LOOKING BACK OVER THE RIO COROCORO IN HELICOPTER FLIGHT FROM YUTAJE TO YAVI TEPUYS, FOR A SECOND "FIRST" TOUCHDOWN

This is the second of the virgin tepuys that the helicopter made exploration possible. I was puzzled at first in trekking around the summit of Yavi, feeling a deja vu, as Yogi Berra might have said if he had slid into this base "all over again." I know this ecosystem, I thought; and I was trying to place the dwarf shrubbery and miniature blueberries and lichens as two scarlet macaws flew overhead and a swallowtailed kite scissored gracefully over the same pond we would be drinking as he gulped water on the wing skimming the surface--now THAT is really expert stunt flying!

Now I have got it! This is EQUATORIAL TUNDRA! The same low dwarfed mixed communities that I had explored near the Arctic Circle were here near the Equator, with altitude serving the role that latitude would have done closer to sea level. I saw no scarlet macaws flying over me in the Arctic!