The Cactus Trip Diaries

We started the day with a stroll back to the Plaza in Vallenar for more pictures of the cylinder that brought the 33 miners to the surface in nearby Copiapó. This time there was no opportunity to pose inside the cylinder. Never mind.

On to Huasco to the usual E. napina spot (S1985) where most evidence of any field flowers had gone, but the cacti still looked healthy and plumped up. All the cacti previously listed were found.

Then to Freirina, for a look at Copiapoa alticostata. (S1986)

 Finding the track out towards Labrar was the usual puzzle, until we stumbled across a brand new dual carriage way, the Freirina by-pass. We had signs of this as we drove from Vallenar to Huasco, but the entrance and exit to the by-pass bits were still coned off.

I suggested that we’d drive to the Labrar Chimneys without further stops, and look at interesting spots on the way back. I really enjoy the drive with its two Cuestas, leading up to passes before zigzagging down into the next valley. But minutes later I asked for a brief stop at a Eulychnia in flower (S1987). Buds, flower position (lateral) and spination on flowering stems (non-differentiated) confirmed that this was E. acida, but the stems had the procumbent growth habit of E. chorosensis. Copiapoa alticostata now grew side by side with C. coquimbana. Miqueliopuntia miquelli was in flower, here with nice pink flowers. A rather more spiny form of E. napina ssp lembckii also grew here.

S1988 marked our arrival at the chimneys of Labrar. I was happy that they had survived last January’s earthquake. The had done so since 1830! Yes, the cracks were showing and they had a worrying lean, but the British house bricks, brought over as ballast on the sailing ships that came to collect the coal and copper ore, had done very well to stand the test of time. Another Miqueliopuntia miquelli with pink flowers was photographed. Our arrival coincided with the camanchaca rolling in over the hills. The temperature dropped by some 7C. Light also went flat and it was rather darker than desired, so before long we headed back north.

S1989 was one of the stops that we’d promised ourselves for the way back. It was near a spot where previously we had spotted white waxed Copiapoa coquimbana. It was still foggy, but the plants looked in excellent health and were well worth a picture, despite poor light. Also another M. miquelli in flower and I did a double take as I saw a strange looking Eulychnia. It turned out to be E. chorosensis and Echinopsis (Trichocereus) deserticola growing intertwined with each other.

S1990 was for five images taken at Cobaltaria (?), a former cobalt processing plant. We did not stay long. Who knows how much toxic waste could be found here. No cacti found.

Not far on, and Juan spotted two large Eriosyce aurata growing on rocks (S1991) but even before we had walked over to the plants we stumbled across another cactus. Naming seems to have gone mad for this plant for which growers would have to squeeze ‘Eriosyce eriosysoides ssp atroviridis fa huascensis‘ on their labels.

Mark took over the driving duties and as we headed back to Freirina he thought that he had gained extra engines as the rest of us were having a snooze, accompanied by the usual snoring.

Back on tarmac, on the Huasco – Vallenar road, on previous visits we had spotted a big aluminium built structure that we understand is a massive meat processing plant. It’s an eyesore, stuck behind low hills but still visible at times from the road. Juan directed us on to a track leading up to a couple of these low hills near this factory (S1992). As soon as we got out of the car, we started seeing cacti. Tiny Eriosyce napina ssp lembckei were everywhere, no challenge spotting them here. In the distance we could make out the electricity substation at Maitencillo that used to be our standard site for these plants on previous visits. Here the plants were so plentifull that we had driven over them to get to where we had parked. E. villosa and C. alticostata were also around, as well as some miserable looking Eulychnia acida. It was an interesting stop, as although this plant location would not survive much longer – there were already plenty of bulldozer tracks to see that this site would be developed – but is was more evidence that once upon a time, E. napinas would have been thick all along the Rio Huasco. Let’s hope that it there will still some spots left that will remain undeveloped.

Back in Vallenar we went for another picture shoot at the Copiapo Miner’s Rescue cylinder followed by an excellent value for money meal at the small restaurant on the corner of the plaza.

