info on a Bolivia website that today roadblocks are due to commence in a number of Bolivia towns, including Oruro. But these reports are two days old. Usually there is a lot of sable rattling between protesters and the government with websites posting info on a whole host of potential trouble spots with details of the intended actions. Over breakfast we’ll have a serious think about what we’ll do. It’s 200 km to Oruro with plant stops on the way. If we can’t get into town, we would need to come all the way back – there is no accommodation in between. There are alternative options that include driving back a bit to Epizan and taking another route that may go to Sucre, but this too could get blocked if the issues elsewhere escalate. A new dimension to cactus trips and one that has been there for Bolivia as long as I can remember. It has been one of the reasons that I left it so long to make my first trip here. With all cactus trips featuring time budget constraints, sitting around waiting for a political situation to resolve itself is not the most apealing option.

Looking at the bright side, we are surrounded by cacti out of town, all new to Wiebe and me, but not so appealing to Brendan, Lucy and Chris who have already seen some of the alternative options in the weeks leading up to our arrival.

It may be some days before we’ll be in a hotel with internet facilities again, so I’ll post this ahead of today’s events. Who knows, we might be back here tonight!

Sunday, 13 November 2011 – Comarapa to Cochabamba

John’s outline itinerary continues west, 249 km along Ruta 4 running south of the National Parks mentioned yesterday and promised  Sulcorebutia and Echinopsis. I recorded 9 stops, just brief stops along the main road to see the huge diversity in just one species of Rebutia (Sulcorebutia) steinbachii; plants that we might also grow under various varietal names of Sulcorebutia tiraquensis.

But first, first impressions of Bolivia. It seemed very familiar and yet quite different. There were many features in common with other cactus countries. The roads so far have been good with their twists and turns being the main factor for slowing us down. Outside the towns of Santa Cuz a few days ago now, and now outside Cochabamba, the road passes through suburban sprawl that forces the speed down and Brendan was said to have made a spectacular flier off one of the speed bumps that seems to be part of the landscape everywhere that ‘civilisation’ spreads. We did not see it, but Chris Pugh was looking for a shop that sells crash helmets – none found. So in this respect, I felt at times that I was on Mex1 in Baja California.

Everything is very green and lush after recent rains. We tested the windscreen wipers on a few drops yesterday, but it was only the briefest and lightest of showers. The lushness again reminded me of Baja in February – March and of areas in Bahia and Minas Gerais in Brazil. The ‘costumes’ of the native population sets it apart from these other countries, but had things in common with Peru and NW Argentina, which is not that unexpected as they are just across the border.

I won’t do a detailed plant stop list here, with 9 stops today and ten yesterday, it would just take too long and have too much duplication, so I’ll just stick to things that stood out. At S2372, that was without doubt an Echeveria sp, one of several (7?) reported from Bolivia and one that perhaps Myran Kimnach could put a name to. Memories of driving through the Copper Canyon area in Chihuahua, Mexico came back.

At S2379, we parked along a side track and I was reminded of Patagonia, with a strong wind blowing through the Eucalyptus trees and blowing away our voices as we were trying to communicate. The version of Rebutia steinbachii that we had come to see here is still labelled Sulcorebutia bicolorispinus in my collection – if it survived last year’s harsh UK winter. This was where the light shower spoiled the light. My usual request at plant stops with some really nice plants, is for a crested plant in full flower. So too here. John obliged by finding the crest, but the flowers (they had already closed due to bad light) were on the plant next to it. But this stop will be firmly fixed in my memory as ‘The (first?) Blockade stop’. When we got back to the two cars, a group of Bolivians, families with people of all ages, had gathered. As we looked down the track,  it appeared to be blocked by a truck. While we had been looking for plants, the people had also rolled large boulders onto the track and the kids had stones in their hands, ready to bombard our cars if we had wanted to make a break for it. Nice! But nowhere as threatening as it might have been in Mexico where guns and machetes would have been on show. John asked us to keep our cameras out of sight and walked over for a chat with some of the senior members. ‘Was there a problem?’ Lots of smiles. They indicated that we had been on their land, what had we been up too? John explained that we were tourists, looking for cacti and showed pictures on his camera of the plants that we had seen. ‘OK, no problema’ and they started to clear away the blockade. Just a bit of boredom on a Sunday afternoon? Just showing foreigners to treat them with a bit of respect when they entered their lands?

PS: update from England, a list of what we saw today.

S2372, Opuntia sp., Echeveria decumbens, Echinopsis calochlora, s.n. Echinopsis hammerschmidii is reported by BB, Bromeliad sp., Cleistocactus samaipatanus, hanging, Birds – parrots / paraquites, Orchidaceae sp., Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish Moss)

S2373, Opuntia sp., weak spined, yellow flowered

S2374, Tillandsia sp, Unidentified genus species – Tree ferns, Calceolaria sp., Oxalis sp, Passiflora sp,

S2375, Cleistocactus sp., Opuntia sp., Echinopsis (Trichocereus) sp or Harrissia sp? Tillandsia sp, several taxa, Echinopsis calorubra, in flower, Orchidaceae sp.

