The Cactus Trip Diaries

Sunday, 20 October 2013 – Pichidangui to Chillán

We enjoyed a nice meal last night at Restaurant Pichidangui, which seemed to have had a face lift, or did they just put in brighter lights and clean table cloths?

Breakfast was a little later today, to allow the lady who was scrambling the eggs to attend to church duties. There was still time left for a quick look at the rocks – Angie had only visited the area north of the church, so we headed to our usual spot south of the church.(S286). As in previous years the Carpobrotus chilensis was taking over and smothering the Eriosyce and even crowding out the Eulychnia. Attempts had been made at some landscaping and weed clearing, but it looked as though the label ‘weed’ had been applied to the wrong plants. Never mind, there were enough still in tact and flowering closer to the water’s edge, where conditions were a little harsher.

Eriosyce chilensis on the rocks at Pichidangui

Next we were off to the Airport. When we had picked the car up on Saturday 12th, we had been told that the papers to take the car into Argentina would be ready on Monday 14th or later in the week. As we were passing by the Airport today, now was a good time to pick them up. It took all of 3 minutes. As we needed to stretch our legs, Angie decided that now was a good time to buy some souvenirs, as the traditional Chile cups and T-shirts back home were in need of updating. First, for those who have been to the International Departures area of the Airport – pre check-in, they have moved the souvenirs stall to a larger area opposite the old one, which now provides extra space for the security bottle-neck. Second, all the old favourites were gone and I was not that impressed with their replacements. There was a little stall selling mobile phones, mp3 players and associated paraphernalia, where a gentleman with excellent command of the English language confirmed that he had the cable that I needed to end my musical starvation. Did I want the 30 cm, 1 m or 3 m long cable? 1m would be fine! And so, after an anxious moment when I worried that the car’s Hi-Fi might have been faulty, the dulcet tones of Carlos Santana filled the car. Great!!

I had pencilled in Talca as a place where we could spend the night, but with heavy rains preventing any local sight-seeing, we pushed on until around Chillán where it seemed a good idea to ask SatNav for a place to spend the night. It sent us down a road in the middle of town with lots of seedy looking hostals, but the flag pointed at a nice modernised building where we were pleasantly surprised by the high standard of fixtures & fittings.

Ruta 5 in pouring rain – never seen north of Santiago, perhaps much more common to the south (S2862)

I thought of taking pictures to show the Hosteria in Vallenar for some ideas of what others provided for a good deal less money! I guess they would have pointed out that they were some 1,000 km apart, therefore no competition.

Sunday night seems to be when restaurants here close for the evening, so we were fortunate to find a Baverian / German styled eatery that was open and served pizza’s (Jawohl!) and beer (Cristal) which we finished off with a large slice of kueche. There goes the diet again!

Tomorrow we head into the mountains and hope for brighter weather.

Saturday, 19 October 2013 – Huasco to Pichidangui

Today was always going to be a driving day – 524 km. What goes up (north) must come down (south), so with ticks in just about every box on Angie’s wish list she was a happy bunny. There was just one empty box left – the rocks at Pichidangui, which Ritter called Neoporteria heaven – I guess Eriosyce heaven these days, with E. (Horridocactus) curvispina, E. (Horridocactus) chilensis ssp albidiflora and E. (Neoporteria) subgibbosa all growing on the rocks where the Ocean waves break, alongside Eulychnia castanea. And that is where Angie and her camera are right now, while I’m writing up today’s Diaries, adding to her thousands of images from here since 2003, when it was the first cactus stop on her first trip to Chile.

Bart & Marijke should note that the main access road to town is getting a new coat of asphalt, so that today a Devisio was in operation, sending all traffic along the back way, where those living along the main road park their cars and have large gardens.

We’re staying in Hotel Rosa Nautica where Cliff, Leo & Juan & I stayed in 2007 after our trip to Lake Torca in the south.

So much for where we are. The drive today was all Ruta 5, in fog or through a tunnel with the clouds touching the hills around us. Even if there had been cacti to photograph, they would have looked miserable, as would we, because with the fog, the temperature was down too.

