Northern Chile Deserts & Volcanoes A Greentours Trip Report 9th – 24th November 2015 Led by Chris Gardner Day 1 & 2 To Copiapo I’d arrived in Chile a day earlier to drive up to Copiapo where I met the group and we transferred to our cosy hotel in the town in time for dinner. Day 3 11th November Pan de Azucar The grey cloud gradually gave way to bluer skies as we neared the park having driven along the coast road past several little fishing towns that nestled in rocky bays. Just outside the park proper we stopped for an area of rocky bluffs where multi-headed domes of Copiapoa cineracscens were scattered about along with a few Cristaria sp as a Neotropical Cormorant fishes in the surf that lashed the rocks. We moved onto to an amazing area of cacti with thousands of the same species that dominated an area of gentle slopes forming large domes clusters of heads. After calling in at the park HQ we moved on stopping several times for a succession of interesting desert plants including various Nolana spp., Polyachyrus fuscus with pink spherical inflorescences and orangey Heliotropum linearifolium. By now it was lunchtime and we enjoyed a roadside picnic before exploring once again. This time is was for a remarkable population of Copiapoa cinera ssp. alba which occurred in their hundreds, with a multitude of different shapes and sizes and including at least twenty with little yellow flowers. Further exploration took us across the park to an area with odd pointed domes of Polyachyurus fuscus. The road we took back to Copiapo crossed more expansive desert landscapes past mounds of Cistanthe celasoides and we had a good view of a Mountain Caracara before finding the crucial petrol station and completing our drive back in the warm evening light. Day 4 12th November Tres Cruces National Park An early start was necessary to get the most out of our visit to the high Atacama and we were away by 6am driving east into the mountains. Early morning mists quickly gave way to clear conditions as we drove up a rocky valley stopping after a while for a break and to look at a few flowers of a white Nolana sp. Not much further on and some larger creamy spikes caught our eye, turning out to be the lovely Malesherbia lirana with large tubular flowers. A Variable Hawk flew across the slopes and there were Ochre-naped Ground-Tyrants on the bofedale Greentours Natural History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 1 (grassy saline marshes typical of high Atacama). The sunlit plumes of Cortaderia sp could be seen only a hundred yards away and near these were the sweet scented bushy Glandularia origenes, spiny domes of Cumolopuntia boliviana and on the scree various plants including pink Cistanthe celasoides as well as an Cordilleran Canastero. There had clearly been good amounts of snow this winter as I was seeing far more flowers than on my previous visits and this continued with a superb drift of pretty Schizopetalum tenuifolium with hundreds of plants extending up a little gully. We eventually made it to the pass with a big view across the colourful hills and part of the salt flats below, to where we descended arriving at the tranquil reflective Laguna Santa Rosa. There were a few Chilean Flamingos close to shore as well as Andean Gulls and Horned Coots. Taking a walk onto the fringing bofedale there were a few foraging Common Miners and two of them came right up to us within two feet unconcerned and curious. With a bit of searching we also had great views of Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe. We drove up to another viewpoint looking down on the lake and had lunch amidst pristine scenery all to ourselves. The salt flats stretched away into the distance and this blue waters contrasted with the rich red slopes speckled with golden grasses. Driving across the flat plain we continued onto a series of colourful hills painted with bands and drifts of various rocks and scree, with red, orange, green, black and white enhanced by large drifts of golden Festuca grasses. Six Vicuna were feeding below one slope. The return leg took us along a different road passing through a rocky gorge where we were surprised to see a large male Guanaco and had superb views of him as he climbed the slope next to us. Not far on and flashes of golden-yellow on the dark rocks were Calceolaria pinifolia a hardy desert species with narrow leaves. There were many superb clumps colouring the slope and we saw even more growing on stony flats as we walked to the pass for another big view. The road dropped down past gypsum hills and we stopped for a magnificent flower smothered dome of Adesmia echinus. There was now a long descent through the dry