air conditioning

Today was an office day; this sloth was hanging out at the trailhead just outside the lab. It was hanging on a vine 6 feet over the trail! Lucky for us.
We spent most of the day identifying the plants we've been seeing, helped substantially by Orlando Vargas, the resident naturalist who seems to know every single plant on the property. He's amazing. We finished off by constructing a tree to tell us how the different species are related to each other. We'll use that to decide which flowers to focus our sampling on. Tomorrow we're planning to make our first pollen slides and count how much intra- and inter-specific pollen is on the m, i.e. we'll start collecting data! Hooray!
Our office is beautiful, with windows on two sides. It's a corner office; I guess we've arrived. But the air conditioning is extreme. I suppose it's necessary to maintain somebody's equipment, since all the offices are connected. I have to wear a longsleeved shirt and a fleece in here, but when I step outside my glasses fog up and I strip off all the clothes I can. I think I'll be bringing all my damp clothes here to dry, though. And it's probably better for the computer to sit in AC than to be lugged around from one hot, humid room to another in my moldy backpack on my sweaty back on a bike.
Pretty much the only other thing that happened today was our move from posh tourist quarters to a room in the River Station, which has its own legendary researchy charm. It turned out the sheets were even shaped into fans -- or at least the bottom bunk's were. And there is a fan, so it will probably be a lovely place to sleep.