The Cactus Trip Diaries

And so the car continued north, making a first stop of the day (S3828) at Quebrada El Leon, to see Copiapoa leonensis and Eriosyce (Thelocephala) odieri subsp. krausi (Ritter) Ferryman.

Plants extremely dehydrated, looking black (Copiapoa). As usual, the Thelocephala are hidden below ground and apparently less affected by the lack of water, so far. The Copiapoa leonensis still look like C. mollicula. When I have shown images to audiences in presentation in the UK, they thought that the plants were C. mollicula.

Despite the shriveled and blackened appearance of the plants, I take the Eulychnia that we saw to be E. breviflora, until at the beginning of the trail into the hills there were signs along the lines of the BCSS signs at Pichidangui, that suggests that this is Eulychnia breviflora subsp. tenuissima, I believe credited to Helmut Walter.

Next we stopped at the Orbicular granite exhibit (S3829), a rare geological feature, a plutonic rock type which is usually granitic in composition.

S3830 was past km 910, our usually stop to see Copiapoa calderana, but this time shot by, due to lorries hot on our tail! Good move Ian!

We took the next turning east, signposted to El Moreno, not a name that I’m familiar with, but probably a mine, 56 km inland. We made some stops around km 10 and found more Copiapoa leonensis and some C. calderana I assume, again, ID made difficult due to dryness.

And finally, on to the last stop before the hotel (S3831), at the stop that we christened ‘Hoot the Virgin’, as there is a monument here that now has small statues of presumed virgins on display. As Chilean drivers come by, they hoot their car horns, requesting a blessing. Ian and Al soon understood as the cars passed by!

And guess what, again the scene was extremely dry. We did find small plants of Copiapoa calderana var. spinosior – it seemed there has been more regeneration here during the last five years than elsewhere with quite a few small single headed plants the side of a large orange.

Were staying two nights in Hotel Aqua Luna, where we stayed before 2015, opposite a Chinese restaurant at the time. In 2015 the hotel had been badly affected by the floods. There was mud right up to the ceilings on the ground floor! Now everything is cleaned up and refurbished. There is a new Chinese restaurant three blocks into town, on the left hand side of the road. These last few details for Ian who is playing catch up with us.

Tomorrow we’ll see how the Pan de Azucar is standing up to these drought conditions and if Smiler has survived.

PS The server here is not uploading my jpeg files tonight – will try later.