Porto, Sean 2008 Journal Albores cabins; Defensores de la Naturaleza station above San Augustin Acaasquastlan, Sierra de las Minas Dept. El Progreso, Guatemala~ May 27 Yesterday, Fed and I arrived in Guatemala City at 4:30AM. We had meetings at Carlos' museum and with the Dean of the University of San Carlos to discuss the memorandum and the project. This took most of the day, and we then drove to the Hotel Longino, where we spent the night. This morning, we drove to San Augustin Acaasquastlan and met the guards at the Defensores de la Naturaleza offices. One of the guards (Hector) and two policemen came with us in a second truck, and we drove up towards the Defensores field station above Albores. The road started off in thin forest, which was not in great condition but had some OK spots. We then drove through mixed dry forest, much of which was quite disturbed, above about 1200m. We then passed through liquidamber, cypress and pine forest with coffee planted over many areas; around 1500m. Some stands of liquidamber and pine farther from the road appeared in better condition, and the good bromeliads started in this area and were fairly abundant. We finally got to a community called La Trinidad, where the road became much worse (apparently impassible in winter) and the forest got much better. The pine/broadleaf forest at 2000m gradually transitioned to broadleaf forest; both of which had abundant epiphytes. The second truck had to turn back because the road was slick, but we put on chains and got through with no problem- some of us had to walk up. We finally got to the cabins, which are really nice and would be a good