Once again, the first priority of the day was to get our puncture fixed. The owner of the cabanas, Mr Farr, an 85 year old Chilean of British decent, from somewhere in the Midlands, advised that there were no Vulcos in town, we had to drive to Tongoy, 7 km south along the coast. As breakfast was not included in the Cabanas and all shops had been closed in town last night – and still this morning, we arrived at Tongoy much to early, found the Vulco but of course it was still closed. A drive through town revealed that the same was trye of the many small eateries along the beach. At one of these, two men were sweeping the terrace and carrying crates in from a truck. Juan asked them what time they opened for breakfast and the welcome reply was along the lines of ‘As you are here, now!’

The tyre that had been patched in San Pedro was patched again and this time an inner tube was fitted to help to keep the air in. It would serve as the spare from now on. 

First stop of the day, S1981 was just south of La Higuera, just as we had again conquered the Cuesta Buenos Aires (or was it B. Vista?) prompted by clouds just forcing themselves over the coastal hills. Eulychnia acida was here with slightly more hairy hypanthium than I regard as typical. C. coquimbana and Eriosyce had sent E. heinrichana as its representative, found first in advanced bud, then in flower.

We turned west on a track after the usual turning to Los Choros at El Trapiche. We had often commented on the hills along R5 here, not sure if mining was systematically removing the hill or if the hill itself was the result of decades of spoil tipping from mining activity elsewhere. Se stopped to explore a hillside (S1982) expecting to find Eulychnia and Eriosyce aurata, but only Cumulopuntia sphaerica prevented this from being a ‘no cactus’ stop.

S1983 was farther along our new track and here the sight of two resonably sized E. aurata (E. spinibarbis or E. algarobensis – take your pick) were spotted growing on the hills. One of them was actually in flower. Life became less clear cut when the track repeatedly split in two and deteriorated rapidly until it appeared that we were following a digger that was making a new track through the mountains a hundred meters in front of us. The driver looked surprised to see Juan appear next to his cab to ask for directions to either Choros Alto or Carrizalillo. The names seemed meaningless to him, he probably came from a larger town like Vallenar or La Serena and was just doing his x week stint on the digger with instructions to clear a track from A to B. It seemed best to turn around and head back to R5.

S1884 was for a stop at E. (Thelocephala) fankhauseri, where again, after some searching, we found these amazing little plants, mainly through Juan’s eagle eyed spotting the wooly fruits that were proudly standing above the soil, ready to be blown off by the ever present wind. 

We booked ourselves in for two nights at the Hosteria in Vallenar and decided to stroll into town, ending up at the Restaurant Bavaria. Great food as usual. A walk to the Plaza revealed a crowd of people gathered around a structure. Closer examination showed that one of the cylinders used to resue the 33 miners a few weeks earlier was on display here and you were actually allowed into the capsule to see if you would have fitted a potential rescue. I did. John did not. Lose those pounds John! 

We were back in our usual routine of alarm at 7 a.m., breakfast at 8, on the road by 9.

The early stretches of R5 are now about as familiar to me as stretches of the A303 in England. Rather than another visit to Pichidangui, we decided to stop at Los Molles,(S1979), the Type Locality of Eulychnia castanea. I had been here a few years ago, and it was good to see that the road surface had improved with much tarmac. Along the coast we found the same plants as at Pichidangui, except that Eriosyce chilensis here was the type, not ssp albidiflora. If Eriosyce subgibbosa was here, not in flower, we could not distinguish it from E. chilensis. Alstroemeria sp. Callandrinia sp and Nolana sp were all in flower – Spring had sprung. An excellent stop to start the trip.

S1980 was along the track to Fray Jorge which again had been changed. We eventually reached the (new) official entrance to the Park and were met by one of the wardens who told us that officially they close at 4:00 p.m. but, as it was 16:15 he’d let us in. I assume that we would have had to pay the full admission fee so we politely thanked him for his offer but told him that we wanted to get to Guanaqueros. Juan asked him why they kept changing the track and the entrance gate. He explained that the current track went through some small settlements that could now benefit from the passing traffic during the tourist season. Again, we saw all the expected plants: Cumulopuntia sphaerica, Eriosyce aurata, E. nigrihorrida, Echinopsis (Trichocereus) chiloensis ssp skotsbergii and Eulychnia acida.

The British were coming.

A quick check on the internet so ensure that their plane was expected on time – it was in fact running a little early – but Juan and I arrived in plenty of time to wait for some 20 minutes for our new travel companions, Mark Plumer from Middlesborough and John Ede from Newdigate, to emerge from immigration formalities.