We did stop at the Lider hypermarket in La Serena, to top up on provisions and for me to see if I could get a lead to connect my iPod’s headphone socket to the auxiliary input socket of the formidable (but silent) car Hi-Fi system. Jonathan, if you read this, could you buy such a lead? (CANCEL THAT – SOLVED ON SUNDAY). The Hi-Fi also takes CDs, in case you want to bring some of those. I’ve been starved of my music for a week now! I can see a smile appear on Cliff’s face as he has suffered my personal jukebox with some 28,000 tracks more than others. There is always a groan when yet another Frank Zappa track comes on, but I also have fair selection of his Pink Floyd favourites and the whole car has in the past shaken as we spent several hours on a Beatles greatest hits session (not to forget the Electric Light Orchestra for Alain & Eunice).

Anyway, after much hand gesturing and dragging the salesman to the car radio display to show him an axillary input socket and then to an iPod to show him the socket there plus a walk past the headphones to show him the kind of plug that was needed (Lider sells everything, except the lead I need). Ironically I came across it during packing, but decided against bringing it and leaving with the other items often dragged half way round the world and never used. Typical!

Friday, 18 October 2013 – Caldera to Huasco

Today we would follow the Ruta del Desierto, the Circuito del Costera or ‘Coast Road’. SatNav seemed to know of its existence, in patches, but seemed to assume that it was still in the state in which I had found it in 2001, a warren of often poorly maintained ripio tracks, especially, at the time, the Carrizal Bajo to Totoral stretch. These days this endurance track had been replaced by a good oil/salt road, smoother than many UK roads. Although a maximum speed of 40 km.p.hr. was recommended, and assumed by SatNav, cruising at 100 km.p.hr. we were regularly overtaken by cars and trucks in a greater hurry.

In 2004 we were treated to the northern stretch of this track in full flower. Today’s images clearly show the quite different and ‘normal’ state of the desert: barren, with minimal signs of life. Despite the maximum highs forecast for Santiago of 28 C, here it was quite chilly and again over-cast, so that fleeces and jumpers stayed on.

It took a while before we spotted our first cacti – some large clumps of Eulychnia that turned out to be E. breviflora, confirmed by some honey coloured hairy flower buds, away from the roadside (S2854).

Eulychnia breviflora

A bird of prey watched as we took pictures of road signs warning us of cacti and guanaco along the road and of ‘no overtaking’ signs that were followed a 100 m farther along by all clear signs, with absolutely no reason for the short stretch. It seemed as though the road builders had a certain quota of signs to place alongside the road and used their judgement to make it an even spread. To overtake, you need at least two cars, and such occurrences were very few and far between!

We made a detour to Baranquilla, as Angie had never been there and had heard me talk about cacti that we had found there on an earlier trip. I miss my little MS Access data base for which I have so far failed to find an Apple McIntosh replacement. I might have to consider putting a Window’s partition on it before the Spring Trip to Mexico.

Nearer to Totoral and a bit more inland, we came across some tall, to 20 ft tall, Eulychnia. One bud suggested that this had to be E. acida. These plants were taking a long rest. They were building a large industrial construction, and grafity along the road warned against the Castilliano del Muerto – castles of death. The ever growing economy demands more energy, but no one wants to host the power stations that are a necessary consequence. At least here there was a stretch of desert that seemed to have few people around to complain.

We started to see Copiapoa dealbata, many large clumps, and stopped for a much needed leg stretch (S2858).

Copiapoa dealbata

The sun came out and burned back the cloud cover, although it remained chilly. Most of the clumps were in flower, quite a change from the southern population just a few days ago! Eulychnia breviflora was also in bud, with some flowers just opening. Although we have still not found the 2010 stand of C. dealbata where most of the plants were cristate, we did find some impressive crested heads, with one plant with a near 100% of cristate growth gaining our unanimous ‘best in show’ award.

