Thunderkat!!

Let’s see, it’s been a few days since I last sat down and reminisced about my time here so I have some catching up to do. It starts the day before last, we got to the field and saw that the makeshift bamboo canopy we had made (and already altered several times) had fallen down from the weight of a very heavy rain the night before. This sounds like it would be a problem, but I took the opportunity to step up and take over as engineer, which meant not only planning a reconstructed canopy but chopping some bamboo down machete-ninja style!! I’ve said it before, but machete-ing things is like the best therapy ever....too much fun : ) I only wish I had brought my machete from Belize (which coincidentally I think was manufactured in Colombia) so it could see some more action. So far my design has held up quite nicely as it is much more slanted to help with water runoff and a bit lower to the ground. So we’ll see how well it keeps; so far the the weather has been mostly nice as it’s the dry season, but even so it spits on an almost daily basis. 

It was business as usual after that, digging, screening, counting, paperwork, lunch, more digging....the work days seem to be getting longer, which is to say that Carlos and Martha keep losing track of time at the end of the day and before you know it, it’s almost 4 and we’re still in the field.  The amount of material we’ve been finding has significantly dropped off lately, save for some larger possible tools. Some of the pits they’ve been digging around the site, though, have had dry spells and picked back up around 80-90 cm below the surface and we are currently around 65-70.

Yesterday we headed over to see the guys at Javier’s site in Santa Rosa. The drive there was really gorgeous because it was clear blue skies and we left early enough to catch a glimpse of the snow-capped mountains that are not too far off in the distance. I may have gotten one or two good pictures of them, but they will be needing some retouching I’m sure, since it was a quick, out-the-car-window shot. The site in Santa Rosa is more tropical and covered with large palms of bananas and other things. The soil is way way different from the stuff we have in La Mikela which was really nice when it came to screening, but alas, we did not find much of anything. I was working with Nicolas and Pat in a Sondeo closer to the edge of the hill where it slopes off; it was not very exciting because we had a large, disintegrating tree root that invaded the center of our pit and cattle had previously walked all through where we were making it even more difficult to keep our levels measured correctly and our walls straight (the soil would compact and compact every time you put pressure on it...) 

They have some really extraordinary views from up on that hill, though, and we took advantage of the one to the southwest for our lunch break. Unfortunately by that time the clouds had come down and covered up the snow peaks, otherwise they would be visible from that spot too. On the other side to the north, where the road is, you can see the town of Manizales up in the mountains and off in the distance. We escaped with Martha and Carlos back to Pereira before the rains came, but apparently missed out in the finding of a possible tomb/burial, which is cool but not exactly something you want to find when you don’t have the time or money to excavate it.

Back in Pereira, we decided on cooking in instead of eating out, so Jen and I walked down to La Catorce to pick up some stuff and ended up making a pretty delicious (and nutritious) meal of shrimp, broccoli, and rice with a salad to go along. I think that meal was the most green things on one plate I’ve seen since we’ve gotten here haha. They don’t seem to eat many vegetables and eat a lot, lot, lot, lot of pastries, breads, and arepas, or corn tortilla cake-like things, so it was a nice change of pace and, of course, some Club Colombia was enjoyed with it as well.

Which brings us to today!

Today was an enjoyable but not very productive day....I was just exhausted for some reason, Jen and I both. It’s weird how it catches up with you at random and unexpected times, like we didn’t do anything crazy strenuous yesterday and yet I am BEAT. Hopefully a good night’s rest is the cure and awaits me this evening, but seeing as it is Pat’s last night in town before she flies back to the states and there will most likely be rum involved, I’m not gonna bet on it. We got a fair amount done though, we are completely finished with level 9 now so we will start 10 tomorrow and see how much of that we can get through. The field was loads of fun today, though, because it was only Diego, Carmen, Lous-Marina, Jen, and I....neither Jen nor I speaking much spanish and only Carmen speaking a bit of English herself made for a very interesting, comical, and informative day haha. Carmen and I have a deal now where she will work on her English with me and I, my spanish with her. Between the two languages, with a little German, French, and Portuguese thrown in to the mix (Lingua Poliglota as Carmen referred to it), we managed to communicate quite nicely.

