Where to begin indeed. It has been a long and eventful day while running on about 5 hours of sleep....i think I’ve finally become so accustomed to the noisy chaos outside our building, that I now cannot sleep when it is quiet. Such was the case this morning when I awoke at 3 am to deathly silence and could not go back to sleep.
I don’t know what I was expecting when going out to the field today, but the sequence of events that followed were quite surprising and exciting. I should preface by saying that our site of La Mikela is not far off of the highway, tucked behind a house on a hill between the road and the river. The people there seem to have an adorable white albino rabbit. Needless to say, if you knew I had a sweet albino rabbit growing up, you will understand my excitement at this sighting. The last few days he/she has been getting friendlier and hopping over toward our excavation area. The other day I was able to get close enough to give him/her a bite of carrot, but then scared it off.
Well today, it was hopping all over the place, from pit to pit, checking things out and hopped right up to the edge of my unit. This of course, called for a short ‘water break’ seeing as I was finally close enough to be able to pet and even hold the bunny!! It is precious and so soft and makes me want another rabbit, but alas, I can hardly handle my two cats.....I can’t even imagine adding to the mix at this point.
So that was the first amazing event! As if being able to pet a bunny weren’t enough, within the first hour of work today, we found an azada or hoe. It is gorgeous! Finely prepared and as big as my face, it was a great find, for sure. Pat, however keeps managing to one-up us with the massive grinding stones she keeps finding over in her unit, but hey, we’re only in the 50-55 cm level so there’s plenty of time to catch up haha! I rode an unbelievable high for the rest of the day from that and all the possible stone tools we found around there as well. Seeing as this is really only my second big dig, it is incredibly thrilling to find such artifacts, but I think it’s something that you never really lose an appreciation for, thank god! Tony was yelling and waving around like a child filled with excitement from our find. So it seems that there may be a loophole in this whole growing up thing.
We only worked a half day today, because we rented a van and took a trip out to Armenia, located in the mountains to the west (the same range as Sanctuario, but more north). There in Armenia, we checked out the Museo del Oro, or Museum of Gold (archaeology museum)!! It was stunning. We had a lovely tour through the facilities and an old friend and classmate of Carlos’ who is also the current curator stopped by to welcome us. She will be joining us in the field tomorrow to see what we are doing, so I am looking forward to that.
Back to the Museo....it was really amazing. The building itself is really interesting and intricate; the architect who designed it really took in to account the landscape and the natural flow of water to make a really spectacular place. Once inside, you are really in for a treat, they had many, many ancient golden artifacts from jewelry to funerary helmets to ceremonial instruments. Also there, were really interesting ceramic vessels, statues, and figurines as well as a preserved tomb finding and other odds and ends. It was really a nice treat to be able to check it out.
After the museum, we headed off to Salento, a town known for its artisan crafts located a bit higher up in the mountains than Armenia or Pereira, which meant an awesome view! From the lookout there you can see mountains and mountains, hear the river running below, and take in the fresh air. Even on a fairly overcast day like today at dusk, it is still stunning. The valley is a result of glacier melting years and years and years ago and the volcano Timbo is off in the distance. The valley is part of the volcanic fan that was covered with ash and such making the soil ever fertile in the area. It is a somewhat hazardous place to have a house, however, because the river that cuts through the valley tends to flood during the rainy season here.
The town of Salento is really cute itself. It is not a typical Colombian town in the sense that Santa Rosa is, but it is really colorful and quaint; sort of geared at tourists, but not overwhelmingly expensive or lame like you might expect a tourist-y place to be. We stopped off to get a cup of coffee after arriving at this awesome little cafe and got to speak to the owner as well....he gave us a little talk on colombian coffee which was most excellent. Then we headed of to the giant shopping strip that goes on for five or six blocks.
Mostly just looked around, but made a few small purchases; the stores there were so cute and colorful, the whole town was, really. Makes me wish Philly would add a splash of color to make things seem more fun and cheerful! Anyhow, after we finished shopping, the group got in the van and made our way up to the lookout at the (top) of the mountain. We got there just after sunset, unfortunately, but the view was still spectacular.
After taking in the sights, we got a cup of coffee with aguardiente, a locally produced liquor that has a bit of an anisette taste, and then hopped back on the bus to go back to Pereira. The night was finished off with some Colombian Domino’s pizza and rum or Ron, in spanish haha, on the rocks. I was exhausted to the bone at that point even though it was only something like 8 in the evening, but the days here seem to progress much more differently than back home, or perhaps because it gets darker so much earlier than it does in Philly at the moment, that it seems like it is quite late when in fact it isn’t. Either way, it was a great day!!
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