Today's program consisted of three stops south of Barquito which in turn is the next town south of Chañaral on Ruta 5, involving a turn off R5 from which a sturdy 4x4 could reach any of the 3 Quebradas (La Chañarala, Los Infernillos and Chaquarera)

As the going got tough, Jorge and Flo & Juan jumped into the spare seats of the pick ups as we had even more room now that Jan Ekkelboom from the Netherlands had joined us.

At S647, the group split into three with the Mountain Goats taking the steep route from the cars to the nearest coastal mountain top from where they would follow the ridge north. Ian with a second group took a track farther north that was suggested to provide a gentler route to a similar hill top behind Barquito. I was part of a third group of 6 Copiapoathoners that became detached from the second group and took a different turn, ending up with an assault of a hillside somewhere between the first and second group.

Within a minute, we had found a sizeable Eriosyce rodentiophila. There was also a Copiapoa here that fitted in well with the need for dice suggested yesterday to complete an ID. The name C. marginata was suggested and I could detect no features to either confirm or deny the suggestion or come up with an alternative - throw the dice, quick!

The time taken by some of us to photograph the Eriosyce and briefly discuss the ID of the Copiapoa was enough for us to become separated from Ian's group, who had parked farther on and had not seen the distraction. It took some 90 minutes for us to meet up with Rudolf's Mountain Goats near 'the summit' of our hill. 'The summit' was a moving feast, as each time I thought I had got there, another 50 meter loomed into view. I must try harder to improve my fitness for future trips.

After meeting up with more unidentified Copiapoa (they had to be Copiapoa judging by the flower remains found on many of them) on the way up, I was surprised to see to recognise clumps at the top as C. cinerascens. Perhaps I should add a seventh side to the ID dice to include this as a candidate for the unidentified plants further down.

Again, the Eulychnia ID was easier. Again, the base of the plants were surrounded by the (old) long haired fruits indicating either E. breviflora or E. iquiquensis.  The stems were old and weathered without any signs of new growth to check the presence or otherwise of wool in the areoles. But close to the top of 'my' hill, Bingo!. A 30 cm offset, looking as nice and woolly as any nursery grown 'saint-pieana' back home. The picture was taken quickly, too quickly as it turned out, as the image later proved to be out of focus.  However, this was enough evidence that this was what Ritter had called Eulychnia barquitensis, since reduced to synonymy under E. iquiquensis.

Lunch was home made ham or cheese rolls or sandwiches bought earlier at the Copec while Rudolf explained how to get to the next two stops -  a matter of 'back down the track and turn left to go further inland. Some decided to drive into Chañaral while others decided to go into Caldera for some shopping -  Copiapoathons tend to be more focussed on seeing cacti than on shopping, so opportunities need to be grabbed by those who want them. The Dutch contingent (Bart & Marijke, Leo, Jan and myself) were first to try out the instructions.

We arrived at S648, in Quebrada Los Infernillos. To me, the plants we found look like C. serpentisulcata, usually found north of Chañaral on the road to the Pan de Azucar National Park. According to my notes, Rudolf had suggested that we'd find C. marginata inland forms or marginata / calderana intermediates, as discussed in his 2006 book. I'm writing these notes away from home, so have not yet had the opportunity to check out the book, so don't know if what we saw was what we meant to see. Also present were nice, big E. rodentiophila.

And on to S649, in Quebrada Chaquarera, where there were large numbers of 'golden balls', E. rodentiophila, but much nicer than those seen at the previous stop some 10 minutes drive away.   And the mystery Copiapoa was there as well, with longer and bleached brown spines. As usual, I've come back from a Copiapoathon with more questions than I left with.