You will remember the dreadfull weather conditions at our field sites from one week ago and this post. You might also recall the beautiful autumn that followed these 40 centimeters of fresh and beautiful snow (here).

The weather kept improving, and temperatures kept climbing to a stunning 14 °C, which is  – combined with sunny weather – impressively hot for a subarctic ecologist like me. The snow vanished rapidly and the deep blue sky gave Chile a complete summer make-over.

It was astonishing to go back to the same place from earlier that week and see how the landscape had totally changed. The ice and snow on this marsh on 400 meters in the hills had completely vanished in less than 4 days, and even our plots were almost snow-free.

For the fieldwork, this was a blessing, and I enjoyed peeling off all these extra layers of clothes while working in the warm grass. With caracara birds piercing through the blue air and flamingo’s in the lakes, we seemed to have been dropped in the true postcard-Chile.

The improved weather conditions truly helped finishing all fieldwork in time, which I can at the end of this trip proudly announce as a success story!

I am currently in a hotel in Santiago Airport. Due to persistent fog in Punta Arenas on the 8th and 9th of April, planes could not fly and my travels back got delayed. After a scary night without information in Santiago de Chile, I got now rebooked on the flight to Paris with only a delay of 24 hours. Ecology is truly an adventure…