QueenPuya

I'm comfy in my home here in Madison, but preparing once again to hit the road for my (basically) last and grandest South American adventure.  I say basically because I will be going to Costa Rica with my mom in June, but that is mostly for fun and let's be honest- its Costa Rica, the Disneyland of the Tropics.  Though Peru, especially Macchu Pichu, might have some Disneyland aspects, we are going to keep it pretty rough and rugged.  My compañeros for this expedition are Bryan, my labmate studying lovely purple and blue flowered mints and Mercedes, another UW grad student studying wild tomatoes who just happens to be Peruvian.  Very handy, of course.  Bryan is tall by US standards so he'll be plenty imposing looking in the land of short people, and he is quite a talented field botanist.  I once again will resume my role as "tall blond",  but I don't know if I'll be able to work my young white female traveling alone charm anymore that has gotten me plenty of help in the past.  So what's the plan?  Bryan and I arrive in Cusco on Wednesday morning where Mercedes will help orient us, at 11,000ft in a land of gringos seeking Incan enlightenment.  It will be funny to be gringos who don't really care about seeing the ruins, just the weedy plants growing off them!  Of course Macchu Pichu will blow us away, but we have to stay focused.  We'll hopefully be able to collect in the area for a week or two and also get to see the crazy Holy Week scene.  Then, back to Lima for permitting fun, supposedly amazing food, and gulpfuls of sea-level oxygen.  And perhaps a few collections if one can ever find the end of Lima.  We will then get on the cursed South American bus (hopefully they don't like reggaeton and opt for panpipes, but I sincerely doubt it!) and bus north to Trujillo.  The name of the game will be to take the main PanAm highway along the coast and then dart due east inland up into the mountains, only to return again to the highway to make any sort of northern progress.  We will collect out of Trujillo and Cajamarca, transition into the northern Andes, for a few weeks.  On our way back south we will flank the Cordillera Blanca in Ancash, the land of huge mountains and the largest Puya ever, P. raimondii, the only superstar of my project.  I am SO excited to meet them properly in the wild!  Back in the States after one month of madness, perhaps with 25 or so new species in hand and an END to collecting, though hopefully not forever...  May my health hold up (and that of my companions), may the rains be done, may the buses be as clean and nice as in Ecuador, may the plants be right next to the road, may the cuisine be more Colombian than Bolivian, may we not need to cross the Rio Marañon by bus, may we meet some awesome people and may we all arrive home safe and sound!  More later...