Rudolf Schulz's October scouting sorties indicated that there was now a brand new hyper market, called Jumbo, on 'our' (north bound) side of the Pan Am, at La Serena. Tonight we were to spend the night at Caleta Chañaral, a tiny fishing hamlet, from where we would be making a trip to the Humboldt Penguin National Reserve the next day.

Last year, we had checked out the area and had thought that Punta Choros, with many new cabanas and restaurants would be a better, although touristy, base for this adventure. Our Chilean friends, Juan Pablo Acosta and Florencia Señoret, had made contact with a local representative of the Sociedad Planeto Vivo, Hernan Diaz, who had suggested that the most western island of the Penguin Reserve, Isla Chañaral, would make the better excursion and he would organise accommodation, food and a boat for us.  Angie and I had briefly visited Caleta Chañaral in 2006 and I was a little unsure about the community's ability to accommodate such a large number of tourists, so it seemed best to stock up with some essential supplies at Jumbo, just in case we needed to spend the night under canvas.

Apart from supplies of bread, cheese and other 'essentials', such as beer and wine, we also learned that it was possible here to buy just about everything that we had carried from the UK, at a lower price than back home, perhaps with the exception of technical equipment such as cameras and laptops, which were more expensive. Certainly a full range of camping equipment was on offer and most of us bought a 3 legged 'fisherman's stool' to avoid the scramble for 'comfortable' rocks during our few nights under canvas.

And so, on to the first cactus stop of the day, S607, right along Ruta 5 as it lead out of La Serena. The excuse was provided by some heavily spined clumps of a spreading columnar cactus, growing on the embankment. To get to the plants, we had to make a path through 2 m (6 ft) tall reeds that turned out to grow in a muddy ditch and then cross the railway line before climbing the embankment. The cacti that we had seen from the road turned out to be Ritter's Eulychnia acida var procumbens.

Further north, we spotted our first Copiapoa, in flower, from the car speeding along Ruta 5. We stopped (S608) and took pictures of the densely spined form of C. coquimbana that we also see each year at Los Hornos (S609), together with Eulychnia aff. acida, this time only 'semi-procumbent' and Echinopsis (Trichocereus) deserticola (or is it E. coquimbana here?).

S609 was a brief stop at our regular view point at Los Hornos, overlooking Caleta Hornos and Quebrada Honda. The above plants were joined here by Miqueliopuntia miquelii, mainly in bud, so that the plant list for this stop was M. miquelii, C. coquimbana (dense spined form), Echinopsis deserticola and Eulychnia acida (the majority with characteristic upright growth habit). The most remarkable feature of this visit was that it confirmed Rudolf Schulz' reports from his earlier scouting trip, that conditions were very dry, drier than I had seen on previous trips (since 2001).

I chickened out of taking the direct route to Caleta Chañaral. Last year's report shows that there is no formal road between the easily accessed Punta Choros and our goal for the day. There is a maze of tracks through shifting soft sands that can prove a challenge, even to 4x4 vehicles. So I decided to drive north to Domeyko and take the scenic route via Carrizalillo.

 It was not until about 3 p.m. that the sun finally broke through the thick, low cloud deck, that had hidden the tops of the hills for most of the day and had given an even more flat and desolate impression of the current conditions at the places that we had stopped. However, pictures taken at S610, some 19 km west of Domeyko on the track to Carrizalillo, shows that the sun was out. What the pictures don't show is that the wind here was blowing with great strength, so that it was prudent to put my 'Indiana Jones' hat under my shirt, rather than see it disappear at great speed into the desert.  It seemed that the hills here were the narrow end of a funnel that concentrated all the air movement from the Llanos (Plain) de Choros. This is the Type Locality of Ritter's C. pseudocoquimbana var domeykoensis, often referred to incorrectly in collections (and on Copiapoathons) at specific rank as C. domeykoensis for convenience rather than for taxonomic reasons. It certainly looks quite different from the densely spined clumps seen at earlier stops further south, but it remains to be seen if these differences are due to genetic factors - worthy of a scientific name - or purely due to environmental factors. As I seemed to have taken pictures of all of the small number of Copiapoa here on previous visits, I limited myself to some nice shots of a flowering bulb, Añañuca, (Rhodophiala bagnoldii), a member of the Amarilidaceae, with only 10 - 20 cm tall flower stalks crowned by one or more reddish yellow flowers, fighting to stay upright in the wind.   There is also a picture of Cliff, high on a mountain top, arms spread out; trying the aerodynamics for flight potential, or just cooling down after his climb?

During previous trips, I was intrigued by some of the tracks leading north from our road to Carrizallilo, indicated to lead to mines. In particular there was a track north at a farm where used rubber tires were used to create a fenced enclosure for goats and donkeys (ineffective, judging by the number of animals found wandering outside the enclosure). We followed the track, sign posted to Minas Gloria until we could go no further at 1,200 m. 5 km down the track. I was a bit concerned as Leo did a 3 point turn outside a wire enclosure where sticks of explosives were sweating in the afternoon sun. Perhaps it was wiser to put the car a little further down the road? (S611). We found a heavy spined Echinopsis (Trichocereus), similar in sprawling growth habit to E. coquimbana and E. deserticola, but with thick woolly areoles, reminiscent of Eulychnia iquiquensis - unlike any Trichocereus I had seen before, either on our travels or in literature. The Copiapoa (C. coquimbana fma) too had remarkably heavy spination and were mainly single stemmed plants, not offsetting or clumping. The odd two or three headed plants seemed to be individual plants growing close together, rather than clumps.

S612 was a brief stop outside Carrizalillo to take pictures of more stalks and flowers of Añañuca, (Rhodophiala bagnoldii), emerging from an otherwise dead landscape. There was no evidence of any recent moisture, so what could be the trigger for this flowering?

At the next quick stop (S613), this time at the Plaza in Carrizalillo, the range of colours in the cultivated plants (Geranium, Aeonium, Mesembryanthemums, Aloes and Agaves) made further photography irresistible and helped to fill the time while we waited for the other 2 cars to catch up with us and to amuse the locals who had never seen so much interest paid to their horticultural labours.

Around 6:45 p.m., a little later than planned, we arrived in Caleta Chanaral, or to give it its full name: Caleta Chanaral de Aceituno. We had no problem finding the large biosphere that seemed to form the centre of the small fishing community. Here, the tourism that had mushroomed nearer La Serena, at Punta de Choros, was still unknown. Leo's knowledge of Spanish once again came in useful as he asked some fishermen where we could find Hernan. We were directed to a small hut where I met the man, discovered by Juan, with whom I had arranged our visit. Detailed information can be found at their website at www.planetavivo.org). As I had expected, the settlement was far too small to offer hotel accommodation, but Hernan had arranged the use of the home of one of the families for our two night stay. Its usual occupants had found lodgings with family and friends. One of the houses appeared to have a larger than usual kitchen and prepared an excellent meal of sea food for us. By western standards the facilities were basic and primitive, but for many Copiapoathoners the experiences of the community's hospitality remained unforgettable as one of the high lights of the trip. 

Again, it had been a full day, so beds were a welcome sight as we fell asleep, some of us with some concerns about the size of the boats that tomorrow would take us to the Island. I really looked forward to tomorrow's adventure.