Macro Shots

The alarm 'boinged' at 5 AM this morning. Eric and Tom went to the bamboo forest to record the plain-tailed wrens. Maya and I stayed under our layers of blankets for a few more hours. It was too cold during the night to venture to the bathrooms (down the hall, down the stairs, along the next building), but once the sun rose, everything warmed up beautifully. Breakfast was pineapple and crepes (choice of nutella, banana and nutella, pineapple, jam or sugar, made to order) and French toast.

Eric had all his equipment sprawled out on every surface, and once back from the bird expedition, focused his energies on trying to find a way to overcome some interference he was getting in his bat recordings, so Pamela, Amber, Maya and I decided to take a walk in the forest and try out our macro lenses. I now must purchase a good macro lens, or at least that is what I learned during our walk. Each of us had a different camera, and we took our time photographing whatever appealed to us. I find the cloud forest a magical place, and of course it rained during our walk, so everything was different on our walk back.

Eric worked out his bat detector problems, and decided to remain another night at Yanayacu with Pamela to make some more recordings. Tom had birds at home to feed, and was worried that we would not get home. There are some planned demonstrations against the government set for Monday, with the expectation that the roads to and from Quito would be blocked. Tom was concerned that if we did not get on the road early enough, we would not get back at all. These protests can be quite intense and potentially dangerous, so they are best avoided. I wonder if everyone was avoiding the roads, because they were empty and we cruised back to Quito in record time and did not encounter any obstacles, except for intense fires in Cumbaya near Quito which were spectacular and terrifying. They were next to the road and uncontrollable, and devastating.


It felt good to be home. Maya and I walked through the neighbourhood, buying bread and cheese and flowers and DVDs at three for five dollars. Eric had a good bat recording night, so the experiment was a success, but has not yet figured out how to get back to Quito tomorrow.