Jan 19 Cerro Balancin, Dept. Chimaltenango and Finca San Jerónimo Miramar, Dept. Suchitepéquez, Guatemala We decided to try to sample bromeliads at higher elevations today, along a road to Patzun from Pochuta. Carlos thought he had been down this road and that there were many bromeliads along it, but it turned out not to be the same road, and the forest along it had been cleared at elevations high enough for bromeliads. When we got up to a larger, paved road, we took a small dirt road to the municipal forest on Cerro Balancin. This was where Carlos had worked, but the road was narrow and bad so we decided not to risk going down too far. The forest along the road had been partially cleared (to plant peas); the remaining forest was fairly big oaks w/ lots of moss, bamboo and a very thick understory. There were many bromeliads, but nearly all were 15+m off the ground; we only found 1 to open. At a Mesaspis modelii + 3 Andes in a grassy yoll + took a different road down the N.E side of the mountain through Patzun and passed Panajachel to return to the finca. After dinner, Ted was [illegible], Carlos & I went back to the stream 0.5km N (by rd) of the entrance to the finca and searched from 20:55- 22:30. Jons of Orinugator ldei + rupinus; Carlos got an enormous one of the latter. Also got 2 Ptychodrya euthanata on top of large leaves in a canyon w/ springs and dripping water emerging from carbonate rock walls. Saw lots of Bana maculata (toke 8), as well as 2 male Andes dollfusianus and a strelitzia septentrionalis. It had looked like it would rain in the afternoon, but never did; the daytime temps was in the low 30s°C and it was ~25°C at night.