The Cactus Trip Diaries

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