One of the contributors on this subject suggests, in Chileans No.53, that it did not look very practical to get a vehicle from the coast road up to the entrance to the Quebrada Iscuña. I would be in full agreement with that observation. The only practical way of getting a vehicle from the coast road to the Quebrada entrance would be to follow the wash which forms the dry river bed. This is the route which must have been used by the vehicles bringing the produce of the Iscuña mines to the coast road after which they would then presumably follow the coast road. I say Iscuña “mines” advisedly as my understanding is that there are three different locations in this area, all called Mina Iscuña, which have been worked on an adhoc basis. but did not appear to be active at the time of my visit. There were faint traces of vehicular passage in the sand and gravel forming the lower section of the wash from the Quebrada, but it would have required preparatory work to enable vehicles to use that route again. My own vehicle was driven alongside the wash far enough to be more or less out of sight from the coast road but owing to the soft nature of the ground I would not have been happy to take it any further inland.
 

From there, I started to walk up the Quebrada Iscuña. After perhaps two kilometres there was a side quebrada coming in from the north, joining the main quebrada which continued to run eastwards, further into the coastal hills. From my map and the lie of the land it looked as though this side quebrada coming in on the north side might offer a practical route to gain access to the higher ground between the Quebrada Iscuña and the Quebrada Botija. From there it might then be possible to descend into the Quebrada Botija. This indeed proved to be the case, there being a trek of four or five kilometres over the saddle between the two quebradas; there was rising ground inland of the saddle and a high ridge lying between the saddle and the coast. Once across the saddle a descent was made down the side of the Quebrada Botija, which is fairly steep but negotiable with care and an occasional steadying hand. The Quebrada Botija was followed back towards the sea for perhaps two or three kilometres but I did not wish to return by the coast road so climbed up to the saddle again. From there it was a trek of perhaps six km or along the side of the coastal ridge, back to the Quebrada Iscuña.
 

The problem of identifying stopping places is best accounted for by the absence of any road signs. Names are purely map references and nothing exists on the ground to confirm many of these. Our first contact with RMF 53 growing on the sandy plains sloping down to the sea, was when travelling south from Blanco Encalada. A kilometre reading on the vehicle suggested that we were near the map reference of Caleta Botija, but it might equally have been Punta dos Reyes, However, at the RMF 53 location there was a quebrada running north-east a little further back towards Blanco Encalada so we deduced this was the Quebrada Botija. On the more recent trip this location was approached from the south, when the round trip described above was undertaken.
 

Plants, which I take to be RMF 53, were seen growing in rocks throughout the area crossed by this circular trek. They did grow in different surroundings, either rock or sand, but nevertheless the plants had the same appearance in either situation. It was on the sides of both Qu. Iscuña and Qu. Botija where I found the plants I take to be Copiapoa variispinata, which as I indicated before, is not the same as RMF 53. In my opinion RMF 53 is Ritter’s Copiapoa rarissima. Also within the Quebrada Iscuña is yet another Copiapoa which I took to be different to both the foregoing sorts, and not one that I could easily put a name to. It was suggested by Nigel Taylor on his visit to this area that it might be a new species. I regret I have never collected material of this third sort and am therefore unable to check my first impressions.

I have not encountered mist in the area of these two quebradas during my visits there. The vegetation in that area suggests to me that mist is not a common occurrence here, more in keeping with the areas immediately to the north around El Cobre and immediately to the south. From this area to Paposo the landscape remains barren and although I have slides of mist forming in these higher hills it is not evident from the flora that it is a regular occurrence, as it is for example in the area of Paposo and Esmeralda.