Florencia’s parents had again been kind enough to allow us to spend the first night at Lonquen. It is really appreciated to have the rest of the day of arrival off to adjust to the weather and time zone conditions. 

Today’s rest day was not that restful, as Juan and I had to take the car into Santiago to have it serviced. We dropped the car off around 1 p.m. and were told to return around six to pick up the car. We spent the afternoon killing time in a small restaurant with wifi.

At seven we were expected at the meeting of the Chilean Cactus Club where I was due to give a short presentation at short notice. I had picked the Bahia module from my WISLW 2009-2010 talk, showing Arrojadoa marylanae, our visit to the Melocactus conoideus project in Vitoria da Conquista and our explorations for Melocactus azureus, all from Brazil, a year ago. The main presentation was an indebt look at cactus pests and some of the methods available to control them.

Today was just a rest day. Florencia’s family were in residence and I had a reminder that the disadvantage of visiting Chile in Spring is that the pollen count is high, so my eyes were red and burning. Spent most of the day in my room, getting the database up to date.

Florencia’s parents went off to the races. Today was the Chilean equivalent of the Epsom Derby. Victor’s horse was running in the main event and came second. Another horse, Over The Cliff, came first in one of the other stakes.

So what does a Cactus Explorer do in between expeditions? e makes sure that all his images are sorted, that his Diary reports are up to date and starts thinking about planning the next trip. And then Florencia suggested a trip into Santiago, visit the National History Museum, then move on to a Plant Fair that included three cactus retailers, including our good friends Ricardo Keim and Ingrid Schaub and from there to a good vantage point to take pictures of the Santiago skyscrapers with the snow-covered Andes in the background.

Excellent idea, with Florencia offering to drive so that I need not get stressed by driving through downtown Santiago. We saw some very nice cultivated cacti at very reasonable prices, with as wide a selection of cacti and other succulent plants as you’ll find in the UK but at far lower prices. The plants looked more natural and less forced than their European brethren of Dutch origin.

For the views of Santiago and the Andes we moved to the home of yet another family friend with a home with spectacular views across the Maipu Valley, on the Pucara de Chena. The views were spectacular, but were more over the lower built suburb of San Bernardo than of the skyscrapered skyline of Downtown Santiago.

Once back at Lonquen, Florencia’s parents and some brothers and sisters with their kids had arrived for the weekend and I was made very welcome. Beer, Pisco Sours and wine were flowing with lots of different crackers served that included king crab and various cheeses. Then on the huge mussels (= choros, particularly interesting in view of my studies of Eulychnia chorosensis).  These were just starters for the main meal, around the table, of beef bourguignon and custard apple as a sweet. A very civilised way to spend a Saturday night.

Tomorrow there is a visit to an Oktober Bier Fest on the agenda, proving once more that the life of a dedicated Cactus Explorer is anything but an easy one. Ritter must have known days like this!

Meanwhile, Angie and David were ‘enjoying’ their own adventure. Here is Angie’s Diary report:

We left Santiago on time (very unusual, that should have sent alarm bells ringing). After about 4-5 hours we were served our dinner , then they closed the windows and switched the lights off; good night! Some 30 minutes later there was a commotion near the middle door, then the light went on and they asked if there was a doctor on board. Don’t know if they found one but the collapsed person was taken to first class, the lights stayed on. Turbulence notices were ignored by staff and everybody was wondering what would happen next

After another hour, I guess, they announced that we had to land in Recife/Brazil as the sick person needed urgent hospital treatment. Because we were carrying too much fuel they had to drop a lot, before they were allowed to land, I now know what that looks like. We stayed on the plane, even during refuelling (there were certain rules for that too). Every exit was manned by a member of staff in case of an emergency, everyone had to sit in their allocated seat, but the seatbelt wasn’t allowed to be fastened and toilet visits were not allowed during that time.

After about two and a half hours we were finally on our way – another 7 hours to go – minus the ill person and family. By then we reliazed that we had very little hope of catching our connecting flight.

We arrived at Madrid at about 5 p.m. Once off the plane we had to go to a desk where our details were recorded and we got our instructions of what to do next. When the nice lady at the desk said that we were going on the 8.05 plane we said, ‘Good, we get home some time today.’  But then she added ‘no, no, no tomorrow morning!’

Next we had to reclaim our luggage, pay a visit to the Iberia/Lan desk and then find the shuttle for the hotel, which we had been allocated.