We passed the point where a few days ago we had turned round for our return to Vallenar. This time we stayed in Huaso, in Hostal San Fernando, with its depressing view over the oil-pellet fired power station belching its smoke, this time over the Ocean rather than over the town of Huasco (S2859), where the population has a much higher incidence of cancer than elsewhere in the country. We’re just staying the one night.

Huasco

Thursday, 17 October 2013 – Taltal to Caldera

For Angie, the northern point of her trip was reached a few days ago, at Botija. Taltal was the most northern accommodation. Today we headed back south, always a sad occasion, as the km numbers along R5 decrease to zero at Santiago. But this time, we’ll carry on, south of Santiago, down into northern Patagonia! But not today!

I was sure that we passed a turning on R5 to Pan de Azùcar, Minas El Luces and Cifuncho, but decided that we had probably gone too far when we saw a sign for Pan de Azucar & Las Lomitas. That would do. We were hoping that this was the track that would lead to the Ritter TL for C. columna-alba, around the point where you head north for Secret Valley and the Guanillos and Tigrillo Valleys. However, I had my doubts, as SatNav (which was unfamiliar with all these names – but I’m teaching it!) showed that we were too far into the Atacama Region. Many of the tracks in Pan de Azùcar look the same, so it was not until we reached a junction, with a sign pointing North to Las Lomitas, that I got my bearings – too far south was confirmed. After a km or two another sign warned us that in 7 km the track was closed and sure enough there were formidable crash barriers across various potential side tracks and a truck-proof chain across the main track (S2849). Open between 10:00 and 14:00 hrs, the sign proclaimed. It was 11:00 – they had lied!

S2849 – Closed track to Las Lomitas

I remembered that in 2010, Juan Acosta had been able to contact a friend who had been a ranger in Pan de Azucar and still had some influence there. After some negotiation, he was told that before this main gate to Las Lomitas, there was a side track – apparently also blocked by a crash bar, but with a gap where a car could pass through (S2850).

By-pass to Las Lomitas

Before too long we had found this track and off we went. This was in fact a pretty well maintained ripio track, putting me in fear of losing the remainder of my fillings as we shook, rattled and rolled along the track. The one downside of the Dodge is that on ripio tracks, it bounces along to such an extend that it is difficult to steer it at more than 30 km. p. hr. so that became our top speed here. We kept an eye on the clock as what ever time and distance we travelled, we needed to travel back as well. SatNav was completely lost, but did at least show me that we were far too far inland and descending at quite a rate which was wrong for Las Lomitas which is high above Planta Esmeralda. Should we go back to look for another track to the west? By now I was curious where this track would end up, so decided to follow it for another 20 minutes. This brought us to a nice patch of C. columna-alba and Angie asked for a photo stop (S2851).  This became our turn-around point to be added to the Chain and other key locations to date in SatNavs Favourites Folder. The plants  here looked a lot happier here than at the Smiler location a few days ago – much larger apical discs and evidence of recent flowering. Also a number of ‘seedlings’, small plants that at the local rate of growth might easily be 10 years or more of age. Eulychnia iquiquensis (‘saint-pieanna’) was still at rest – or were they dead? It was hard to tell!

Copiapoa cinerea ssp columna-alba

Our time-budget spent, we wondered if we could find the gate back, over the numerous tracks that criss-crossed here. No problem.

We took the usual pictures as we left the Pan de Azucar NP – across the sands with the town of Chañaral in the background. It’s always too hazy to get a good image and this time was no exception. The petrol stations around Chañaral were the usual mess with trucks fighting for a spot at the pumps – next fuel north is at Antofagasta, some 250 km to go, as big trucks don’t want to squeeze through the streets of Taltal!

On the way to Caldera we stopped at some old familiar spots of C. calderana, (S2852) again, small discs, but quite a number in flower – was Spring on its way or were these the last attempts at sex before death took over? In 2003, I photographed a single Opuntia pad, leaning against a leaking pipeline, presumably carrying fresh water. This had now grown to quite a shrub and a small oasis of local flora had formed around it.

