The Cactus Trip Diaries

Sunday, 24 November 2019 – in the air and home

It’s not over until it’s over and that is the moment that I put the key in the lock of my front door at #12. That was not actually until 09:00 on Monday morning, 25 November, although we arrived at Angie’s, at #10, next door, at 23:00 hrs on Sunday 24th November.

So, if you read this blog for the stories of us visiting cacti and other succulent plants in their habitats and to see some of the images that we took of amazing plants in glorious scenery, then you might skip this page.

Instead you’ll find some stats and details that have often faded by the time that they might be useful in planning future trips, especially to answer questions of people who travel for the first time in a new area, such as

• How do I get there?
• Where will we stay?
• How much will it cost?
• What will we see?
• What should I bring with me?

and many other questions. This page may well grow in time to come, so do revisit it from time to time. The answers may differ depending on what country the future trip intends to visit, but here I’ll just focus on experiences and notes on this 2019 visit to Chile.

The planning started quite early. Angie and I had planned a trip to Chile in 2017 to celebrate Angie’s 60th birthday and would include up to a week at a farm near Hurtardo, in the Andean foothills, to allow Angie to combine some childhood fantasies of horse riding in nature, her love of cacti and our love of Chile and her people that we have enjoyed over the last twenty years.

On Saturday 13 April 2019 I bumped into Ian Thwaites at the BCSS AGM meeting in Leicester. ‘Going anywhere nice this year?’ he asked. Just another trip to Chile to visit old friends, i.e. the easy to get to cactus spots. ‘That is at the top of my ‘must see’ cactus spots’, he admitted. So come along, I suggested.

A week later he wrote to confirm that he was in. So on to the third question in the list above: How much will it cost, roughly? I mentioned quotes on flights and car rentals and web pages of places that we might stay in, to get a rough idea, but added: ‘There is a spare seat in the car, so fuel costs and shared rooms will work out a lot cheaper if you can find a fourth person that we can all put up with and he with us!’ And so Al Laius volunteered to leave his Sansevieria to look after themselves for three weeks and come along to Chile.

TO BE CONTINUED

Friday 22 November 2019 around Pichidangui

A lazy leisurely start to the day saw us make it to breakfast at 09:00 hrs – that is their earliest time in the Hotel!

We discussed what we should do today and I had been interested to read in Ian Woolnough’s Diary that they had been able to visit the site at Totoralillo, L&S0002, where on my birthday in 2001 we had also stopped for pictures. Subsequent attempts had been thwarted as a big solid gate across the access road prevents access to what is now a gated community. But again, as we visited in Ian’s tire tracks, we found a gate off to one side and a track that led to a small boat yard and the plants that we had photographed in 2001 and again in 2003. Nice find Ian, thanks for sharing! This is now Stop 3875, but remains Location 0002.

We headed east, following signs to Quilimari and after passing the village, stopped alongside the road to allow Al to fulfill his wish to photograph Echinopsis (Trichocereus) litoralis in flower S3876.

Not far on (S3877) the hillside was full of these cacti but not many in flower. There were however Eriosyce which, taking a lumper’s view, were Neoporteria subgibbosa and Horridocactus curvispina (but with straight spines, identified in 2003 as Horridocactus mutabilis.

S3878 is for a variety of images taken today that do not merit a single stop number, including a monstrous plant of Trichocereus litoralis, the advertising doll outside the place where we enjoyed an empanada (shrimps and cheese!) and beer in Los Vilos and a friendly dog begging for crisps at another stop. Well, it’s the last full day of our holiday! Why not!?

The others have gone back to the rocky Pichidangui shore line to take more pictures of cacti and Angie, no doubt, more pictures of waves crashing on the rocks while I finish off this episode of the Diaries. It’s a hard life!

Wednesday 20 November 2019 – Vicuna to Paso de Agua Negra and back

Well, to be accurate, we went as far as the customs post on the border with Argentina; the actual pass and border lies in Argentina, some 100 km farther along. Checking on Wikipedia I learned that plans are approved for a three bore tunnel to be built that will ensure that the pass can be open all year round. The project may be ready by 2027!

We made our first stop (S3869) near the gate to Fundo El Calvario, where the road crosses what used to be a fast flowing river, where Eriosyce (Pyrrhocactus) eriosyzoides used to grow. The stream was now bone dry and seemed to have been so for a while, but this may simply be a case of the water being diverted, as a bit farther along the river was full with fresh melt water. There was some snow on the mountain tops but not as much as in past years. Al walked along the dry riverbed a bit farther and shouted excitedly that he had found a globular cactus. The spination was darker than I had seen on E. eriosyzoides in the past, but I don’t know how variable the spine colour can be or what else is supposed to grow here.

We drove on the the border control but sadly the road to El Indio was closed, so that we could not go to Cumulopuntia grandiflora that grows along that track.

Plenty of time for the journey back, so we kept our eyes peeled for more golden spined plants on the rocks. There had been lots of places in the past where lots of plants would tumble down the hillside, but over the years we saw roadworks destroy these. The benefit of a smooth faster road is a plus point although it makes plant spotting from the car quite a bit more risky as trucks come speeding round tight corners at around 100 kph!