As soon as we touched down and found out we weren’t getting to Heathrow, I phoned Peter and let him know our predicament. My phone has no problems in Europe.  I tried in Brazil, but of course that didn’t work. Peter had gotten as far as Fleet when he got my message and waited there for my second call, When I told him the bad news, he returned home.

The Madrid hotel was 4 star marble everywhere. We got free dinner but could not enjoy breakfast as we had to leave before, but we got a cup of coffee.

Dinner was a buffet and as we sat down, the waiter provided a bottle of red wine (Spanish) and a bottle of water, so we tried every thing and nearly finished the bottle. David took the whole adventure in good spirit, was funny and jokey and we toasted absent friends with the free red wine. David thought that this was a nice end to the trip, a pity that the others couldn’t be there. Shame that the reason for it was rather sad.

Iberia/Lan certainly did well to sort things out after we took off from Recife. Instead of arriving at Heathrow we were taken to Gatwick this morning. Peter kindly decided to swap his day off this week for today and David phoned his sister.

So what could possibly go wrong on the last day?

We all woke up in good time for the various flights home. Around 10 a.m. Ian and Cliff were the first to depart in Big Red that had managed to follow our Chevy everywhere, although at a much slower pace. I never asked them to check if the handbrake had been left on. Final instructions were given on how to avoid becoming the ‘Permanently Lost Boys’ in Chile and yet get to the airport on time. See you at the end of November, Cliff, for our Patagonia adventure.

As I was staying behind for the next Copiapoathon adventure that will start on 3 November, I sorted out the washing to be done before the next trip and Carmen, the Peruvian domestic help, had it all washed, dried and folded by the time that the next heavy shower helped to clean the car a bit more while we were enjoying lunch. I started tidying up my notes, finishing incomplete Diary reports and pestering Juan with questions of what we had seen where, particularly on the subject of Thelocephala.

Just before lunch, David realised that he had left his camera underneath the seat in Big Red. A quick phone call to Andres and his contacts at the car rental firm that had provided the car confirmed that the camera was still in the car. A courier would take it to the Airport where he would page Mr Ian Woolnough (the name on the rental papers for Big Red) and reunite the camera and its forgetful owner. That will teach you to make jokes about the elderly, David!

And so the time had come to take Angie and David to the Airport. During the night the Andes to the east of Santiago had enjoyed a good sprinkling of snow, making for a very scenic airport run. Angie was cursing the telegraph post, traffic signs and trees along the road that were getting in the way of her last Chilean pictures this time round.

David, it was a pleasure to have travelled with you, we must do it again sometime, somewhere. And to Angie: Safe journey home! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! See you on January 8, 2011.

Back at Lonquen, I managed to clear up the Diary Report back log and publish them all to the Blog so that my fellow travellers have something to do when they get back home. Looking at what we have seen during the last three weeks in terms of plants and geography is amazing – I must check how many km we drove!

The last day of this extended (to Argentina) Copiapoathon consisted of three plant stops and at Ian’s request, a visit to the small town of Combarbala that is famous for a type of stone, Combarbalita, from which ornaments are made. At the source, prices were much more affordable than say at Santiago Airport tomorrow. The shop owner was very pleased with the amount of business that Juan had brought him. Was he a tour operator? No, just travelling with friends, looking at and photographing cacti. Did we want to go on a guided tour of a quarry? No thanks, we planes to catch tomorrow. ‘Adios, come again!’ he urged us, as we left. Perhaps next month?

Plant stop wise, it was a disappointing day, or had we just reached that ‘cactussed-out’ stage that can creep in towards the end of a trip, when even the most ardent Cactus Explorer has had enough and thinks of going home. At least I can charge my batteries at Lonquen before the next one.

So what did we see? S1973 had Echinopsis (Trichocereus) chiloensis, Eulychnia acida – the typical tall growing form, as was to be expected so near to the Type Locality near Illapel, Eriocyse curvispina and the smaller E. heinrichiana. We had hoped to find E. senilis, that is reported from this area. I believe that only Juan and Ian, who had ventured to the top of the hill, managed to find one specimen. A ‘goatery’ with hundreds of these flora destroyers bleating away was probably the reason for this relatively bare hillside.

We fared no better at S1974 where again E. senilis remained illusive all the other cacti mentioned earlier were seen and photographed.