Copiapoa calderana

Another stop was at a pull-off towards the Ocean that was a tourist attraction for large rocks of Orbicular Granite, apparently a rare phenomenon. Jonathan, please note, we’ll pass it again in November.

Granito Orbicular

We made it to the Hosteria Puerto del Sol in Caldera and again are staying in the ‘Cabañas’ that look like deformed wigwams. As always, there was a smell of disinfectant, polish and pesticides around the place – a bit like an English Cactophile’s collection before the plants are put to rest for winter.

Tomorrow we’ll follow the new coast road south to Huasco.

BTW: We are having fun & games trying to get the internet to work here in Caldera. In the fight to try to get things to work it seems that any email I have tried to send is firmly stuck in my out box – refusing to budge. Sorry, Brian, Florencia, Jonathan, Anne Hill, Rudolf and Tony B. respectively. None of the messages were critical. As for tonight’s missive, it’s been typed up in OpenOffice Text and will be cut & pasted to my WordPress Blog as soon as I can.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013 – Around Taltal: Paposo & Chifuncho

The 2013 whirlwind tour of Chile continued with another visit to two classic Copiapoa locations above Papaoso. The first was at the Virgen del Carmen monument along the Cuesta del Paposo (S2844), where everything was fine, but again very dry. Some Eulychnia taltalensis had given up the fight to live. In other years we had often been disappointed when C. humilis plants had gone, with just holes left behind where once we had taken their picture. Since 2010, this seemed no longer to be a problem. May be the illegal collector had filled his greenhouse or had saturated the market. More likely, since the Paposo to R5 road had been significantly improved, guanaco had been too frightened to come and help themselves. Just as in 2010 it was now possible to find both mature and juvenile plants in good numbers. Eriosyce (Horridocactus)paucicostata was also looking good and the Copiapoa cinerea ssp haseltoniana at the end of the ridge were at rest, but otherwise OK.

Angie at the monument for the Virgen del Carmen on the Cuesta del Paposo

[Later, in Taltal, we learned that in July there had been so much snow on the hills above Paposo, that the Antofagasta to Taltal bus had been unable to negotiate its way downhill. This was the first such event in 60 years (1953).]

We moved on to, for us, a relative relatively new (2010) location (S2845) for Copiapoa cinerea ssp haseltoniana, described by Ritter as C. eremophila, off the B-710, the Paposo to Ruta 5 road. For the first time this trip the plants looked happy, with large orange felted discs and the remains of recent (last year’s?) flowering. Again, I could not resist taking even more images of these fantastic plants.

Copiapoa cinerea ssp haseltoniana (= C. eremophila) on the edge of the Desert, east of Paposo at 850 m altitude.

We briefly popped back to Taltal to fill up with gasoline – queues in the morning are horrendous – why do they only have half the pumps working? At least they still accept credit cards, a fairly recent development.

And on to Cifuncho. On the way, we stopped to check on the C. taltalensis ssp desertorum location (S2846) to see if any of them were in flower. I have only seen red flowers here, but flowering plants are fairly rare and it could be that ‘normal’ yellow flowering plants flower at a different time of year – that’s the problem with being here only to take snapshots in time.

Copiapoa taltalensis ssp desertorum

For the final goal of today we went to check on ‘Benjy’s plant’ at Cifuncho. Angie has a fantastic photographic memory and more or less walked straight to the spot. I’m perhaps better at pointing at maps to show where things grow. I used to find the plant by parking close to a large sign board, but this had gone, so I was lost. The plant looked as good as I have seen it, with abundant evidence of last season’s flowering, although no seed was found. There is just one other, solitairy plant left, a bit lower down the hill so pollinating flowers must be a bit hit and miss with so few pollen donors around (S2847).

Angie posing with the plant we first saw here in 2003 and christened ‘Benjy’s plant’ – Copiapoa longistaminea fa

We drove back to Taltal along one of my favourite stretches of roads, the coastal road between Cifuncho & Taltal (S2848).

Tomorrow we start heading south. Angie is glad to have seen all the goals on her northern wish list, but sad that it’s over so soon. But there are lots of new things to look forward to, as I introduce her to northern Patagonia. We’ll be back! Me, in a few weeks time.

