Wednesday 11th: Top of the mountain, Waraira Repano National Park

After Tuesdays great day in the field, we were excited to go to the next locality Waraira Repano National Park. To get to the park we had to take a cabel car over the Venezuelan coastal mountain range, Cordillera de la Costa, which separates the city of Caracas from the Caribbean Sea.

                           View from the cabel car

                            Having a good time with our new friends

                            On the top with the Caribbean Sea in the background.

The national park had a very varied vegetation. The terrain was steep and we walked across a gradient from open light areas to dense dark forest. At the beginning of the hike we took a wrong turn and luckily we found a Bacidiopsora. On a wet hillside Einar found a Phyllopsora on a rock! This made our day, because this is not seen that often. In the darker dense forest we found P. byssiseda. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to take any pictures of the lichens we found, because of the lack of light. But they were beautiful!

                          Malin in the field

                          The dense and foggy tropical forest

                           Christopher, one of member of the Venezuelan lichen group

                           Here are some of the lichen hunters.