Goodbye mosquitos, hello fire ants!!….

Ok, so here’s a recap of my second week on the island. This first week on the job in Vega Baja has been something of a whirlwind between starting the excavations in Manatí and dealing with obstacles at the apartment like the fridge dying right after we stocked up on cheap/bulk frozen fruits and veggies and my brand new laptop having issues booting up. Ay ay ay! >_<

As for the field, things are slow going so far. We are running a bit behind schedule for several reasons so hopefully next week we can pick up the pace. For starters, they’ve been having issues with water at the plantation so we are not able to water-sieve our soil samples and now have quite a backlog of them to process. Right now we have two 1x1 meter units open, Unit 4 and Unit 2E. We are finding tons of material in Unit 4 like ceramic and wooden buttons, animal teeth, a metal key, spoon and ceramic sherds, glass sherds, pieces of brick, mortar, etc by the bucketload, which is both awesome and frustrating (the more artifacts found, the slower the digging goes). 

Unit 2E 

Unit 2E at a later level, further down

This dig is definitely a change of pace from the pre-Colombian projects I’ve worked on in the past. It’s a very interesting projects but a lot less exhilarating to find chunks of brick as opposed to flint-knapped lithic stone tools haha. Unit 2E doesn’t have much cultural material aside from brick, though an intact porcelain button was found yesterday! The soil in Unit 2E has been a royal pain due to compression from sandbags used to prevent flooding of Unit 2 during the last excavation season; we had to start out with a pick axe and shovels in order to bust through it. Did I mention the wind has been relentless?! We’ve already gone through two canopies, one of which we brought to the field brand new and it broke in a day. Every day we have to figure out new ways to jerry rig them to withstand these gusts fueled by what must be the powers of Aura, Lelantos and Perses combined!

I will say, the mosquitoes here are not so bad and I’m sure the insane wind helps with that a bit, so that’s a plus. However, there is one thing the plantation is covered with: ants! FIRE ants to be exact and man do they pack a nasty little itchy punch when they sting you!! The most frustrating part about their bites is that they can spread if you scratch them open and they do not respond to bug repellent. Needless to say I have already acquired quite a few and am one very itchy archaeologist, but I guess that’s just the nature of the trade. And at least they’re the only real insect threat I have to worry about here, whereas in Belize you are have to be on constant alert for dangerous creepers and crawlers! 

It’s easy to become focused on the negative with so many things going wrong but for now I’ll count my blessings.

And so it begins…

Well it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted and I’ve skipped an entire adventure (last summer in Belize) in the process, but now I’m back and blogging with a vengeance! This time I’m writing from Puerto Rico, where I will be working for the next month and a half. For the next six weeks I’ll be staying in the town of Vega Baja along the northern coast of PR. The project is on an historic sugar plantation within the conservation of Hacienda La Esperanza, Manati, Puerto Rico, where we will be investigating Plantation owner/slave relations through archaeological excavations. The apartment is in a complex located right on the beach with beach access although the coast in this area is rocky and not the most inviting (ie. spiky spiky sea urchins.) Not to worry though as the apartment complex has two pools from which to choose! I have to say, the conditions here rival those of the dig I worked on in Cuba, Colombia, only this time not all of my expenses are covered by grants. Still, I’m not complaining! The news is saying that this summer is already hotter than usual and that temperatures are expected to break records this summer so those pools are definitely going to be a sweet relief after long workdays in the sun. Part of the problem is that  there is a cloud of sand/dust being brought over from the Sahara which results in dry, hot spells and impacts the air quality exasperating allergies and making it hard to breathe. The humid heat is already so oppressive it’s difficult to be motivated and productive, which might be the biggest challenge this summer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saharan_Air_Layer). Several times I have sat down with the intention of writing posts and just haven’t had the energy! The Saharan dust clouds pass over PR periodically, typically in the summer, but I have read that the weather in Puerto Rico is changing a lot in general from an Equatorial climate to that of a tropical monsoon category so we’ll see what this summer brings! I had thought we might have internet at the apartment but it comes and goes so I will do my best to be consistent with posts and updates. 

-KmF.