Tuesday, 15 October 2013 – Around Taltal: Botija

These days the 50 km drive to Paposo is quick on the well maintained asphalt coast road, Ruta 1 (S2839 – no cacti photographed). S2840 was for a leg stretch among the Copiapoa cinerea ssp haseltoniana.

Ruta 1 – the coast road between Taltal and Paposo

Copiapoa cinerea ssp haseltoniana

Another one of Angie’s requests was to see Copiapoa solaris at the end of the Botija Valley. Why not? During my last visits in October and December 2010 our familiar ‘campsite’ had been bulldozed and a rough track lead into the Quebrada. In December we met a car with two occupants at our old campsite – they too were surprised. One of them was the Manager of the Manta de La Luna Mine in Tocopilla and keen on cacti. No, we need not fear that Botija would be destroyed by mining – he would have heard on the grapevine, although clearly there had been some serious exploring, judging by the heavy-duty caterpillar tracks. Perhaps a small gold vein had been found and emptied, but the tracks were now ‘old’ and there had been no obvious follow-up.

So we were a little tense as we approached – for two reasons: 1) would there now be a camp with mining equipment and 2) if not, would we recognise the place? I had not brought my regular GPS along and had set off believing that I’d have no problem at all. Never mind, we could always turn round if we got to the easily recognised mining dump at El Cobre! S2841 was for images from the car – no cacti photographed.

There was no need to panic. Some of the R1 beyond Paposo had been improved, but there was still some 80% of the traditional bone shaking to endure. Angie & I both saw the first Copiapoa ahremephiana more or less at the same time – but they looked extremely dry, almost beyond hope! Fortunately nature seems to have a fantastic ability to recover, but this will take a major miracle! It was difficulty to decide which image was right to include in talks and in my blog – one of the very few plants that still looked in reasonable shape or one of the many dead or dying plants, looking very dehydrated. I settled on a small clump that shows aspects of all these stages perhaps explaining why when we were first here in 2001, Marlon & I both noted two species here. When we get back here in a month’s time Jonathan Clark noted that there are two different ‘faces’ on the same clump – one plant, one species, but two different appearances as the plant sacrifices stems to survive. (S2842).

Copiapoa ahremephiana – one clump, one species, two ‘faces’

We set off on our hike but soon found what seemed to be a new branch to the Quebrada off to our right. I decided to follow it for some 30 minutes while Angie marched on to the ‘T junction’ at the end of the main valley. All I found were dead C. arhemephiana, quite a depressing sight. This small canyon seemed to turn round to the coast, away from where I might expect to find the other interesting cacti of this area.

I turned back and followed Angie’s footprints along the track that we had found in 2010. It seemed that nature had done nothing to improve the quality of the track, rather made it worse. It also seemed as though not many other cars had tried to copy us and drive in. The suspension on the Dodge was rather bouncy and if we had a new set of all terrain tyres, I might have risked driving in. For now I was happy to explore, move some of the larger, sharpest stones and see if I’d like to take the risk in a few weeks time when I would be back here again.

Most of the track was passable, some parts even good enough for a 20 km.p.hr. sprint, but in some places wind and water (?) had cleared away the sand between huge boulders, leaving large gaps with protrusions that I think would not be cleared by our car. Also, if we should be able to get to such a point, there was no space to turn around, so we’d be stuck. I stopped my highway maintenance tasks and started to look for cacti – still very distressing. Soon Angie appeared, reporting that she had reached the T junction and at least found a number of healthy looking clumps of C. solaris, but here too, there was more death to be observed. We walked back along the south side of the Quebrada (the track zigzagged across the valley floor, but the main place to spot C. decorticans had always been on the south side – north facing side of hills. I have never been able to work out why Copiapoa, living in an environment where water, and how to avoid losing it, is of critical concern, always seem to select the north facing side of a hill – the side that at midday gets the full sun, rather than look for shaded positions. This preference could be fatal here.

