Looking for the right spot...

...for meteo ok!
(By Yi, Susana and Josie)

In case you want to know what the right spot for the meteo tower looks like (or feels like), it is strongly recommended to take Ecohydrology and Soil Vegetation and Atmosphere Exchange courses at the VU. Well, to sum it up it has to be a flat and open area. Although Kyle thinks is a mythical place, we found it after a whole day of hard work!!
As if we already knew it was going to be a loooong day, Maarten and Vincent took us for a proper meal.

And as usual, Yi could not resist the meat and rice! (Check the speed)

We had to recover from the huge lunch so we had a walk around town looking for Mr. Presidente of the Junta (town's kind of mayor), AKA Mr. Ramos, for permission to install the torresinha (tower). After checking the pharmacy, the hardware store, and the local bar, we found out that Mr. Ramos already left town before lunch. Oops! We should start earlier!
Then we drove around and around, but of course no one was to be seen outside after lunch: siesta time.
So, after a while, we thought 'why not pick up a random guy near the local bar and let him lead us to the right spot?' ughhhh not! He took us to the middle of the village, even after our extensive explanation in our very best Portuguese (he should sign up for the courses). In the end it was almost impossible to get rid of him, so we do not recommend such a strategy.
Again driving for ever until siesta time was over we finally found a very nice traditional old couple that wanted to help, but they were not the owners of the land. The man thought it was the coolest thing to have a meteo tower on the land, but as usual, the lady showed who wears the pants in the family and decided to ask for permission over the phone with Susana as the translator...giving a Portuguese flare to her Spanish. Everyone was so excited by the sudden luck that Yi and Josie were already setting up the tower! Unfortunately over the phone the torresinha (little tower) sounded like a torresota (big tower), and everything had to go back to the van :(
When we were ready to call it a day...Maarten found a nice potato guy that said "não faz mão, you can put it anywhere you want on my field". YEAH! (17:00 already).
So, with the right spot comes the hard work: building the tower, digging several holes (one for the tower, one for the piezometer), installing all the instruments and plugging the electrical wires into the logger (what a mess!).

Four hours later, with no incoming radiation anymore we were finally ready to go home... but that's another story that ended up in the Carrefour by mistake (oops again, but it was fun!)

Taa-daa!!

(another working day: Susana climbing the tower, Yi checking the cables, Josie making notes)