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Norma walking along the road.
Crossing the river by pully.
Entrance to the plot from the side of the road.
 
Hiking up the waterfall in the dry season.
Working again on steep slopes.
Alfonso checks out the leaves above.
Here is our fearless tree climber, Sven, who climbs up enormously tall and
unstable trees to collect the leaves for us. He uses only a rope (no cleats, no
special belt, nothing else).
Sometimes the monkeys swing over, curious, to check out our tree climber. “Is he one of us?” asks
the monkey, “Because he looks kind of funny!”
During my 2nd visit a group of 7 very territorial monkeys attacked
us.
 
They lunged from tree to tree, screeched and shook branches violently. But
they’re so cute and fuzzy!
I took photos in between dodging sticks that were thrown at us.
I fired my tree climber and hired this guy instead.
He applied for the job, but was a bit pudgy.
What are you lookin’ at!
Also up in the trees is a bird foraging for berries.
Su-Yin is thrilled with her daily lunch of bread and week-old unrefrigerated
cheese.
 
Emerging fruit. The photo on the right shows a plant that is displaying both
its interesting fruits (left) as well as its vibrant flowers (right).
These flowers drop all over the forest floor and make for colorful paths.
When my colleague, Israel,
looked up from his measurements he cracked up laughing for about 5 minutes.
Leaf bug.
The butterflies like to lick the salt off your skin.
Translucent butterfly by the side of the road.
In ’07 and ’09 we stayed at the house of a trout farmer, Don Dimitrio.
Another make-shift lab.
We installed a weather station on Don Dimitrio’s
property. Hannah, who leads Cape Farewell,
helps us clear the area by machete for the equipment. The smile on her face
reflects the fact that she just blurted out, “Deforestation is fun!”
Dimitrio’s hidden beer and Coke (soda)
cellar.
Here, I cook up some fresh trout by candlelight.
A well-deserved meal at the end of a hard day.
Last of the whiskey!
In ’07 during a rain delay, everyone was bored and listless, so I made
a ball out of string and tape, mounted an old tire to the wall (barely seen
above the window), and taught the Peruvians how to play mini-hoop basketball,
which they loved. After I kicked their butts, we set up a ground goal for
mini-futbol, in which they kicked my butt.
Rain outside.
Listo and listless, waiting for the rain to stop.
They don’t call it the cloud forest for nothing.
Finally starting to clear.
In ’08 we camped on this platform near to our site.
Working on my harmonica.
We saw Kate Halladay, who is a graduate student in
our lab. Kate releases these balloons every day to measure the vertical
profile of the atmosphere.
Watching over the mountains.
Derrumbes in ‘07. At this time there were 5 derrumbes between San Pedro and Wayqecha.
One of them was breathtakingly enormous. An entire mountain peak (/\) gave
way and was now a valley (V).
Reflecting on the power of nature and the fragility of man.
One derrumbe, which was stopping supplies (and
tourists) from migrating, I had to hike over for 40 minutes. When I got to
the other side, I was able to hitch a ride on the back of a tomato truck
along with 30 other people. As we set out in the truck, the people around me
began crossing themselves, asking for the Lord to take their soul if they
should die.
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