C. decorticans (the name C. moribund had been considered when naming the two ‘sp. Botija’ plants was discussed) was in serious distress – I did not find any live plants, plenty of clumps that had died a while back. I know from more detailed explorations high on the surrounding hills by mountain goats such as Rudolf Schultz, Leo van der Hoeven and Juan Acosta and Florencia Senoret that many healthy plants grow much higher on the hill, much too high for my physical ability and for today’s time budget, even if I had been mad enough to try. Fingers crossed that things are better higher up.

And so, after our after our brief sojourn to our farthest point north, we set off back to Taltal, muscles aching after years of too little exercise.

The story of cacti looking stressed through lack of water has now been observed everywhere that we’ve been. That despite us seeing the Desert in Flower in October/November 2010.  Clearly there had been plenty of water than to encourage the annuals to put up a magnificent show, but not enough to allow the cacti to build themselves up for the next great drought.

We saw some lizards that seemed in no hurry to run away from us, but no insects, even though there were some annuals in flower. Angie reported being followed by a hummingbird everywhere she went – must have been her shirt with lots of red in the pattern that was the attraction. So even if there should be a good wet year for the plants, will there be enough pollinators left to ensure sex for the cacti?

On the way back to Taltal we made another leg stretch stop (S2843) among the ever so photogenic C. haseltoniana.

Copiapoa cinerea ssp haseltoniana along R1

Off to Club Taltal soon, where yesterday we had been greeted as long-lost friends. It’ll take a few Pisco Sours to forget the dead plants seen today.

Monday, 14 October 2013 – Vallenar to Taltal

Today was the longest day’s driving on what poses as a ‘plan’. We left at about 10 in the morning and arrived at Hotel Plaza, Taltal at 17:00 – we’re booked in for three days at about half the price of the Hosteria in Vallenar. Club Taltal is just around the corner and opens at 8 – hope they have a Pisco Sour ready for me!

So today’s impressions: Ruta five has become a lot faster now that sections of it are dual carriage way. Just stick in the fast lane and pass all those trucks that used to cause us to risks our lives in the past. At least with the power of the Dodge I could have taken a convoy of 5-6 trucks at the time – wow, is it powerful! But you can see the fuel gage go down when you put the hammer down, so as befits my age, I have set cruise control to 100 km.p.hr. (S2835 for images taken from the car as we drove on).

I have already mentioned that R5 is now a ‘corridor’ fenced off either side to make sure that future toll collectors know what they are responsible for. As a result, many familiar signs to turnings that we used to take in the past seem to have been lost. Or perhaps they are still there but the sign posts are not yet up, or instead of pointing to names, such as El Donkey and Totoral, they point to C- road numbers that I am not yet familiar with. We’ll find them in weeks to come I’m sure.

I intended to take the ‘new’ Copiapó by-pass that had only just been opened in 2010. I could not find the turning, until I realised that I was actually on it. It is now the default Ruta 5, with another road number allocated to the old road. So much for the folks who used to identify plant locations as ‘off R5, 20 km south of Copiapó – which Ruta 5?

So with the luxury of dual carriage ways, the tolls were introduced. I have made a note but from memory it adds another 10,000 pesos to the toll bill. Things go back to two lane hard top past Caldera, but the fence posts are up in places, so I think the river of asphalt is coming! We stopped as usual(S2836) at the monument of a Virgin overlooking the Ocean, south of Barquito. A sign invites motorists to honk their horn for good luck as they pass. As a result, we christened this spot ‘Hoot the Virgin’ – said with a strong Scottish accent. The statue of the Virgin seems to have fallen victim to vandals or a storm, and her shattered remains were scattered at the foot of the monument steps. The cactus at this stop was Copiapoa calderana, Ritter’s variety spinosior, ‘the spiny one’

At Chañaral they were working on the road right where the Guanaco statue indicates the turn to the Pan de Azucar NP. We had made good time so decided to take the scenic route through the park and put a tick next to Angie’s goals: a 2013 picture with Smiler, a Copiapoa column-alba that she has now photographed on four separate occasions. The clump of Thelocephala was still in place, near-by, as well (S2837).