S2376, Philibertia lysimachioides, yellow flowered Asclepiad, Rebutia (Sulcorebutia) steinbachii?

S2377, Rebutia (Sulcorebutia) steinbachii ssp tiraquensis, Very variable spine colour. BB 0246 reports Sulcorebutia tiraquensis var. totorensis from here.

S2378, Echinopsis (Trichocereus) tacaquirensis?

S2379, Rebutia (Sulcorebutia) steinbachii ssp tiraquensis, including one crested plant, in flower. s.n. Sulcorebutia tiraquensis var. bicolorispina, Sulcorebutia tiraquensis var. bicolorispina fma. nigrispina n.n. Slaba, Echinopsis (Trichocereus) sp, Puya sp, in flower, Echinopsis sp. – Lobivia sp or Echinopsis sp?

S2380, Austrocylindropuntia verschaffeltii, reported by BMLT 009 but not found this time. Did they confuse C. rossiana with this plant? Rebutia (Sulcorebutia) steinbachii, s.n. Sulcorebutia steinbachii var. polymorpha, Puya sp, Echinopsis (Lobivia) maximilliana ssp caespitosa, ? Also reported from here E. calorubra & E. obrepanda, Cumulopuntia rossiana, s.n. Maihueniopsis rossiana

Saturday, 12 November 2011 – Samaipata to Comarapa

From Google Map I had learned that it was only 110 km along Ruta 4, a one hour and thirty minutes drive, but past experience suggests that local conditions can add several hours to that – distances in South America are often best described in terms of  the time it takes to get to your destination rather than the distance.

Since leaving Santa Cruz, Ruta Nacional 4 has taken us along the huge (442,500 ha) Parque Nacional Amboro. Tomorrow, when we cross into Department Cochabama, another Parque Nacional,  Carrasco, continues with another 622,600 ha (6,226 sq. Km), The combined area of the two adjoining parks is 10,651 sq km. By comparison, the area of Luxembourg is 2,586 sq. km. The Parks range in altitude from 208 to 4,717 m! Such huge variation in altitudes and geology has provided a great bio-diversity, with an estimated 3,000 plant species, including many orchids.

It turned out to be a good day’s drive.

John’s outline itinerary promised Gymnocalycium pflanzii, Parodia, Neoraimondia and Weingartia neocumingii. We made 10 Stops that allowed me to add lots more ‘cacti seen in habitat’ ticks on my ever-growing list. All plants promised were delivered – thanks John! Should have some nice pictures.

We start with S2362, images taken of plants in cultivation at the Landhause hotel where the German owner had a nice collection of cacti and other succulents planted out in the garden. The images were mainly of his potted Cleistocactus winteri ssp colademono that grows in nature on a nearby hillside that’s on our planned stop list.

In fact, S2363 should have been that stop, but we turned off RN4 too early as this turning too was sign posted to another Bueno Vista. We realised quite early on that this was the wrong turn but thought that it could lead to something new and as yet unexplored. It ended up on a semi typical Bolivia football pitch. This one at least had grass, but like most of the others we would see, if you missed the ball you had to run a long way down hill to retrieve it. Do the rules of the game suggest a maximum permitted slope on a pitch?

Back on RN4, we stopped at a waterfall (S2364) surrounded by some tall rocks covered with  Bromeliad sp., Peperomia sp., Rhipsalis sp or Lepismium sp ? These were flat leaf-like stems, like Epiphylum, but with small flowers / buds, unlike the long flower tubes in Epiphylum, Cleistocactus sp., hanging from rocks, Pfeiffera ianthothele and Rhipsalis sp, possibly R. floccosa ssp. tucumansensis.

S2365 was for a group of Cleistocactus, C. candelilla, in fruit & flower, growing along the road, while S2366 was prompted by a snakelike cactus, possibly Hylocereus undatus. The problem with plants growing some distance from the camera, in trees or on rock faces is that it is difficult to find buds, flowers or fruits that may provide a hint of a plant’s identity. We also saw Harrisia sp. Rhipsalis sp, Tillandsia sp

At S2367 we saw Cleistocactus candelilla, Castellanosia caineana,and Opuntia anacantha, perhaps not the most dynamic of cacti and certainly rarely found in European collections.

S2368 provided some more flowers, on Gymnocalycium pflanzii, Opuntia sulphurea as well as Cleistocactus sp., hanging from rocks, but without flowers on show, almost impossible to identify and Castellanosia caineana.

S2369 was prompted by the flowers on a Pereskia, P. sacharosa. I also photographed Tillandsia sp, growing on telephone lines, trees and even on cacti, on an Opuntia sp., and on Castellanosia caineana.

Two more stops, S2370 (Echinopsis calorubra, Cleistocactus sp., Echinopsis sp.) and S2371 (with Echinopsis sp., Rebutia (Weingartia) fidana ssp cintiensis? Cleistocactus samaipatanus, Bromeliad sp., Tillandsia sp, Pfeiffera ianthothele) made a total of ten stops for the day, nearly enough to cause cactus indigestion so early in the trip! John had warned us that it would be different!