First day at first camp

One of a series of blog posts written during a Field Museum rapid inventory of the Kampankis mountain range in northern Peru in 2011.

"The most prominent feature of our camp here is the stream that winds through it—a stream about 10 m wide and shin-deep where it passes the kitchen—so that wherever you are in camp you hear the shushing of cool water over rocks. The rocks in the stream are worn smooth and covered in moss and planted here and there with shoulder-high stands of herbs whose long, ribbon-like leaves keep them from washing away when heavy rainstorms turn the stream, for a few minutes, into a river. One of the herbs is a nondescript cyclanth; the other is a bromeliad whose long, cane-like stems are topped with spectacular bright red inflorescences. It’s such an unusual design for a bromeliad that upon first arriving at camp Isau and I gaped as if it had fallen from Mars. But David, who knew it from the Cordillera del Condor, said simply: 'Pitcairnia aphelandraflora....'"

Read the full post here.