our last year's compost at 3200 ft. alone canavá. all dried up. saw no mice footlighting. march 23 Vegetation includes a thick-stemmed sorrel, not quite dried up, and some low cylindrical cacti that look like cow pies from a distance. chobani-musti-pelufieku also but then hazed up. Prove north to atiquipa, numerous cordos. Numerous conversations with assorted people who seemed knowledgable indicate that atiquipa was unusually lush last year, with rains lasting all the way up into April. Hence our green photo from last year was at a season when things ordinarily would be dry. This year is unusual also because of some rains about 2 months ago. Everyone agrees that last year there occurred a spectacular outbreak of rats, which destroyed much of the harvest. Much all agree that they were bigger than the Phylotis darwinii on our pinning board. We camped up the valley about 2 miles east of atiquipa, 1200 ft. Olives, fruit trees, and other crops north the stream. The hills fairly green with knee-high to waist-high bushes, mostly Erndelia in full bloom, but several other species mixed in, all barely grazed by cows + goats. A sprinkling of trees about 12 feet tall: a big-leaved one with milky sap locally called Platanilla, a legume with fairly large leaflets and rose- like thorns and broad orange pods 3 or 4 inches long, and another finer-leaved legume with very long thorns. also clumps of tall Cereus cactus (blooming) frequently.