The chain across the track to El Mirador had moved a lot closer to the view-point, but was too far to walk to this time. Signs suggest that Los Lomitas is accessible again – we’ll try in weeks to come.

Everything looked still very dry. The felted discs at the apex of the column-alba were very small, as though the plants were still at rest – perhaps in between El Niño years.

Not sure what is going on along the stretch of R1 from R5 into Taltal – major works on what looks like building some huge water reservoirs along the road. Are they expecting a dramatic increase in rainfall? Perhaps pump the town’s sewerage to the top of Mt Perales and then generate electricity as it runs through the concrete structures? A good part of the track to the top of Cerro Perales seems to be asphalt these days – again to be explored later.

Angie is waiting impatiently to go for a stroll and catch the new Taltal Church before sunset (S2838). More tomorrow, when a drive to Botija is on the schedule.

PS: The new church turned out to be a very attractive brick building: light, airy and modern on the inside, yet with some traditional statues to retain its history.

We were greeted like old friends by the brothers who run Club Taltal on an annual basis. It’s been a long time! one of them observed. Three years to be precise. Angie & I raised our glasses in a toast to absent friends, this time specifically for those whose voices from previous visits still echoed around the room. It was fun to remember every one and the year(s) of their attendance – quite a list of who is who!

Today’s photo stops: S2835 – R5, Vallenar to Caldera; S2836 – ‘Hoot the Virgin’ (Copiapoa calderana var. spinosior); S2837 – Pan de Azucar National Park: Smiler(Copiapoa cinerea ssp columna-alba); S2838 – Taltal Church

Pan American highway (R5) north of Vallenar

Copiapoa calderana – Ritter’s var. spinosior

Pan de Azucar: Copiapoa cinerea ssp. columna-alba: Angie with an old friend – ‘Smiler’.

The new church in Taltal

Sunday, 13 October 2013 – Guanaqueros to Vallenar

Greetings from the Hosteria Vallenar where room 118 will be familiar to some of you from previous trips. Wifi at last!!!

I should have mentioned yesterday that as we passed through the tunnel at El Melon, the camanchaca was out on the other side – with a temperature drop of some 10 C. My fears of reaching melting point before leaving Chile were eased. Here, everything alongside Ruta 5 was much lusher than I remember with thousands of yellow flowered Puya and white flowered Echinopsis (Trichocereus) chiloensis doing their thing.

The other notable change was that the cost of tolls seemed to have increased significantly (doubled?). When I get home I’ll compare the cost this year against previous years, although it still feels like good value, especially if you see the task of what is / was involved in building & maintaining this road in a land that regularly experiences earth quakes.

Yesterday’s camanchaca had persisted and the Dodge’s wiper delay of once every 5 or so minutes was just right. Unfortunately everything looked dull so that the cameras stayed in the car for much of the time. We overshot Lider in Coquimbo for a bit of shopping, but found the Jumbo a bit farther along just as good – except that their ATM’s did not accept any of our cards – has there been a financial collapse in the UK? Paying with the credit cards is fine. [It turned out that we just needed a bit more time to read and understand the text on the screen.]

It’s only 234 km from Guanaqueros to Vallenar. Work is in progress to widen Ruta 5 beyond La Serena and presumably turn that too into a toll road. The major change so far is that the area that will be taken up by the dual carriage way with generous central reservation has been marked out AND FENCED OFF!! So no more stops along Ruta 5. Our regular stop at Los Hornos (that in 2010 was beginning to resemble a rubbish tip for the expanding village) is now off-limits.

Worse was to come as the only spot that I know of for Eriosyce napina ssp. riparia at El Trapiche had trucks and bulldozers parked on it!! I hope that the plants were rescued and saved to a safe area. Juan?  Florencia? Any news? Angie’s camera played up as we drove past, but we’ll do better on the way back.