Carmen is so funny, she was writing the paperwork for the unit for a while so everything was dug today by ‘Jane and Kate’ haha and then she decided that her pneumonic device for remembering my name was ‘Thundercat!’ like the TV show and also because it was looking like a mad storm was coming our way this afternoon and had been thundering for about two hours before we called it a day as a result of the ominous approaching clouds. Now we have some down time for which I may have myself a siesta and then I guess it’s off to Carlos and Martha’s? For now I am trying not to itch my face off; the bugs are not bad here really (especially compared to last summer in Belize) but they still linger forever and continue to itch even after they’ve healed. So now I have a nice-sized one on my face and back, as well as two fresh guys in my legs from our work in Santa Rosa yesterday. Oh joy!

Go ask Alice, when you're ten feet tall

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!!

what's the matter with kids today?

Woke up a little earlier today, well actually I woke up at pretty much the same time as always, because we are right on the corner and the vehicles here are surprisingly loud and noisy, between the mega-buses and motorbikes it’s already quite loud by 6:30 or so. However, Jen and I had decided the night before that we were going to wake up early and have us some real Colombian breakfast and not the pastries from across the street. So we got dressed and walked down the ‘strip’ to see who was open and it turns out that a place we had gone for dinner had a few people there, so we decided to check it out. Only small problem was that Jen does not really know much Spanish and I don’t exactly know enough to make coherent sentences but have a pretty good-sized vocabulary at this point. Nevertheless we were able to order to #1 breakfast combos which was scrambled eggs with tomato and green onion, a buttered rice cake type guy and a little fried plantain on the side. All that for only 2000 pesos or about $1 USD!! Also you start off with a little spiced hot chocolate stuff that you eat as a soup, but could certainly be drunk as well as it is not too thick. Good eats! And cheap too : )

Got out to the site and it was already bright and sunny; today started out with nice blue skies and the threat of a rain cloud to the west, which did reach us a little later on after lunch, but was brief. We got a bit of work done again today, getting down through 5 more units, but today I was the digger all day while Evie screened and Jen took notes, made labels, and counted all our finds. Because we are down in the 40-50 level and are right on top of the preceramic stuff we have to be much more careful and start to be a bit more precise in our recordings. We came down on what we think may be a feature, but it’s sort of hard to tell with all the disturbance in the unit. It could be, though, that we are coming down on some type of hearth, there certainly appears to be quite a bit of evidence of fire, burnt fire-cracked rock, and unfired clay. We started getting some carbon today, we are not dating the stuff we found just yet, but some of it is clearly carbonized organic material that could be identified in terms of the berry or seed, etc. If we find carbon down in the preceramic levels, we will certainly be collecting it for carbon dating in the hopes that we can get an older date than 5700 yBp for our site of La Mikela. So these are some exciting times! 

We weren’t in the field for as long today, peaced out around 3 and went straight back to the apartment seeing as we had all our lab stuff in order. We are going over to Carlos and Martha’s tonight to celebrate the great Tony Ranere’s birthday. Pat and Martha are making dinner I think, we have a cake, and the girls and I grabbed some gouda and wine when we were shopping to bring along, so it should be good. Right now we’re snacking on some delicious yucca and plantain chips with some homemade guac that Jen just made along with some of our candy we still have left over from Saturday at the movies. A nice little amuse bouche hahaha.

Tony's birthday dinner was quite scrumptious, but the night ended up winding down pretty early as we were all exhausted from a hard day's work. It got to a point where a few people were talking about the project, but in very quick spanish, so as we weren't understanding or didn't care to understand, the three of us girls whipped out our laptops to check in with the rest of the world, which resulted in Pat and Tony scolding us about being rude and antisocial....again, though, I mention that everyone was speaking in spanish so we could have sat there staring blankly orrrrrrr yeah. what's the matter with grownups these days...they just don't get it hahaha.