Tasmanian tigers and Andean foxes

Cold sideways wind and rain.

Fingers ripping at the rafters, blowing open the door, and the scream of the wind like a banshee howl. Angry spirits.

Nothing for it--indoors day, huddled together against the cold in our little cabin.

Class day then. Ok, Alfred Russel Wallace. Unsung hero, scientist, adventurere extroidinaire of old--but Darwin got all the credit....

Island bio-geo-graphy, adaptive radiations, sympatry, evolution, selection....extinction. Heavy.

Tasmanian tigers and long extinct dodos. Ghosts now. Extinction is forever. Mind you....

Tea time philosophizing on a manifesto of the land. Revolt! A better world imagined. Happy to be up here from away from the madness down below.

Too much caffeine and serious cabin fever.

Last of the food. Sardines and rice. Stir crazy, walk around. Feels like walking in soggy cereal.

Feliz cumpleanos por Ramon!

Last of our sugar baked in a cake. Guanabana jelly for icing and canned peaches for garnish.

Nightfall and the wind dies down.

Just before bed stripping down to long underwear there are shouts above. Eyes in the darkness. Our visitor has returned!

Right outside the kitchen this time, but no....these are Andean fox tracks in the mud. Then they see him, baleful and curious eyeing our compost heap nearby.

Fall asleep to the chorus of frogs. Loud and melodic after the rain. Seeping in my brain. Good dreams....

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And thats all I got. All my notes from the field! I snapped this shot of the bamboo that Rual and the guys just cut hauled up for the new cabin. The supplies chopped straight out of the forest.