Today we
planned to see how far inland we could find Copiapoa in the Huasco Valley, to
see what other cacti we would find and to enjoy the scenery as once again we
would drive to the foothills of the Andes.
We made our
first stop of the day (S017)
near the Embalse Santa Juana, another dam in the river that had created a
large artificial lake inland from which the valley could be irrigated and
developed for agriculture, a scenario that we had previously seen in the Rio
Elqui Valley. No doubt many cacti that had grown here were now at the bottom
of the lake. On the steep hillsides alongside the river we found Copiapoa
coquimbana (C. vallenarensis?), Cumulopuntia sphaerica, Eulychnia sp.
Echinopsis (Trichocereus) sp. and at least two taxa of Eriosyce
(Neoporteria) - or was it just one highly variable species?
Further
along (S018), now at an
altitude (measured by GPS) of 667 m, we could not find any Copiapoa but
instead found Eriosyce aurata, unmistakably as it showed of its woolly
fruits, plus all the other cacti reported from the previous stop. The
hillsides were especially crumbly and dangerous to climb, probably due to the
recent road building work.
And so, on
to El Maiten (S019), where
Leo, (un)suitably dressed in shorts and T shirt once again became the
mountaineer, risking life and limb to take a picture of another Copiapoa
coquimbana growing high on the cliff face. We didn't really mind, except
that he had the car keys in his pocket! We busied ourselves in the mean time
with taking some pictures of the few Copiapoa coquimbana and
Eriosyce (Neoporteria) sp. plants that grew right along the side of the
road, with rocks tumbling down the hillside, dislodged by Leo's climbing
efforts, posing the only real danger. These were perhaps the highest altitude
(880 m) and furthest inland occurring Copiapoa in this valley.
We
christened the next stop (S020)
the 'Cow Stop' as a small herd of eight Friesians came up the track, lead by a
gaucho on horseback, with the tail enders being round up by another
horse-mounted shepherd: a young girl who could not have been more than 7 years
of age.
The road
continued to climb until at 1,146 m (S021)
Leo spotted an Eriosyce aurata growing fairly high on the cliff face
above the road. This too was a bit worrying, because we had hoped that, as the
driver, his eyes would be more focussed on the road - never mind. We all had a
go at scrambling up the loose shale, often it was a case of 'two steps
forward, three steps back' so again we had to be content of taking pictures of
Leo taking pictures of the Eriosyce.
We made two
more stops (S022 and
S023), eventually reaching
1,620 m above sea level, but there were no cacti to be found within view of
where we parked the car. The scenery offered plenty of picture material,
before we turned the car round and headed back to Vallenar.
