As today was Sunday,
breakfast was even later than the previous day, but after the daily
packing ritual, we set off for Carrizal Bajo.
As usual, we got lost in
the little back streets of Huasco Bajo to find the bridge across the Rio
Huasco, but with the help of Benjy's GPS data for the bridge and the
assistance of a bemused local citizen, we found the bridge and were pleasantly
surprised to find the road in better condition than in 2001. This was
something that in general had improved over the last two years. As usual,
there is a balance to be struck - natural habitats are destroyed, both by the
road being laid and by the quarrying for aggregate to be brought in by truck
from elsewhere. Quite often this destruction affects cactus habitats,
particularly as the rocky outcrops preferred by cactus roots are an ideal
source for road building material. On the plus side, access to known and
yet to be explored areas is much easier.
We made our first stop
of the day (S119) as soon as clumps of Copiapoa appeared alongside the
road. These were still C. fiedleriana (very similar to C.
coquimbana, but with a characteristic chin on the rib between the
areoles). We must have 'gotten our eye in' for the small stuff as without any
problems we found a number of Eriosyce sp that I take to be E.
odieri.
Thanks to the improved
road, we made up for our late start and arrived in Carrizal Bajo in good time.
The tide was out, too good an opportunity to miss to cross the small quebrada.
In 2001 we had arrived here from the opposite direction, with the sun setting
and the tide in. Going back north to Totoral would have meant a long drive
over the worst tracks encountered that year, in the dark. Fortunately,
our suicidal driver that time - Leo - did not like the idea much and instead
drove straight into the water following as best he could remember the sand
bank that we had seen there some four weeks earlier. Amazed onlookers,
out for a sunset stroll, screamed in fear and amazement at our (successful)
attempt. This time, things were a lot easier as we hardly got the tyres
wet during the crossing and began to climb the steep track heading north along
the coast.
On our next stop (S120), we found a mixture of Copiapoas. The last remnants of C.
fiedleriana seemed to merge with some small, often single bodied clumps of
spines - C. echinata; some large bodied plants with often flattened
bodies - C. echinoides; darker bodied forms - C. dura and enough
intermediate variability to explain the host of taxa described from this area.
The Euphorbia lactiflua and Oxalis gigantea were not in flower
or leaf, and the Miqueliopuntia and ceroids had all seen better days,
so the rains that appeared to have occurred further south had not been here.
Our next stop (S121)
sums up my idea of cactus heaven - standing up to your knees in huge clumps of
Copiapoa, not knowing which way to point the camera first. This is the area
where Graham Charles and Ted Anderson were pictured on the covers of their
books. Huge clumps of Copiapoa dealbata, mixed in with
C. echinoides. Anderson used the name C. malletiana, an older, but
poorly described and therefore dubious name, but more recently the name C.
dealbata has come back in favour, so that all of us who relabelled our
plants when the Cactus Family was published, can reach for our label writers
again.
It took several blows on
the whistle to get everybody back in the car. We made one more stop (S122)
, a bit further north and were glad that we would pass by Carrizal Bajo
again on the way back south, at the end of our trip. In addition to the
magnificent clumps of C. dealbata we found some dichotomously splitting
stems and a good number of crests. When surrounded by such large plants it is
easy to ignore 'the small stuff', so not until we started looking for
seedlings, to confirm the health of this stand, did we spot 'Thelocephala',
probably Eriosyce odieri (subsp. fulva?) and a small, flowering,
Eriosyce crispa.
As we drove east from Totoral, we promised ourselves
to take a look at the cacti that we raced by in a few weeks time, on the way
home. There was no time or interest for stops along Ruta 5 as we pushed on for
Caldera and from there to a fantastic modern hotel, Rocas de Bahia,
overlooking Bahia Inglesa with Morro Copiapó across the water. Tempting as it
was to use the luxurious dining facilities, we had to eat in Caldera, because
we had an appointment with Rudolf Schulz and Leo van der Hoeven, who had been
touring Copiapoa country since late May, with Ricardo and Ingrid, Peque and
Frankie and a number of Chileans whose full names, in the excitement of
meeting old friends, I forgot to note - sorry, Karen, Jose, Vincent and
others. We had a great evening with the (NOT!) shy and retiring Leo and
I catching up on old times in Dutch, while the others did very well
communicating in Spenglish, - it has to be said that the language skills of
our Chilean friends were far superior to our poor attempts at Spanish.
Plans were made for some explorations north of
Caldera the next day and once again it was time to fall into bed (or was it
the hotel bar and the free hospitality Pisco Sours?).
