The early morning queuing started around 7 a.m. It was just as well that there was no warm water, as otherwise those that showered might have held up the process for longer. Soon after 8 we were on our way, with my first intended stop (S616) along the coastal track where on previous occasions I had found large specimens of Copiapoa coquimbana. However, the track seemed to be new and either followed a different route or had covered the plants in  several meters of sand and rock. We found Eulychnia and only a few, not so large, Copiapoa. Time was pressing, as today we hoped to get to Freirina via the untried 'pretty route' of El Sarco and Labrar.

We made a stop (S617) at km marker 14.500 on the track to El Sarco. In general, it seems that somewhere in Santiago is km Zero for the Pan American Highway (Ruta 5, El Cinco) and that as you travel north (and later south), the km markers on R5 indicate the distances to this point. On roads (or tracks) leading off R5, the turning off the main highway is fixed at km zero and so on. In this case, km 0 was the turning off the Domeyko to Carrizalillo road, for a track that was signposted to Sarco. Cactus literature is full of location data quoting the km marker on a road between two townships, but this can be notoriously inaccurate, as it is not unusual for roads (even the Pan Am) to be moved during subsequent road improvement schemes.

At S617 we found densely spined clumps of Copiapoa coquimbana, Echinopsis (Trichocereus) deserticola, Eulychnia acida, Miqueliopuntia miquelii and Eriosyce heinrichiana and E. eriosyzoides ssp. atroviridis var huascensis, not bad for cactus diversity!

We stopped again, some 6 km farther along (S618) where we found more of the same. In 2006 we had turned around at this spot, as we had ran out of time, but this time we pushed on and finally reached to coast at Caleta Sarco (S619). Here, the C. coquimbana grew on the beach, in sand among large cobble stones. It seemed that another taxon had joined in, as shouts of 'Thelocephala!' went up. Although the plants certainly resembled plants from this (now out of fashion) genus, with even a nice big tap root, Juan later took me through my own pictures to show me how these were 'juvenile' or 'adolescent' forms of 'the-plant-with-the-long-name': E. eriosyzoides ssp. atroviridis var huascensis. What a variable taxon.

Next we had to find a track leading inland to the north to link up with the Freirina to Labrar road that we had followed in 2006. The first attempt ended abruptly as the road had collapsed into the ocean. (s620) that at least provided some nice C. coquimbana pictures with the ocean in the back ground. The problem was not finding a track, but selecting the right one from the myriad of tracks that seemed to lead every which way. We stopped at a small fisherman's hut along the coast and Leo chatted with the occupants. The news he brought back was not good. Yes, there was a track to Labrar, but it was not in good condition and we were unlike to be able to follow it to Labrar as there were many twists and turns and side tracks leading to other individual dwellings. Sign posts were still non-existent. Common sense dictated that we had best switch to 'Plan B'; drive back the way we had come and take the main road back to Domeyko, and from there to Ruta 5. I might attempt this route one more time in the future, from the Labrar end, as it seems easier to aim for a large object (The Pacific Ocean) rather than a small, practically deserted settlement.

We now had more time available so made three more stops before reaching Domeyko and eventually Vallenar, where we spent the night. The first, S621, was a brief stop, prompted by some exceptionally long spined Eulychnia. S622, at km 33.7 - yes, there are km markers every 100 m on tracks that are being prepared for road improvement schemes - was for a lone Eulychnia growing on a sandy hill side. Leo isisted that he'd walk up to the plant, to check that it was at least alive, as he did not believe in wasting his limited supply of slide film on dead plants. We watched him almost disappear in the heat haze that shimmered above the sand. After inspection, his posture seemed to indicate that the plant was alive, as he moved his camera to his face. He had spotted a second and third lone Eulychnia, a couple of hundred meters apart and he ran, on the double, from one to the other. The small dot in the desert stopped briefly, to pick something from the ground. Had he dropped his lens cap? On return to the car, he proudly showed us a stem section of Maihueniopsis domeykoensis that he had cut from a larger clump. I had seen Maihueniopsis grow at altitude in the Andean altiplano around San Pedro de Atacama, but had not expected to find it here.  During some rest days after the trip, south of Santiago, I looked up the Maihueniopsis section of Hoffmann & Walter's Cactaceas en la flora silvestre de Chile and made a note to include some of the localities of these plants on future trip plans. They seem to mostly occur mostly at the end of the many valleys that end half way up the Andes, usually at quite some altitude. This find here was probably at the lowest altitude for the genus at ??? m. Further searches in literature reveals that all these small and very widely distributed small populations appear to have been lumped in the New Cactus Lexicon under M. glomerata.Shame. But taxonomy has no room for sentiment.

At km 24 we followed a side track leading north and up the hills towards another mine. This zigzagged nicely up the hill to an altitude of 1,031 m. Leo climbed at least another 50 m. beyond where the track stopped. We were rewarded by probably the nicest spined Copiapoa coquimbana I have seen. The Eulychnia too had an excellent defence mechanism.

Satisfied with a good day's cactus hunting, we were glad to be on tarmac as we reached Ruta 5 and headed north to Vallenar where we found rooms in Hosteria Vallenar and met up with our Chilean friends, Florencia Señoret and Juan Pablo Acosta at the Bavarian restaurant.