My fourth Copiapoathon took place between 3 and 26
November, 2006. This time it was just me and my partner
Angie, who travelled from the UK to tour through the Chilean Atacama Desert in
search of interesting cacti that require to have their picture taken.
We arranged to meet up with our Chilean friends, Juan Pablo Acosta & Florencia
Seņoret and Bart & Marijke Hensel
from the Netherlands, who travelled with us for part of Copiapoathon
2004. At the end of the trip, we had been invited to stay with our
friends Ingrid Schaub and Ricardo Keim, whom we first met on
Copiapoathon 2003.
To keep up the tradition of previous
Copiapoathons, I posted daily diaries of our trip, one month
after we experienced the events of the day, so starting 3 December, on the following email forums:
copiapoa_info@yahoogroups.com, cacti_etc and to cactus_study,
On completion the web-version was added to my website at
www.copiapoa.info.
So what happened in 2005? We went to Argentina
where we were treated to a magnificent introduction to the cactus flora
of the Argentinean North West by
Guillermo Rivera.
As we failed to see any Copiapoas, I have posted the Argentinean Diary
pages elsewhere.
Another tradition seems to
consist of giving each trip a 'tour name', so I've christened this one
the
'Oh Well; The Scouting Tour'. Why? After 2004, I had decided that
I did not want to get locked into Chile for my annual holidays. As a
result the trip to Argentina was planned and 2006 was supposed to have
been 3 weeks in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with Marlon Machado and Leo
van der Hoeven. Unfortunately, in March, it transpired that Marlon had
other commitments during the 3 week window during which we were able to
travel. After an initial disappointed, that lasted all of 5 minutes,
Angie and I looked at each other and said in unison: 'Oh well,
lets go back to Chile!' Leo decided that he would take another look at
north east Brazil instead.
Many of the Europeans who had
joined us in 2003 for the larger Copiapoathon 2003 party have expressed
an interest in a return trip. I had already promised Angie to take her
back to Chile in 2007 to celebrate her birthday (one of those that ends
in zero), known as 'Angie's Birthday Tour'. And so our 2006 trip will be
The Scouting Trip for 2007. As in 2003, we invite any one
interested to join us. For details as they become available, see
Copiapoathon 2007.
