Trevor had received a phone call from his parents in Australia, enquiring after his well being after seeing reports of the Tocopilla Earthquake on TV. I had sent emails to my Angie and my sister and sons in the UK, but it seems that the UK had not rated the item news worthy; perhaps having a surplus of items that would score higher on the viewers' ratings figures.

We decided to defer the search for C. tocopilliana and Eriosyce laui to another occasion. So what next? We had planned to visit a location that Ricardo and Ingrid had nick-named 'Echinopsis atacamensis Valley', where we would also find E. formosa (syn. Soehrensia uebelmannianus) and Oreocereus leucotrichus and decided to do this today.  Just as in Europe all roads are said to lead to Rome, it seems that in Chile, all roads seem to lead to a mine. Ricardo's instructions had seemed quite straightforward. We needed to take the road north out of Calama to Chuquicamata and from there further north towards Lequena and take a turning towards Mina El Abra. But it seemed that all roads north of Chuquicamata were blocked by gates that were open only to people on mining business. We asked for directions and eventually found a road, signposted to Mina El Abra. Some 50 km, this road too was barred by a fence and security guards. We explained our predicament to one of the guards who spoke English. 'Wait in the car park please'. After a while, a 4x4 arrived with his superior. There was a short discussion in Spanish with glances from both parties in our direction. No smiles. Eventually, our 'friend' came over and informed us that we had to follow the car of his boss, who had already turned his car round and was pointing in the direction from where we had come. We followed him for some 30 km, when he stopped and pointed to a track off to the left east, before driving off in a hurry. We followed the track, that soon turned north again and appeared to be the service track for pipelines that ran parallel either side of it. This was desolate terrain with not a plant in sight. Eventually we could see traffic on a main road ahead and found a turning that took us across one of the pipes. 

A few km south, we took a turning to the desert oasis town of Chiu-Chiu, (S668) a charming village baking in the sun that reminded me of Toconao last year or perhaps of San Pedro de Atacama many years ago. Its claim to fame is having one of the oldest churches in Chile. It was being photographed by two bus loads of tourists from France who had arrived in Chile earlier that day. It seemed to be quite a culture shock for them as they seemed to wander aimlessly from one artisan tourist shop to the next.

We picked up signs to Caspana, on the road to the Geysers at El Tatio, that had in the past been our target from San Pedro de Atacama. This time, we'd approach it from the west, rather than the south and as usual, it was our interest in cacti that provided the motivation, not some steam from bubbling mud pools. Irrespective what we would see before reaching El Tatio, I could guarantee my fellow travellers that we would see the cacti that had been promised at Mina El Abra as we drove to San Pedro on our way back to Calama.

I was pleased when we spotted the golden spines of Oreocereus leucotrichus on the hillside (S669). There were more plants plants here and in better condition than at our 'usual' spot, but it was difficult to get close to them as there were deep gorges separating us from the plants. Again, having a good zoom lens enabled me to get some nice shots. There was also an Opuntioid. Was it Maihueniopsis camanchoi, now also a synonym of M glomerata or Cumulopuntia boliviana ssp. ignescens?

They were there again at the next stop (S670) where we saw large golden barrels on the hillside - Echinopsis formosa! Great!,It is always good to add new locations to the stop list and we would save time by not having to stop at our old sites as well.

S671 was for scenic pictures taken at and around the El Tatio Geysers. The landscape is magnificent, but I prefer to see it in daylight rather than on the way from San Pedro where the breakfast busses leave at 4:00 a.m. in the pitch dark. Some vicugnas obliged by posing a safe distance from the cars. Again, the zoom lens worked wonders - I had them almost eating out of my hand!

We drove on, towards San Pedro de Atacama - there is another settlement, just called San Pedro, so its necessary to use the full name to avoid confusion for those in the know. There was water and associated birds at Vado Rio Putana and Mike thought that his birthday and Christmas had both come early as we found flamingos wading in the water and the Andean gull (Larus serranus), the only member of the gull family never to see the sea or ocean. Couples of Andean geese (Cloephaga melanoptera) were strutting their courting ritual, reminding us that here it was spring. I also spotted some Crested Duck and Puna Teal. I'm sure that Mike's list includes a lot more names! 

We made a last stop at the place where in previous years we had photographed Echinopsis atacamensis. They were not the best specimens on the planet and I had enough pictures from previous years, so I didn't record a stop number. Spotting the flamingos had caused a further change to plans. Ian & Mike's cars were due to stay an extra night at Calama so that tomorrow they could go back to San Pedro de Atacama to visit the Flamingo Reserve at Laguna Chaxa and a bit of tourist shopping at SPdA. With the flamingo box now ticked and the prospect of some shopping before returning to Calama tonight, they decided that tomorrow would be a rest day in Calama.

Trevor and I decided to forego the shopping and arrived back at our hotel just after seven, just in time to see a very festive parade and musical performance take place, right in front of the hotel. I was pinned with my back (and camera bag) against a lamp post as the crowds filed the square but had my handy S10 camera in my pocket with which I managed to capture the event quite well. (Images recorded as S675). Trevor was caught in a better position and managed to capture some of the moments and music on the video facility of his camera. Very entertaining, but I still have no idea what it was in honour of.  All I know is that having marched through the town, having caused traffic chaos that had helped us to slip into the hotel's car park, they danced their hearts out for a good 30 minutes, unfortunately to the only tune that the band seemed to know, but played with gusto..

That night, my fellow travellers again reported some earth tremors and the dog population howled the place down, unnerved by nature's rumblings. As usual, I slept like a log and missed it all.