Another day in La mikela- work work work. We are trying to get things finished as fast as we can so as to wrap up the excavation by the time Nydia and I head out. We’re essentially leaving at the end of the typical field season anyhow and it gets tough, because Carlos and Martha start up teaching again at the university so it should be pretty close, but good overall timing. Weather permitting and fingers crossed!
Kids came through on tour from local grade school, which basically meant utter chaos and little progress! It’s cool that they are being exposed to archaeology and the work we are doing, but it was a lot to manage as there were about 80 of them and we ended up having to take time to explain to them about the work instead of actually working. Well, I couldn’t really explain much seeing as I’m not fluent in spanish; I basically wandered around since I couldn’t work or talk to the kids haha. Oh well, hooray for public archaeology/awareness! At least it was a nice, DRY and sunny day in the field.
Carmen and I ended up also leaving early after lunch to head to Manizales. I felt bad bailing out on work early since it hadn’t been a very productive day thus far but I had also really wanted to check out Manizales and plus we had a mission to complete: going to the museum of one of the universities there to pick up this book for Pat that can only be purchased there in person. So, really we were thinking of Pat.... at least partly haha.
After the visiting the university we walked to one end of town to get a cafe and look at this old wooden structure popularly known in Manizales. The coffee shop was right across the street from the structure so we could sit and enjoy a little warm cappuccino while taking in the view with baileys for me, yum! And Amaretto for Carmen. It was back to her house for dinner after that; we had almost left just in time to avoid the rain, but ended up catching a bus back instead of walking to stay dry. Her mom and her mom’s cousin (who lives with them there) had prepared a DELICIOUS dinner starting with soup and banana, a main dish of trout, rice, sweet plantain, and a tomato/carrot salad. So good! Nothing like a home-cooked meal : )