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Wayqecha field station is situated 2900 m in the
clouds.
We study the cloud-forest that is dependent on these unusual moisture
dynamics.
This explains everything.
 
The field station itself is wonderful--hot water, toilets, beds and even a
gourmet chef (Panchito) who baked me a chocolate
cake for my birthday in 2007!
 
Our dining hall / laboratory.
And Olympic ping pong training ground.
At night, we can see the cloud electrical field dancing around us. When
lightning forms, the thunder is so deafening that it shakes everything. The
ultimate sub-woofer if you will.
Other nights, the sky is perfectly clear.
Ken was building a greenhouse in July ’08.
Marije is happy that Steven is pleased they found
an enormous bromeliad that’s probably a new species.
  
Lots of nice orchids grow around the field station.
Panchito the chef knows all the orchids, which is
amazing because some of them are so tiny and hidden by the thicket of the
forest.
Cape Farewell ’09 on a Panchito-led orchid walk.
 
Our view is like nothing else, though perhaps Luiz
is missing the warmth of the Amazon lowlands.
Here I have Su-Yin take a photo of the valley every 15 minutes all day long.
A typical day of cloud movements.
Hannah uses the spot to send Twitter messages via our satellite phone.
Alfonso, Israel and I go to work in the
field (and a bottle of beer awaits our return).
 
Our field site is a beautiful 45 minute walk over waterfalls.
Welcome to our office. Please do not wipe your feet before entering.
Office security guard.
 
We have to walk around the face of the Andes…
…and into the slanted cloud forest. The work is difficult in parts
especially traversing across tough topography--I literally hang on to the
side of the Andes by swinging from trees and
lianas.
In ’09 they built 3 canopy towers interconnected with walkways so that
you could literally walk through the tops of the trees.
Hanging out on the lower bridge.
Looking up to a canopy tower platform.
 
Yadvinder looks down at his notebook while Norma looks up to the canopy.
 
Some of our soil and leaf measurements.
I include this picture from Cuzco
before our field work, because this may be the last time we saw Luiz’s and Yadvinder’s
hands clean.
Hands are clean no more.
 
Helping Israel
put the loot into the bags near lucky tree #8, which has on it lianas with
giant nodules full of yummy nitrogen.
 
An instrument attached to our weather station (left) and the essentials
(right): our super heavy-duty field laptop, satellite phone, pocket knife,
and field notebook.
 
Our team measured everything from up in the sky to down in the roots.
 
Our gadgets range from inexpensive to expensive.
Charlie Kronick of Greenpeace is interested in our
equipment.
Describing the measurements to Cape Farewell.
 
Then I gave them the opportunity to unplug everything and try to put it back
together again. Just kidding!
The artists liked the use of the hemispherical (fish-eye) camera to quantify
canopy closure and gaps.
Our experiment is neatly lined with blue tape.
Group photo (clockwise from left): Our driver Eric, our tree climber Roger
(El Trepedor), Josh (Dr Josh), Fernando (Fernandino), Jose, Norma, Katja,
Javier (Dendrometerer Extraordinaire), Yadvinder
(El Jefe), Luiz (Luizao), and our chef Panchito
who, sadly, couldn’t come with us to our other field sites.
 
Eric is a great driver, unlike Alfonso who lost control of his car, almost
drove us off the face of the mountains, then
regained traction only to have us slam into the cliff. If you are reading
this and are a university official or parent, then, uh, just kidding.
 
Katja, who stayed behind at Wayqecha,
says goodbye to Luiz and Josh.
Oh wait, Luiz is still finishing his cigarette on
his precious chair by a bottle of whiskey.
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