Well
rested, we left Guanaqueros intending to make a stop at the massive Lider supermarket, off Ruta 5
in La Serena. The stretch of the Pan American highway
through the towns of Coquimbo and La Serena, particularly at rush
hour, is all about being in the correct lane and not allowing yourself
to be pushed off course by other traffic. I got it wrong, and so we got
stuck in some back roads in La Serena. Many South American towns are
based on a grid system of one-way streets, so that it was not too
difficult to get back to Ruta 5, but at a point where we were already
past the super market. Never mind, we had no critical purchases to
make. It was all the more irritating, as earlier we had passed a brand new (since
2004) Lider of similar size as our target shop, in
Coquimbo, at the more convenient (when driving north) east side of the
road.
We needed to break our
consistency in missing these turnings and headed for a 100% safe stop:
the view point above the fast growing village at Los Hornos,
S519.
This has been a regular stop on previous trips, purely because it was
the first reliable opportunity to see Copiapoa in habitat,
without having to go more than a few yards off the road. The plants
here are an exceptionally spiny form of C. coquimbana, with a more than usual reddish tinge to
the flowers and grow alongside Echinopsis (Trichocereus), Eulychnia
breviflora, Cumulopuntia sphaerica and Miqueliopuntia miquelii
as well as a range of shrubs and annuals that through their growth
and flowering provide an expectation of what we might see, as a result
of recent metrological events, further north. It seemed to have been
drier than on previous visits, but I still have to compare the
pictures. We'd be back here again on the way back south in some 20
days time.
We climbed 'the bends' (Cuesta
Buenos Aires, 10 km of switch backs) to reach La Higuera and looked for the signs
for the turning, just south of El Trapiche, for a track that heads west to Los Choros. In 2001 and 2003 we had found some very large headed
C.
coquimbana along the coast, between Los Choros and Punta Choros. In
2004 we approached the area coming from the north by taking the track
west of Domeyko to Carrizalillo and to Caleta Chañaral.
When plotting the stops from these trips on Google Earth, it appeared
that these two routes overlap, even though in 2004 we were unable to
find a reliable track from Carrizalillo to El Trapiche and had to make
a 100 km + detour to go back the way we had come. This time I was
determined to prove the continuity and to see if I could find a
Eulychnia I had found in 2004 and that had particularly impressed
me. I was not even sure if it was a Eulychnia or a
Trichocereus, so we hoped to find it in flower this time.
At the turning off Ruta
5, we picked up a hitch hiker for Choros. I had hoped that he
could provide some guidance of how to get to Carrizalillo. As the
advert goes (in the UK): we were both fluent, unfortunately in
different languages. I explained (and believe that he understood) why I suddenly
braked
and Angie & I leapt out of the car to take pictures (S520) of
some Eulychnia and of C. coquimbana in flower. In Choros, he took us to the track to
Punta Choros and indicated on the blank area on our map where we
should be able to make the connection to the other route. Punta Choros
had mushroomed since my previous visit. Again, tourism seemed to be
the main reason. Originally a small fishing village, it lies opposite
Isla Damas, Isla Choros and Isla Chañaral, now the Reserva Nacional Penguino de Humboldt. As we
stopped to get our bearings near the entrance of the village, we were
immediately approached by men offering us boat trips to the island.
Lots of new, but very cheap, housing and enough better looking cabaña
accommodation for several thousand holiday makers. Everyone was
working hard to have things ready for the start of the Chilean holiday
season in late December. Today we drew attention as probably the only
tourists in town and instead of looking for boats or cabanas, we
stopped at the edge of town (S521) and rushed around with cameras to take
pictures of (soon to be destroyed?) cacti. I had spotted 'my' plant
and flowers confirmed that it was a Eulychnia. But what species? More
on the Eulychnia website in weeks to come. We also found
some Eriosyce, believed to be the same (variable) species,
possibly E. (Neoporteria) subgibbosa / wagenknechtii, if I
understood our Chilean friends correctly.
I've pencilled in a
visit to Punta Choros, including a boat trip to the islands, in the
plans for the next Copiapoathon, planned for November 2007.
We followed a track from
Punta Choros, heading west and when ever we had to make a left / right
turn decision, took the turning that kept us nearest to the Ocean
shore, so that ultimately we had to end up at Caleta Chañaral.
Excellent strategy, until a high barbed wire fence blocked the road,
right from the Ocean to as far as the eye could see inland. What next?
There was no shortage of alternative tracks, in fact, far too many.
Strategy 2: follow the most frequent and most recently used track,
failed. We had been driving through very soft sand and there was a
fresh breeze blowing so that even the tracks that we had just made
were difficult to see. On to Strategy 3: follow any telephone or
electricity cables - they have to go somewhere. Success! After
crawling for what seemed like hours through very fine sand, we saw
another 4x4 coming towards us. Soon, we could see more traffic on a
more frequently used track ahead of us that lead to Caleta Chañaral.
Pictures taking since Punta Choros were recorded as
S522 and confirm
that the Eulychnia from Punta Choros extends along the coast.
The last stop number of
the day, S523, covers pictures taken between Carrizalillo and Domeyko,
where we re-joined Ruta 5. These pictures record the low growing,
sprawling Eulychnia found at Punta Choros growing all over the
Llanos de Choros, but changes to the more usual upright growing
Eulychnia once the rocky hills enter the landscape, some 28 km
west of Domeyko.
We had no trouble finding
Hotel Takia in Vallenar, conveniently situated off the Plaza, where
the son of the owner speaks good English.