I am so pleased with my 300mm zoomlens as little blobs on the hills could be confirmed as E. eriosyzoides and cropped to useful size for next year’s talks.

Back in Vicuna, Al and Ian asked to see the ‘Cactus Shop’ that we first visited in 2001. This time no huge Eriosyce aurata from nature for sale, but there were three nice Eriosyce eriosyzoides potted up (in the bottom half of 2 litre cola bottles). Priced at the equivalent of £10 each it was one of those moments where you swallow hard and forget the temptation of buying one to bring back to the UK. Our friend would only go back the next day to collect a fresh one from nature to replace his sale.

Tonight we’ll walk into the town to eat and do some sightseeing!

W

Tuesday, 19 November 2019 Vallenar to Vicuña

The advantage of another driving day is that there are not many pictures to process and not much to report. We had just enough time to detour back to Los Choros for a visit to the Penguin Colony islands, but it was a fair drive without any guarantee that the weather would be good enough for the pangas to make the sailing. As we approached the the Eriosyce riparia population, it was decision time, turn west to Punta Choros or continue south to La Serena and then head east to Vicuna, along the Rio Elqui. We decided on the latter, as the clouds were very low and the waves on the beach later at La Serena looked rough enough to justify our decision.

We fought our way through the traffic in La Serena and were struck by the amount of graffiti plastered over buildings and statues. Another social comment!

We had stopped at the Copec just before La Serena where lunch was another hotdog at the Pronto – yumyum!

And so on the 41 where due to building and agriculture there were no obvious opportunities for stops for Eriosyce, Eulychnia acida and Echinopsis chiloensis.

By the time that we reached the Embalsa Puclara, we were ready for a leg stretch. Things had changed dramatically since my first visit in 2001, when we were free to walk over the hillsides and found nice Eriosyce senilis, including a crested plants. There was more water in the reservoir than I have seen for a long time and the formal mirador (viewpoint) now has a range of tourist shops including one that sold me two plant pots made of cactus wood that are coming home to England.

We arrived at the Hosteria Vicuna which had rooms for two nights, wifi and the same waiter who recognised me from previous stays. We then filled the afternoon by driving into the Andean foothills to the town of Pisco Elqui and visited the Distillery center where of course Ian and I had a Pisco Sour – a special one for Ian T.

The meal was not of the usual high standard (and price) of previous occasions, but was delivered with Fawlty Towers type charm. Al even managed to persuade the staff to wash our car to make it look more respectable before we return it to Andres, but that is before we drive to the Argentine border and over the hills to Hurtardo – not yet tarmac roads as I remember! Still, at least the top layer of dirt will be taken off!

Monday, 18 November 2019 – Taltal to Vallenar

Apologies for the silence during the last few days. Wifi was not available to my laptop, no matter how hard we tried, although others with mobile phones had no problem.

This morning started with a sterling effort by Al, despite last night’s generous intake of Pisco Sours. Despite his protestations, I don’t think his stomach upset had anything to do with the part eaten pizza that he had. 4-5 pisco sours might tell a more believable story. Anyway, congratulations to all of last-night’s revelers for surviving and to Dave Appleton with his birthday sometime this week!

We had an early-ish breakfast (07:30) and by 8:30 we were on the road as we had 503 km ahead of us to Vallenar where we now rest at the same hotel as on the way up, the excellent Hotel Atacama! We managed to reach the Vallenar Cake Shop at 17:30 hrs where we managed 1.3333 cake portions each, with the exception of Al who passed, claiming to still feel delicate.

Ian took an image of the lady who contributes to making the cakes and asked her to pose with today’s produce. She was so pleased and impressed that she went and told all her colleagues around the shop!

Plant wise we managed to make a Stop at km 912, as once again we had overshot km 910. It featured the same plant: Copiapoa calderana, looking a bit better than two weeks ago, after a light rain. Many plants now in flower – that makes all the difference!

We tackled a few retournos as both fuel stations had been the subject to vandalism with as a result, no hot dogs for lunch and credit card payments for fuel only at the Copec.

Then we followed the Ruta del Desierto along the coast – slightly longer but much more varied, with both live and dead Eulychnia along the road.

We made a leg stretch stop and I joked – ‘mind where you are standing, there are Thelocephals here’! Angie laughed in disbelief, looked down and sure enough, there was a single headed T. odieri! Al found another one near by.

We drove on until some 30 km before Carrizal Bajo I saw clumps of C. dealbata in flower along the road. The back-row of Ian and Angie were asleep and Al was concentrating on driving so it was no big deal that I spotted them. Again, the plants seemed to have had a drink of water and the recent dry spell seemed to make their spination stand out even more!

Angie had walked on a bit as always and reported a ‘different plant’ probably a Copiapoa species. A closer inspection revealed large clumps of C. echinoides, Nice find!

Ian is waiting to join us for a Chinese meal or at the Pizza bar at the Plaza – the latter sells large Schopps (pint glasses of Cristal beer. This has been in poor supply up north, possible due to the social unrest affecting supplies.

I’ll try to catch up on missed days later, probably not until we are back in England, with pictures at that stage.

