Cape Farewell

Meeting with the Cape Farewell group (the team of 'artists' documenting climate change) was great fun. I met them in Wayqecha, after they had woken up at 3am to watch the sunrise at Tres Cruces after a night in the cold house! They had a night to recuperate in Wayqecha before they were put to work with the group. Apart from a small team who went early with Kathryn to collect river water, the group had a tour of the weather station, the new canopy tower and the plot. Afterwards two of them were assigned to Bromeliad collecting with me, Jorge Orta and Marije de Haas. We wandered through the plots collecting a plants for biomass and shape-size analysis, then went down a trail to collect a specimen for the herbarium. Back at the cabin Marije got her hands dirty helping to pull apart the bromeliads and the film crew returned to film the preparation of a herbarium specimen. I think both Marije and Jorge enjoyed the day. Jorge also mentioned that he will have an exhibition in the Natural History Museum based on the expedition, which I am VERY EXCITED about. Im excited to see what else they produce, but Im hoping for a nice picture book because there are some great photographers on the expedition. Im less excited about the film footage, because Im sure I will look stupid!

On a less exciting note I have spent the last few days drying specimens and typing up data from the field. Im probably not going to get back into the field until Sunday or Monday. Im making the most of having cake and coffee around the corner for as long as possible...