We did some food shopping as we would be staying a few days in the quite isolated holiday home of the husband of one of Florencia's sisters at the Laguna Torca Nature Reserve. But first we would go to the type locality of the relatively recently described Echinopsis bollingeriana at nearby Punta de Lobos (S724).

If you have any fantasy image of what a location for a new cactus species should look like, then it is extremely unlikely that this place bears any similarities to that image. This location has been well documented for many years and appears on numerous websites, but not by cactophiles, but by surfers who flock here during the peak summer months. Developments of more tourist facilities was in full swing and it is more than likely that years ago E. aspillagae would have grown here. As it is, the Eriosyce subgibbosa and Echinopsis bollingeria that we saw are likely to be safe, as their habitat is on the steep cliffs that overlook the surf action. We were lucky and found many specimens in flower and in fruit, so that we could confirm the red colour of the fruits. Although there were a number of the spectacular hanging specimens cascading down the rocks, the vast majority of plants, even those growing on the rock face, were of upright growing habit. In fact, we saw these plants elsewhere, including in flower pots at Hotel Montecarlo, usually growing on level land, within a few kilometres of the Ocean. In fact, it seems likely that the type locality was in fact flat lands as recently as perhaps a few centuries ago, since when earth quakes and erosion have turned it into the current cliff face. The plant's pendant habit seems therefore to be an environmental factor rather than a genetic one. Juan tells and has images on his website that confirm the upright growth habit of young stems. With age, it seems that the plant's tissues can no longer support this upright growth so that stems lay down and grow along the ground where they are able to root and turn their apex back in a skyward direction. The ability to form adventitious roots where cactus stems touch the ground is not unusual in the Family.

The Eriosyce subgibbosa was spectacular in the way that it covered some of the steep cliff faces, just as it does much further north, near of Pichidangui. 

And so we continued the previous day's practice of 'follow the leader' as we continued south. It seemed a lot farther than a subsequent look at the map suggest, due to the lack of good roads leading to the Laguna Torca Nature Reserve. This is a little reserve, covering 604 hectares (1,328 acres). Florencia's brother in law swapped some 40 hectares of land here for his motorbike!  A local family runs a farm on the estate and looks after the holiday home during the owners' absence. The wife of the farmer was more than happy to act as cook and housekeeper during our visit.

We spent the afternoon exploring the house, the garden and a spot on the lake shore that offered a view of the birds that live on the lake. The website for the reserve claims that there are some 106 species of birds here while according to another website, the number is only 70. The black-necked swan (Cygnus melanocorypha) was the most obvious of these, but at this time seemed to have chosen the opposite end of the lake for their feeding. Mike and John would have had a field day here! Pictures taken here today are recorded as S725.

Water at the house came from a local stream, but there were no other services which meant that evenings were spent by candle light and the supply of pine cones was burned to provide hot water for showers. It also meant no power for the laptop, so that I had the chance to read up on some of the questions that had cropped up during the trip, leaving the limited battery power only to down load camera images.