Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Hoy on February 21, 2019, 11:59:14 AM
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We started walking on January 29 from a small place in Chile named Los Patos, 150km due east from Santiago. February 7 we ended up at Las Leñas River in the province of San Juan, Argentina, after 120km walking mostly at 2500 - 4600m altitude.
Here are a few pictures from the trip.
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Typical dry landscape at the outset. Trichocereus chilensis cacti.
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Our helpers. We had only a little backpack with food and water with us. The rest of the gear was carried by horses and mules.
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Cactus with fruits.
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Cactus with the mistletoe Tristerix aphyllus.
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Cover photo on IRG103 was Tristerix aphyllus, one of the scarlet mistletoes in Chile, photo John M. Watson. www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Jul261532613984IRG103-July2018.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Jul261532613984IRG103-July2018.pdf)
Stylish sort of plant!
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Cover photo on IRG103 was Tristerix aphyllus, one of the scarlet mistletoes in Chile, photo John M. Watson. www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Jul261532613984IRG103-July2018.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Jul261532613984IRG103-July2018.pdf)
Stylish sort of plant!
Indeed!
We saw a lot of it on the Chilean side of the border but the big cacti and the mistletoe disappeared when we climbed higher.
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Maybe an introduced one, Argemone(?).
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Unknown
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Big barrels - 60-70cm across.
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An unknown Astragalus
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Thorny shrub: Mulinum echinus(?)
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Flowers of the barrel cactus.
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Cuscuta chilensis, a strange parasite
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Alstroemeria hookeri among the rocks
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Chuquiraga sp
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Azorella madreporica
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Keep 'em coming Trond.
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Keep 'em coming Trond.
Yes, I will David but not all at once!
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Very drought tolerant Calystegia(?)
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Astragalus sp This species was almost the only one covering a large sandy flat.
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Not much lichen, maybe too dry.
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Mimulus luteus, always close to running water.
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Caiophora coronata, much visited by bees and wasps while I looked at it.
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Caiophora coronata, don't touch! It has spines.
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Astragalus in flower
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A valerian, Valeriana sp
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Unknown, any ideas?
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Mutisia sinuata
To be continued...
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Wow! That's a lot of walking Trond! and a lot of helpers, good that the terrain allows to use horses and mules.
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Wow! That's a lot of walking Trond! and a lot of helpers, good that the terrain allows to use horses and mules.
Yes but we started walking January 29! Somehow I had written January 2. So we walked only for 8 days.
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Beautiful landscapes and plants, thank you for showing.
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Trond,
Thank you for sharing the photograph from your trip. 8)
The landscape looks very similar to portions of southeastern California - locations near Death Valley, California or the mountains around the southern portion of the Owens Valley, California. Many of the plants look similar (not surprising).
I look forward to the next posting of photographs.
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Our gear ready for the horses.
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The group. The guide in red jersey.
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Shrubs. Bacharis sp?
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The caravan overtake us.
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This looks like pure adventure... fantastic. I am also looking forward to your return and more pictures of this breathtaking landscape.
Thomas
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Blue heaven and rocks. Looks flat here and it is! But it isn't like this everywhere...
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Long way down to the river.
More to come.
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Mutisia sp
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Calceolaria sp
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?
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Oxalis sp
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Mutisia sp
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?
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?
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Loasa sp
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Chaetanthera glabrata
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Chaetantera pusilla?
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Chuquiraga sp
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Mulguraea spathulata
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Close up
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Anagallis alternifolia?
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Erigeron leptopetalus?
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Cruckshansia hymenodon
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Cruckshanksia palmae
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Same
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Haplopappus?
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Oxalis sp
More to come
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Spectacular landscapes, moon-like.
The red flowered between Calceolaria and Oxalis looks like Viviania (nice name, it stuck in my memory...).
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Minerals
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Cistanthe picta
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Werneria pygmaea and Lobelia oligophylla
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Junellia sp
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Calceolaria filicaulis
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same
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Pachylaena atriplicifolia
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Calycera herbacea
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Montiopsis/Calandrinia?
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Aconcagua in the background
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The hills here were dotted with Tropaeolum polyphyllum but most of them were notflowering due to drought.
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Acaena magellanica was abundant where water seeped out of the grounds.
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Higher up other kinds of plants dominated.
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Like this Montiopsis potentilloides.
