Sometimes words fall hopelessly short. This might explain the silences between the two botanists as their vehicle crunches ...

But reaching out of nooks in the cracked crust along the desert's coast, there lie thousands of Copiapoa cacti. A cactus group made up of more than 30 species, Copiapoa are found only in Chile.

But the only secluded shady spots in the desert are often right next to a cholla cactus, so contact is inevitable! But even worse was the array of dislodged pads on or in the ground already ...