Warning: Do Not Climb This Tree!

 (Léase en español / Read in Spanish)

I don’t know what it is about boys, but they love to climb trees. I have fond childhood memories of trying to get to the very top of trees in our neighborhood and local parks. But listen up boys! ... Do NOT try to climb this tree!

Here is the answer to this month’s Mystery Macro. There were some nice tries at guessing, but... It isn’t a lizard or a toad, or an animal of any kind. The guesses of ‘chocolate chip mountains’ and ‘little mountains of sand’ were certainly clever, but also incorrect. The guess of ‘beet, carrot or squash’ at least landed in the correct category: flora. However the closest guess would have to be “I think it is a prehistoric rose vine.” But since that is also not correct, no one wins the prize dinner. Sorry folks. Maybe next time.
 
Here is the full size picture from which the Mysterey Macro was taken:

Still need some explaining? Well you probably picked up on the clue: “Don’t climb

¿El Pájaro Loco?

 (Read in English / Léase en inglés)

Habíamos escuchado de un ave que en inglés se llama ‘cuckoo’ (pronunciada: ku-ku). Y puesto que esta palabra ahora da a entender algo loco, yo imaginaba que era un pájaro pequeño, inocente, bonito, aunque quizás un poquito loco. Pero nunca había visto uno. Bueno, Bolivia está llena de sorpresas, entonces supongo que yo no debía de sorprenderme al ver uno cara a cara.
  

La primera vez que vimos estas aves estábamos visitando Bolivia y no teníamos

Is the Cuckoo Bird really cuckoo?

 (Léase en español / Read in Spanish)

What comes to your mind when you think of a “Cuckoo Bird”? How about a cuckoo clock? Or the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”? Or perhaps the phrase ‘out of cloud cuckoo land’? I have to say that I always imagined the cuckoo bird to be a small, cute, innocent-looking, albeit slightly crazy, bird.
 
Well Bolivia is full of surprises, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when we saw a real-life cuckoo bird.

We first saw these birds in Santa Cruz while visiting Bolivia two years ago and at the

The Monthly Mystery Macro misterioso del mes

Cada mes ponemos un reto de macro misterioso. He aquí el reto de septiembre:

Each month we post a mystery macro challenge. Here is the one for September:  

Those pesky blood-sucking bugs

 (Léase en español / Read in Spanish)

Someday I hope to find the answer to one of life’s most troubling questions: Why the mosquito? But until then we have to put up with the inevitable peskiness of these blood-sucking insects. And because some species of mosquitoes transmit extremely harmful diseases, some would argue that mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals on Earth.

We are in South America and within the tropical zone, that is, we are between the equator and the tropic of Capricorn. So you might think that we are plagued with mosquitoes. However here in Tarija, Bolivia, at an elevation of almost 6,000 feet, the situation isn’t too bad. But are there mosquitoes? Well...

Do you remember the recent Monthly Mystery Macro? There were some interesting guesses as to what was shown in the photo, and thanks for participating. (Next time