For many, today was the last day 'on the road'. We had been invited to the house of Florencia's parents at Lonquen, to the south of Santiago, from where it was easy to take the 30 minute drive to the airport the next day. But not before making some more cactus stops!

Stories of the giant Eriosyce aurata that had proved to be a tremendous source of seed in 2003 and 2004 had resulted in a high ranking for this spot as we made up this year's itinerary. As we left Ruta 5, we were greeted by a sign indicating that during the previous two days the staff at the National Park had been on strike for better pay conditions and that the park had been closed. The usual track was closed by a locked gate and we were sent onto a track that ran back, parallel to Ruta 5 before turning west. The new track followed a completely different course. In previous years, we had found all the cacti that we wanted to see before reaching the entrance of the Park, but what about this new track? We decided to drive straight to the entrance and spot places that looked promising for a visit on the way back. As anticipated, the entrance was also in a new location and the GPS details were duly noted. The hillsides around here were covered in acacia shrub with just a few Echinopsis chiloensis ssp skottsbergii. What a contrast with the former entrance where the hills around it were densely covered with these cacti.

It was not difficult to round everyone up and move on to one of the spots where we had spotted an abundance of cacti from the car: E. aurata, in bud and even some in flower, Echinopsis chiloensis ssp skottsbergii, Cumulopuntia sphaerica and Eulychnia acida, all in flower and Eriosyce curvispina, in fruit, but not yet with ripe seeds. We had been wandering how Flo and Juan were able to find Eriosyce in habitat, even at 120 km p hr. The secret was out as we found a dead spiney shell of an aurata stuck to the end of their car radio aerial: They must have been tuned in to 'Eriosyce radio' and picked up their signals :-) The various stops along the track from the Park's entrance back to Ruta 5 are all recorded as S701.

For the umpteenth time, we hoped to take the Ruta 5 exits at La Cebada and/or Bahia Teniente; and just as before, we failed, mainly due to the risk that 4 cars slowing down to 10 k.p.h or less would make a marvellous target for the huge trucks thundering along at 120 k.p.h. - the sliproads at these exits were just too short or non-existent. Our goal was to photograph the southernmost Copiapoa location. We did however manage to get safely off the Pan Am at the exit for Puerto Oscura and while we did not see any Copiapoa we were delighted to find this quaint small cove that appeared isolated from extremes of weather and progress. 

So, what plants would we find here (S702) Echinopsis (Trichocereus) chiloensis, Eriosyce subgibbosa (? - the plants were not in flower!) and Puya chilensis (in flower).

And so on to S703 - the traditional last stop of a Copiapoathon at Pichidangui. We were really not expecting to find anything new on this much visited location, but it was interesting to see how the endemic cacti were faring in their battle for survival with imported garden plants. Although we could not see the plant bodies, the bright coloured flowers of Eriosyce curvispina were head and shoulders above the competing vegetation. Further down the rocks, closer to the Ocean shore, the garden plants were too tender to combat the salt spray and the cacti (Eulychnia castanea, Echinopsis deserticola, E. chiloensis and Eriosyce chilensis and E. subgibbosa) were winning the battle, alongside Alstroemeria.

We left, sad in the knowledge that it would be a while the last stop on this trip. Four hours later, enjoying wine and a BBQ at Flo's, the memory seemed to fade away already.