As I write this it is 16 February and we collected 103 species of vascular plants and we are exhausted, actually we were pretty tired to start with.

There is something a little annoying about waking up and getting dressed in 4°C when you are only 9° north of the equator. In fact our coordinates for today were 09°07’56.4”N, 082°57’30.4”W , not sure what that gives on Google Earth but here it is on Google Maps.

Some of the more unusual plants were from the potatoe family, Solanaceae. Firstly we had a Schultesianthus, apparently bat-pollinated, with very dark purple flowers

Next we collected a really interesting Cestrum, the leaves of which looked like a very common species whereas the flowers were quite distinct

And then a really unusual looking but not uncommon species, Larnax sylvarum, again with dark purple flowers and orange Physalis-like fruits

We got back to the hut just before dark; I hadn’t had a shower for a few days as the water is freezing but decided to make the effort for the sake of everyone else! I think I have just about recovered two hours later...