hills until we reached a cliff with much Cumulopunti boliviana and bushes of white Nolana sp. Our last stop was for a fine stand of sturdy Cistanthe longiscapa(?). Day 5 13th November Llanos de Challe The route south through the desert to Vallenar provided a series of flower stops, with a surprising amount of colour in such a dry expanse. There were many bushes of yellow flowered Skytanthus acutus and the showy tubular flowers of Argylia radiata in a range of colours from pure yellow to orange or deep red. As well as these we saw stands of tall white Argemone sp. and then after we’d dropped off our bags in Vallenar there were superb drifts of a showy Cistanthe sp. the wide pink flowers with darker centres, alongside some huge plants of Nolana rostrata var. carnosa. But not long after turning off the Ruta 5 we found truly superb examples if the latter, smothered in soft blue gentian-like flowers. The white flowers of the shrub Cordia decandra caught our eye and on closer examination the area (which had a little seep running through it courtesy of a leaky pipe) had a fascinating selection of flowers including the annual rosular violet Viola polypoda, a large flowered dodder Cuscuta sp. scrambling through a bush of Balbisia peduncularis, the latter with wide yellow flowers and a Moustached Turca ran along the dry bank. Variable Hawk circled in the clear skies as we progressed finding many bushes of Chuquiraga ulicina further on before reaching our lunch spot. Post lunch we wandered a short distance to some large clumps of Argemone hunnemannii and there were a few cacti too, but nothing compared to what was to come with the first of Greentours Natural History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 2 two stops for the astonishing populations of Copiapoa dealbata. Incredible multi-stemmed domes of greyish stems peppered the hillside, some over a hundred stems and also with a fair sprinkling of yellow flowers. A Guanaco fed further up slope seemingly unconcerned by us and slowly ambled across the rocky ground. Mixed in with the Copiapoa dealbata were many tall-stemmed Eulychnia breviflora and the sprawling yellow-spined Miqueliopuntia miquelii. Moving on we reached the coast road and stopped in a sandy area with scattered bushes where along the roadside were fine domes of Frankenia chilensis and dotted about the sandy flats were some fine golden-yellow Rhodophiala bagnoldii. A chance stop to look for flowers I’d seen the last time I was here flushed out two Burrowing Owls that perched on the sandy ridges for a time giving great views and the bird luck was to continue a bit later on. Before that there was another rewarding session with an even larger and more spectacular population of Copiapoa dealbata this one stretching from mountain to beach almost with thousands of plants. They really were a remarkable and unique sight. We moved on finding the big blue trumpets of Nolana rupicola on a large boulder and then stopping for a flowering plant of Eulychnia breviflora growing alongside a patch of deep blue Plumbago caerulea and the cactus Copiapoa echinoides. Cacti once again provided the interest at our last stop initially for a flowering plant of Miqueliopuntia miquelii, but as we alighted we noticed pale birds running fast over the stony ground and there they were three gorgeous Tawny-throated Dotterels, surely one of the world’s most beautiful waders. Moving further across the area we found a fine population of Copiapoa fieldleri with many flowers and then a veritable cactus and succulent garden of flowering Eulychnia breviflora, with their lovely furry calyces and pure white blooms, both pink and white Miqueliopuntia miquelii and many Oxalis gigantea, a most atypical member of the genus with knobbly woody stems but from which sprouted typical bright yellow Oxalis flowers. The light was perfect and we could have stayed until dark but we had a hotel to reach so we walked back finding the tiny and remarkable little cactus Eriosyce napina among the stones, and looking very much like one. Day 6 14th November South of Huasco Today was given over to exploring new territory and began well with a display of Cistanche sp. among the railway tracks. There were some fine cacti along the way and we stopped at one finding many domes of Copiapoa coquimbana and growing at the base of some were the golden flowers of Alstroemeria kingii. Arriving at Huasco we found a road that passed the large processing plant there and stopped in a sandy gully where there were a few Cruckshanksia pumila, small shrubs of a Nolana sp and the stunning purplish-pink Alstroemeria weidermannii. On the rocks were also a few Copiapoa alticostatus.