Working internet in the field!!!

So having made the long journey from Cuzco to Wayqecha Research Station at a rather impressive (occasionally scary) speed yesterday, I woke up this morning ready for action. The weather instruments were fixed to their substitute pole (with only a small amount of duct tape required to botch through) and we took it out and mounted it in the canopy. It weights about 30kg, but the rope is designed to hold a person (and more), and we left it dangling in the canopy at about 10m height. The picture below shows the set up, but you can't see the ground. Along with four smaller sensors this will record the climate at different heights in the canopy for 7 days at 3 different sites. This will give me a good idea of how the forest canopy alters the climate.

After the success of getting the weather equipment up and running, I decided to go and investigate the now complete canopy tower. Its a very fancy set up, and a strange thing to come across after walking 20 minutes into the forest, but it has some great views, and to my surprise, one of the few bromeliads from Wayqecha I had not seen with a flower. Turns out its actually very colourful! Picture below.

I also now have working internet at this research station, at least while electricity is switched on (6pm to 9pm)!