Sandy:

I am here at last; flying over the Andes this morning from Santiago in Chile was amazing - beautifully clear and I could see all the glaciers and snow-capped peaks. Not much snow now because it is summer here....

Cordoba is a beautiful town, a brilliant mixture of old colonial and new. The University where the herbarium is located is near the centre of town, we went over there this afternoon to have a look around. They are experiencing a heat wave in Cordoba - it is approximately 30 degrees and VERY humid! I am catching up on all the adventures Tiina and Gloria have been having last week - I'll had over to her now for the update!

Tiina:

It was great to get Sandy here with us to sort out some issues with Solanum! Like Sandy says, it's extremely hot and humid, which is why we've also had some big storms this week. A few days ago it was raining ice balls - yes I mean ICE BALLS!

I took pictures as proof of how bad it was: we had to mop water from the floor as the roof and windows were leaking in the herbarium! It was a real mixture of ice the size of table tennis balls, and massive rain.

It just goes to show that it's not easy to keep up a museum in tropical countries... While we were busy mopping water from the floor, the storm knocked down a large tree just outside. The sound was tremendous! Gloria and I went out to see the damage afterwards.

The challenge of the coming days is to fit everything in. We have meetings to talk about our recent results, our work with molecular phylogenetics and taxonomy at NHM, and cytogenetic and taxonomic work here in Cordoba. It's a great chance to throw some ideas around, discuss what we have and plan future work.

We also have to plan the route for our longer trip in the north. We are heading to the big Andes on Friday, to the departments of Jujuy, Catamarca, Tucuman and Salta. There are many species we want to cover, and we can gather localities where to find them from the herbarium and our existing online Solanum database.

During the weekend we did a short 3 day trip around the departments of Cordoba and San Luis and managed to find species which were previously only known from types. The three species we found in the field can now be studied in detail together with the original descriptions to fully understand the species.

Now off to bed, we are gathering strength for what's ahead! Thus far 253 specimens fully databased, c. 400 identified, and more to go!