Next was the souvenir buying stop and so we headed west to meet up with Ruta 5. As we approached Pichidangui, it seemed tie for a final leg stretch and for what has become a traditional first and last plant stop of a Copiapoathon (even though the Copiapoa distribution stops a good 200 km to the North). S1975). Cactus fatigue had now really set in, with Cliff not even bothering to get out of the car.

Just when it seemed that nothing could go wrong, we lost Big Red, who had so far stuck to our bumper in town traffic. We waited for at least ten minutes but every red pick up coming round the corner was a different make with different occupants. We moved on to the road overlooking the bay. If they had taken one of the other roads on the peninsula, they must come past here. Or had done so already? Time clicked by and we moved on to the southern junction with R5. Still no sign of Big Red.

Earlier avid had said that if Ian and Cliff had known the way back to Lonquen, they would have driven on without the photo stop. So we surmised that we were now looking for The Lost Boys. Had they managed to pick up a puncture as they drove off? We had done so in almost the same spot in 2003!. To we drove back one more time, to where the cars had been parked, looking into every side street – without joy.

Once back on R5 we speculated that they must be ahead of us and, given the crawling qualities of Big Red, we cruised south at around 140 km p. hour and sure enough, some 60 km out of Santiago, there was the red Nissan with the tell tale tail light failure on the near side.

Juan had been keeping Flo informed of our progress by phone and so we had learned that Santiago was experiencing strong winds and hard rain. We could see the clouds as we came out of the hills and before long had the windscreen wipers going full strength. We arrived at Lonquen in the rain and in the dark and dinner was accompanied by the drumming of raindrops on the plastic roof outside the kitchen. 

The Weather Gods were preparing the Brits for their return to autumnal England.

Today’s program was for a relatively short (in km) drive, but on a dirt road winding back and forth through the mountains with speeds of around 30 km p. hour and nice cactus spots that needed detailed attention of our cameras.

We had seen many Echinopsis Trichocereus sp. on this trip, many in Chile the result (taxonomically) of lumping, under the name E. chiloensis. The form that would be with us today and for most of tomorrow is what I have been calling informally ‘the Elqui Valley form’, although once we had passed Hurtardo, we were actually in the Rio Limari catchment area. This form has amazingly long spines, usually around 15 cm (6 “) in length, although longer spines could be found. Reason enough for our first stop of the day, S1969 and again, around km 98, in full view of the El Tofollo stellar observatory, where the first Eriosyce aurata appeared on the scene.

The next location, S1971, around Mirador Tres Cruces, has become known on previous visits as the ‘Golden Balls’ stop, due to the golden yellow spined E. aurata. And they were marvellous again, ‘Best plant of the trip’ announced Ian, but then he has not qualified as a BCSS judge. Eriosyce eriosyzoides was also here, this time in fruit and some plants still in flower. The name illustrates very well what nonsense you end up with when new combinations and stati resulted in Ritter’s Horridocactus eriosyzoides (= like an Eriosyce) became an Eriosyce itself, becoming ‘Eriosyce like an Eriosyce’. Yeah, right! An excellent stop, even third time round and good to think that I’ll probably be back here again in November.

S1972 was another third time visit for a hill side densely packed with Echinopsis (Trichocereus) chiloensis near Los Morales. The effect could be enhanced even more by using the compression effect of a 200 mm telephoto lens. Returning to the same location on several occasions makes me think that I have a design fault my Stop Number lists. I should perhaps have recorded Location References, e.g. Los Morales, with the ability to record many stops there on different dates. Perhaps S1972 is not the best time to start changing a system, but I should be able to retrofit a Location Reference to the database, some time during Summer 2011 in England perhaps. We’ll see. It is not unusual to revisit a place and find cactus taxa that escaped us before. Similarly it is not unusual on subsequent visits not to want to repeat a long duplicate plant list each time.

We arrived at Ovalle and thanks to Juan’s excellent rear seat GPS navigation found our way through the busy town to Hotel Turismo, which proved a lot more comfortable than Hotel Roxy in 2003, in what seemed to be the red light district of town.

Rather worrying, after the Taltal Hen Party experience, they were setting up stalls and a sound stage for an Agricultural Fair on the Plaza immediately opposite the Hotel. Fortunately for the light sleepers amongst us, the Fair did not start until the next day and we enjoyed a good night’s rest.