Things on R5 had changed even more dramatically at Vallenar where the familiar cross-roads with Copec filling stations and ATM were now side-lined and R5 carried on uninterrupted towards Copiapó. As we were much too early to check into the hotel, we carried on until the first Carrizal Bajo turning – now a good hard top (oil / salt) road. There was also a new turning to Maitencillo. A new mine has opened and a continuous stream of yellow trucks was going back and fro.  I think the mine is too far in land to affect known habitats but may make it easier to explore for new habitats. Updates later, once Angie has gone home.

We carried on to Carrizal Bajo and took a right turn over the bridge. I had not yet loaded up the GPS data for the crested dealbatas to my SatNav, so although we both feel that we were near, we failed to see them. Weather still heavily overcast so only a few pictures taken, of Eulychnia breviflora in full bud, but with only a few flowers opening. No sign of the desert in flower yet. All images filed as S2834.

awaiting ID

Eulychnia breviflora with pollinators

Copiapoa dealbata

Time for dinner and my first Pisco Sour of the trip – nowhere to drive to until tomorrow morning!

Saturday 12 October 2013 – Santiago to Guanaqueros

We touched down 5 minutes late – not bad after a 14 hour flight. We had only been able to book our seats from LHR to MAD, so while Angie was allocated a seat with plenty of leg room at the front of economy – where usually there is a row of mums with screaming babies hanging from the opposite wall, where this time there was just a row of adults. I was 15 rows further back, in a window seat (hooray, for the last bit over the Andes) but right over the wing (boo) – so no point in having the camera on my lap. Still spoiled after last years flight with Emirates, the leg room today, with BA / Iberia, was the smallest I can remember. As I tend to sleep anyway it was just a matter of wrapping my legs a few times around my neck and off to sleep!

Santiago immigration had the usual 46 people queueing at the Chilean nationals side and the usual three long haul flights worth on non-Chileans  at the foreigners section. I pointed Angie at the last Chilean passing through, heaved a sigh, pulled a long face at the official in charge of queueing and to my surprise he obliged  by inviting me and those behind me to the now empty area – fastest pass through immigration I have ever experienced! Santiago get 10/10 and a gold star!! Why does Trip Advisor not include airport reviews!?!

Next we were off to the car rental booths, much too small for the number of customers and not adequately staffed. At least when it was our turn, the chap from Alamo spoke & understood English. Our intended Nissan XTrail, manual 2WD that had served us well last year in South Africa was not available so we had booked a ‘Nissan Pathfinder or similar’ instead.There had been some paperwork problems as we needed permits to take the car into Argentina later, necesitating a change to Plan C – first head north and pick up the paper work as we drove past on our way south. We had been allocated a Dodge Durango, automatic 4WD! If it behaves and meets expectations over the next 49 days, I’ll be as pleased as punch! It seems to be a bit thirsty, but at gasoline at c. £1 per litre I can’t complain!

First impressions of Chile: not much had changed. It was 23C in Santiago when we arrived and the forecast was for temperatures to rise by 1 C per day for the rest of the week. As said before, I’m staying 49 days. What is the melting point for a human? I bet it’s less than 72!

We allowed ourselves a quick lunch at the Copec/Pronto at Pichidangui, but as getting the car had taken a bit longer than planned, we resisted the temptation to check out the Eriosyce at Pichidangui. Arrived at Guanaqueros around 16:00 hrs and tried the cabañas at Club Bahia first (this is where we stayed on my first Chile trip in 2001 and several times since). Our German friend, Walter Mueller, recognised us, smiled and said :’I see you have a new car’!

The cabañas had been upgraded in recent years, but still fairly basic, but at a price to match. We managed dinner at El Pequenio, but were too tired for Pisco sours and Cabernet Sauvignon – just a small Crystal. Fell into bed dog tired, having scribbled down some key words from which I now write this missive.

Camanchaca coming over the hills along the PanAm Highway at Altos de Talinay.

Today’s pictures are very limited – one taken as the camanchaca fog came pouring over the hills between the Ocean and the PanAm, aka Ruta 5 and the rest are filed as a ‘no cacti’ as S2833 – the Bahia Club Cabañas.

We’ll be back at Bahia Club in 2013!