Sunday, 17 November 2019 – around Taltal

With Ian and his Magnificent Seven now safely installed in Taltal, we had agreed to make a joined attempt at looking for a new location for C. krainziana, much more inland than our previous known locations.

We had already had a dummy run at this a few days ago, ‘dummy’ being the operative word, as we had discounted a very poor dirt track, with every risk of doing a ‘Cliff / Ian’ and getting cars stuck in the sand. We had therefore taken the wise (on hindsight) decision to take the next turn, on tarmac, turning into a salt road, sign posted for the VLT telescope at the Paranal Observatory . Showing no lack of imagination, the initials VLT stand for Very Large Telescope, which kind of sums up what it is. Needless to say, we did not see it or get there.

We stopped when the coordinates that we had been given for the C. krainziana spot started getting farther away. I took pictures looking at the four points of the compass and saw sand and hills – not a single plant in sight. This is the Atacama Desert at its most featureless and desolate, a place where you can imagine that if your car broke down, vultures would come and pick your bones clean!

With our crowd of 11 staring in disbelief at so much dryness, I suggested that we make a visit with the whole group to S3845, now S3860 – the Las Breas Copiapoa cinerea stop, where on 14 November, Al had complained of feeling claustrophobic at the number of Copiapoa crowding in on him!

John Bridgman complained that all that Ian W. had shown him so far were Copiapoa. Not quite true, but he did agree that feasting our eyes on so many plants was a magical experience. Sooner or later, even the most dedicated Copiapoa fan had taken all the pictures that they need back in the UK.

What’s next? Ian W suggested a climb to the radio masts at the top of Cerro Perales. Excellent idea! A climb (by car) from sea level to 1,084 m. altitude was a bit risky in one car, but with two Toyota RAV4 in support, Al relished the thought of a driving challenge. Our Suzuki had 4×4 capability while the RAV4s did not. So it was no surprise that we reached the top of the hill first, while Cliff in the first RAV4 decided to abandon their climb just before reaching the top as his wheels were spinning on the sand. Good H&S decission!

The plants, Ritter’s Copiapoa tenebrosa, the high altitude form of C. cinerea subsp. haseltoniana at Taltal, according to the New Cactus Lexicon, looked magnificent, with many heads in flower and the dryness emphasizing the spination, hard to match in European cultivation!

On the way back down, it was difficult to miss a group of ‘bulby things’, a John Carr expression from a few years ago, to be IDed back home (Ian Woolnough ID: genus Rhodophiala)

We returned to our hotels and around 17:00 descended on a newish restaurant, El Meson del Greko, near a former favourite, ‘Las Brisas’. Excellent food and drinks served by a couple of sisters from Sweden, of Chilean origin, who speak excellent English! Recommended!

Saturday, 16 November 2019 Taltal – Quebrada San Ramon

Today we set out for the hardest walk of our trip – down the Quebrada San Ramon to see Copiapoa krainziana and Copiapoa taltalensis – the one that I still prefer to call Copiapoa rupestris. There was also a very diverse collection of C. cinerea, including white spined plants (‘Copiapoa albispina‘), plants with yellow wool and spines in the apex (Copiapoa cinerea subsp. haseltoniana / C. tenabrosa) and with an Eriosyce, E. neohankianus.

There seemed to be more places with ankle deep water and grasses and sedges than in previous years – or had I taken a wrong turn. Ian had taken a number of GPS readings and when I get home, I’ll map these on to Google Earth and check if we had followed the main route in the Quebrada, or had taken a wrong turn. Angie decided that she had enough some 5 km in – and promised to stay put and take lots of images. We returned here some four hours later, but by then she had gone – walking back to the mouth of the Quebrada? She was not at the car on the beach, but had written a message on the car that she was walking back to Hotel Plaza. Back at the hotel, there was no sign of her at the hotel – she had managed to get lost and eventually made it back, long after we arrived back. She seemed confused and dehydrated – this walk was not for the faint hearted, but all’s well that ends wall.

In the mean time, Al, Ian and I had marched on in semi robotic mode. I was continuously plagued by uncertainty – had I taken the correct turnings? I found the first Copiapoa rupestris, a sure sign that C. krainziana would appear soon. My legs and knees were hurting; Al marched on; Ian decided that he had had enough – there was still a long walk back to the beach where we had parked the car! I struggled on to tell Al of Ian’s return. I saw him soon after the Quebrada turned left – waving wildly. I walked on as fast as I could. Al had found a comfortable rock and sat down next to a great plant of C. krainziana

It felt like a great achievement! As Al had had a rest while I struggled to meet up with him, we suggested that he should walk back to where I had left Ian, in case he was still there, waiting to catch us on the way back. Soon, he and Al came round the corner. We were all very happy, but there was one thing seriously amiss – it was the only krainziana where in the past there had been quite a few plants. Had I taken a wrong turn? Would I be able to find the way back? I promised to never walk back here again! During the walk back I thought that I might do it again in the future, but only if I had brought my SatNav along or if we could find the ‘easy to reach by car’ location that Ian had been given by Elizabeth and Norbert Sarnes. Ian and his Magnificent Seven in days to come.