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Schizanthus hookeri
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Rhodiophiala rhodolirion
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Mutisisa subulata
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Mulinum echinus
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Astragalus arnottianus
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Halerpestes cymbalaria (syn Ranunculus c.) This species is a cosmopolite - also found some places along the coast of Norway!
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Astragalus sp
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The same Astragalus. Here on this sandy flat it was the dominant species.
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Caiophora coronata, very attractive to wasps and bees!
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Perezia carthamoides
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Hypochaeris acaulis
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Cistanthe picta fruits.
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Fruits and one flower.
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Gentianella sedifolia
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Pozoa coriacea
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Valeriana sp
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Gentianella ottonis
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Gentianella ottonis
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Gentianella ottonis and Cerastium sp
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Thank you for sharing these extraordinary impressions!
Gerd
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Hello Hoy, as usual I'm impressed with your mountaineering. Do you have altitude estimates of where your photos of plants were pictured? Did you feel high altitude sickness along the way? Congratulations
Arturo
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Thank you for sharing these extraordinary impressions!
Gerd
You are welcome, Gerd!
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Hello Hoy, as usual I'm impressed with your mountaineering. Do you have altitude estimates of where your photos of plants were pictured? Did you feel high altitude sickness along the way? Congratulations
Arturo
Thank you, Arturo.
I did not suffer from anything during the trip. I always walk very slowly when I gain altitude, and we went up and down several times before we crossed the highest pass at 4500m. I have been higher before without being sick.
The pictures are from 1000 - ca 4200m. Most of them from 2500 - 3500m I think. Several of the most interesting plants are from 3500 - 4000m.
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Oxalis sp. It was a lot of different(?) Oxalis species but all had yellow flowers.
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Arenaria rivularis
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Calceolaria hypercina, almost shrublike - along a river at ca 4000m.
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Montiopsis sericea
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Unknown
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Cliffs
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Mimulus luteus, always where water was available.
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Often with Acaena magellanica. We saw a few different Acaena species. The burrs were very unpleasant to get in the socks or on the back when you put on your rucksack!
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Perezia cathamoides
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Leucheria scrobiculata
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Viola montagnei
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Rather small dark flowers
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Nototriche compacta
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Down prom the highest crossing at 4500m
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Nassauvia argyrophylla
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Chaetanthera villosa
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Senecio sp
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Here at about 4000m we found one of the few places with real moss along a seepage. Usually mosslike pillows were other kinds of plants.
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Unknown
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Chaetantera pusilla?
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Maihuenia poeppigii - landscape
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We were a week or so late to see them in full flower. This is a small pillow. The biggest ones were more than 1meter across!
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...This is a small pillow. The biggest ones were more than 1meter across!
Not one you’d want to rest your head on for long! ;D
cheers
fermi
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Not one you’d want to rest your head on for long! ;D
cheers
fermi
Ouch...to both of you! Wonderful photos Trond, really enjoying your adventure, while the winter winds howl here!
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Not one you’d want to rest your head on for long! ;D
cheers
fermi
Nor sit on it!
But this one is easy to see, it is worse with those plants with hidden spines!
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Ouch...to both of you! Wonderful photos Trond, really enjoying your adventure, while the winter winds howl here!
Thank you Gordon!
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The last leg!
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The ground was covered by dense mats of an Azorella species.
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Very dry landscape, few plants.
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On the road again. Back to the civilization!
The end
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Trond, many thanks, very enjoyable.
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Trond, many thanks, very enjoyable.
My pleasure, David!
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Trond, just out of sheer curiosity the final road where was it leading to? Was it near the Pampa de Leoncito astronomical observatory?
Arturo
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Trond, just out of sheer curiosity the final road where was it leading to? Was it near the Pampa de Leoncito astronomical observatory?
Arturo
No, it was leading to Barreal in the province of San Juan. We hit the road at Estancia Las Hornillas.
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Trond Thank you very much...many years ago I passed through along that road. Pampa de Leoncito would have been in the other direction of the same road. It is with great happiness that I see that it is now also used for nature trekking. There's something eerie and majestic at the same time with those vast landscapes...at times breathtaking. Very much in common with the landscapes just a few minutes away from here, only at a much lower altitude. I wonder how many of your pictured alpines could be brought to grow in lower elevations . Some of them are real gems.
Arturo
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I think it is reminiscent of a Martian landscape.
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Thank you for sharing! I must admit when I read the title of the thread, my first thought went to this movie (although they crossed from east to west if I remember correctly):
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/Alive92poster.jpg/220px-Alive92poster.jpg)