a tree covered with bromeliads near the Rio
Inabon and the Toro Negro Commonwealth
Forest.
In March of 2000 I went to visit friends: Richard Weaver
and Rene Duval whom I have known since 1975. Their home was in Sabana Grande,
Puerto Rico and this was my first real trip to a tropical climate. It was
certainly a learning experience for me. While there I visited the Tropical
Agricultural Research Station, adjacent to the University of Puerto
Rico in Mayaguez. I also had the opportunity to meet faculty members, Gary
Breckon and Allen Lewis from the Biology
Department, and Jeffery Holmquist, who is just leaving from the deparment
of Marine Sciences at that University.
I had the great opportunity of sharing a rental car from Lajas to San Jaun
with Jeff and his wife Jutta. On Sunday, March 12, a group of us made an
excursion to the dry waterfalls on the Rio Inabon where Jeff had done much
of his field studies on a species of shrimp that climbs several thousand
feet in elevation from the estuaries to its spawning sites.