I better send this out while the wire's hot. For those who don't know-
our office is at 4,200 meters above sea level (just shy of 14,000
feet) in a small town of about 4,000 residents living in adobe and
cinder-block homes heated with yak-dung stoves. There's electricity
(most of the time) and internet (I'd like to say most of the time) but
no running water. The town has a wild-west feel with one long main
street bustling with Tibetan cowboys riding motorcycles decked out
with elaborate saddelry and loudspeakers. Women in from the grassland
and dressed in long robes duck in and out of the small shops and knots
of men form and disperse around caterpillar fungus deals.
We arrived here a couple of days ago and are waiting for one of the
nature reserve managers to join us before heading out for the Snow
Leopard survey and camera trap setup- which will take place in an area
about a day's drive to the west traveling along gravel roads and
riverbeds. It's rained, hailed, snowed, and thundered almost every
afternoon here- as is typical from now through the end of July.
There's rarely any accumulation in the valley, but when the clouds
lift the view of the surrounding hills rising white above the green
pastures is beautiful, and when the sun shines it's glorious.
