As the end of the first field season approaches

After almost three weeks in Chile, the end of the first part of our field campaign is approaching. Emma is leaving tomorrow and Ed is travelling around the Arauco area (further north) and then Chiloe (further south) for another couple of weeks of field work with colleagues from the US and Chile.

All in all it's been a successful first field season - we've been to 6 new sites, collected 225 modern marsh samples, and nearly 4 metres of sediment to analyse when we get back. That's going to be a lot of time spent looking down a microscope counting diatoms!!



Now's a good time to say thank you to all those who've helped us along the way - Ulises at Camila 109 in Valparaiso, Claudia and Edgardo at Ecohostal Huellas del Bosque in Valdivia, Claus and Rodolfo the local guides in Valdivia, the man who hailed the boat for us when stranded on Isla del Rey, and of course our UK based friends and family on the other end of the phone.

And also thanks to those who've provided entertainment - the US customs officer, the tourist information man at JFK airport, the postman on Isla del Rey. Of course we've also provided our own entertainment too when arriving in places in the middle of nowhere, muddling our way through conversations in spanish, covered head to toe in mud, and then walking to our rooms carrying a toolbox, levelling tripod and shovels - as all "tourists" naturally would.