Pedro

The 2009 field work is finished. We spent 6 days in Santa Cruz in order to send the samples to Bern. While there, I met a friend of mine, Pedro Nuni, who is a MAS parliament candidate for the next election in Bolivia. In this picture he is together with the President Evo Morales. I took the photo yesterday, Sunday, during a celebration in the CIDOB. I hope I can visit Pedro in La Paz next year.

No limits

We solved the problem! there is a very easy way to work in the lakes: learn to walk on the water:-))

We thanks our Anna for the photos, she is the official reporter of the blog:-)

Mamorè

With the help (paid help...and a bit expensive...) of Bolivian Army, we navigated the northern part of Mamorè river, in the area of Puerto Siles.

In the photo, Bernhard San, the "Marin" and me.

We did it

Many thanks to la Chcca, Seri, Leo and napalm boy for their suggestions on how to get to the center of the lake. At the end we decided to adopt the local caretòn technology and it worked!!!...well...we had to transport by hand all the rest of the equipments for the last 250 meters, after opening a path into the floating vegetation -yomomo-

Fritzcarrald would be proud of us (have you seen the movie?).

Buscando el tesoro

The first time we stepped here was 2006. Henne and I. It was clear since then that, under our feet, there was the treasure!! We went there again in 2007, with Heinz and in 2008, when I had a face to face with a very friendly snake who decided to share our trench with me…but, despite 3 visits, there was still something missing. Today, Sunday 13 of September, after 4 years of thinking about what was going on with the isla, we (me together with ….you know what I mean…. Bernardo Por-ahì San) did the last day of field work. Now we have a plot! To be continued – I hope- in a scientific journal:-)

First attempt

Hi, here two photos of our first attempt to get to the lake: walking.
Unfortunately, we were only able to cross 115 meters of mud... the Waker was too heavy and the mud too muddy:-)
But we still believe that "se pueede". We maybe need some medium of transportation technically evolved....something like the 007`s car. Let's see if we find anything similar here in the Beni.
Stay tuned!

Asking directions

Sometimes you can get lost in the pampa, but in the Beni, there is always a cawboy hanging around to ask for directions:-)
I want to go inside a lake that is surrounded by 300 meters of such a mud that you cannot get there neither with Carretòn. They say that the last year even the tractor sunk when it was just few meters far from the edge of the lake....
Will our hero achieve to make a drill in the middle of the lake??? Stay tuned and you will see...

Digital Elevation Model on the fly

Hi, the field work is going on with the help of cutting edge technologies!!

the rest of the group is in the river for a 4 days trip to the mouth of Rio Grande, and I am having some free time to update the blog.

Everything is OK, we are getting a lot of good data and maybe, for the first time since 2001, I am starting to understand something!!!

Here me and Heinz looking at the samples. We can do that thanks to our Bernhardo san, who took out all the coring tubes alone. He does not even need any leverage device, he just extract them with nude hands.

In the field

This is me with our new digital level in the proximities of Laguna Suarez, on the right our toyota Hilux. Yesterday we met Heiko at La Estancia and, in frond of a super pacumuto, we had a good time all toghether...

The group is growing

Hi, the master students are here, and as you see, they are already working hard:-))

the waker (our german device for coring) works 99%, the weather is ok and yesterday also Heinz and Bettina arrived. We are now a cool group of 8 "greengos" going up and down in Moxos.

Hi, a lot of time has passed since the last post...We are now in Trinidad,

we got a wonderful little apartment, and, as you see in the picture, we are already working. Here we are doing a survey on a lake's shore:-)

Esperando el almuerzo...

Two women we met here in the airport, with whom we are spending some good time. They have just given us the vouchers for lunch.

Still in Buenos Aires

Our flight has several hours of delay....we were supposed to be in Santa Cruz looking for a good churrasco....but...
This is Anna, the other PhD student, who will go Up and Down in Moxos for 10 weeks too.

The Dream Team 2008

This is the last post I upload from Europe. From left to right: Henne, myself and Bernhard. Me and Anna will leave tomorrow and we should arrive to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, capital de cambalandia, on the 24th at 12:30 local hour (GMT +6).
See you in a few days!

Working hard

From the previous posts one can get the idea that we are going to Bolivia to have fun....that is right!! But we have also some work to do...really hard work. In the heat of the humid tropics, we work under the burning sun!! In the video, from 2008, you can see us while we are extracting the soil sampler filled with sediments from an oxbow. Me and Bernhard working, Henne playing Martin Scorsese.....

El Cerrito

It's cool, isn't it? This is the way back from Estancia El Cerrito, located about 80 Km North of Santa Ana de Yacuma. In the car with me also Henne (the 2008`s project leader) Bernhard (the project assistant) and our guide (I don't remember the name...). This year Bernhard will be with us again in the Beni together with Anna (the other PhD student in the current project) and 3 master students; we will meet them later on this Blog. Henne is now in Australia doing his postDoc and having fun I suppose:-)

Follow me to Bolivia

Hi, the idea behind this blog is that you can follow me during the next field campaign in Bolivia. I will put photos, videos and I will try to update this blog as often as I can. The Blog will be in English because it is good for the CV:-)
I will leave for Bolivia next July 23rd, for the time being I will put some photos from past campaigns.