My entire life I have loved playing in the dirt. Nothing has changed, except that I am now getting class credit for doing so. We began excavating this week at Cerro La Virgen, a Chimu era village near the capital of Chan Chan. So far I am really enjoying it. I get to attend class barefoot, throw rocks, play in the sand, and find different ancient artifacts such as bones, stone tools, ceramics, shellfish remains, dried plant remains, hair, charcoal, fecal matter…you name it, we collect it.
I am on our fearless and faithful program director Brian Billman’s dig team. I suspect that this came about as a result of Brian wanting to keep an eye on me and make sure that I don’t get into too much trouble, but I prefer to say that he needed my muscle for moving tons of sand and stone from the site. Our first day of work was Wednesday. I thought I would be prepared for the experience, but quickly realized that it would take some conditioning to be able to function properly at 7am when we start digging. The structure my group (Stephanie, Kristen and me), has been working on is a masonry compound, most likely a home and/or a store room. As far as I can tell, the classification of masonry compound is based solely on the fact that stones were used to build the said structure. At least this is what Brian said when I asked him, or maybe I just hadn’t had enough coffee that morning. The two main jobs are sorting and digging. The latter is rather self-explanatory, or so it seems. When I started out I thought “hey, this looks simple enough: remove the sand and rocks.” I quickly learned that there are actual techniques for excavating, and one must learn to recognize when to use brute strength and when to use finesse. Basically watch the Peruvian workers who have been excavating for more years than I have been alive, and you should be fine. For instance, I learned that when you hit a floor it is time to drop the trowel and pick up the brush to carefully remove dust and sand from the plaster floor of the compound rather than keep hacking away with a sharp metal tool. Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that I work with something potentially dangerous. If Brian finds out he will surely confiscate it from me…
The other job, sorting, comes after the digging. We uncover sections of the structure we are working on, and then dump buckets of sand, rocks and artifacts through a 1/8 inch mesh screen to filter out the sand. Next all the rocks and potential artifacts are separated. Rocks are thrown away, while collected materials are placed into separate piles. Then it is bag and tag time. All that we have collected goes into bags which are then given appropriate tags to identify them by category of material, where it came from, the date and who recorded all the information. This last bit of information is so Brian can yell at whoever messed up, most likely me. After working at Cerro La Virgen from 7-2:30, we head back to the lab and sort all of our bags of cultural materials into different sections so that all the ceramics are together, all the shellfish remains are together, all the plant remains are together, etc. It is strenuous work, but if we are good girls and boys, Brian will let us all split a cold beverage from the fridge. Somehow I still get one even though we are supposed to be good. Again, maybe I should not point this out to him…
Like excavating, everything else has been quite excellent. The sun is shining, the waves are crashing, and the beach is a whole 2 and a half blocks away from our house. The homestay is now over and our group is now living in a three story building which is closer to the beach, but sadly further away from the Tequenos Place, which has some tasty tequenos. For those who don’t know what they are, tequenos are basically wontons with cheese inside and meat if you want it, which are then smothered in a layer of delicious guacamole and devoured to the eaters delight. They are also really good on burgers which Sean and I discovered when we went out on a limb and experimented by making tequeno burgers. Holy tequenos Batman! Guess I better get back to the Bat Cave (or the Brozone, the room where the only three males on the program reside and bro out…) because I see the Bat Signal…

Tune in next time to see what else our hero will find at the excavation site and to read more of his misadventures…

Dos Cervezas Por Favor

Greetings from Huanchaco! We left Lima for several days of intense travel and since arrived
at our destination for the next three months, a fishing village and beach town, Huanchaco.
After Lima, we arrived in Barraanco, a small beach side town. There, Sean and I had our first
experience playing basketball against Peruvians. We pretty much dominate, each ending the
game with a few blocks and points each. Of course we were playing against children no older
than 12. But it felt good to get back into the game again. Barranco as a whole reminded me of
Bo in Sierra Leone. Dirt roads, run-down and unfinished buildings…apparently if a building is
not finished, then taxes on it are less. Thus, one will often see houses with second or third stories
uncompleted, rebar sticking out of bricks and mortar.
On the way from Barranco to Casma, we stopped at Caral, a site featuring several temples.
Primarily Pyramid Mayor stands out, towering above the other smaller ones. Some of the
smaller buildings are limited as to who could enter them. Private alcoves litter the insides of
some such as the Temple of the Sacred Fire. The entire complex was impressive, featuring well-
restored brick buildings and temples, with very accurate stonework. The next site was Sechin
Alto, a smaller temple, very well preserved. On the structure were designs of men with different
weapons and accompanying scenes of death. A head with blood coming out of the eyes and
mouth, brains being expelled from craniums, a bag of heads, and other such pictures brightened
our day that sunny, 90 degree morning. The commonly held theory is that it may have been a
place of sacrifice, although no graves have been found nearby. It could also be telling the story
of a war. I on the other hand believe that it depicts what happens if you piss off your host family
during your homestay. I don’t think I will try and find out though…Of all the sites we have
been to so far, my favorite is Moxeke. The ruins consisted of two massive structures thought to
have been used for ceremonial, religious, and social purposes. Nearby are about 170 u-shaped
structures which were residential areas. What most intrigues me is that the site was abandoned
and almost nothing save a few seeds and reed mats were left behind.

The next few days were spent at about 12,000 feet in elevation, at Huaraz and Chavin. The small mountain town of Huaraz was beautiful, quiet, and cool. Well, it was at least relatively cooler than the coastal areas. Here we had a series of free days to explore the town and get to know each other a little better. Chavin was even smaller, making Chavin look like a bustling metropolis. At Chavin, we saw another temple with an idol inside. According to Brian and his faithful companion Julio, people would venture to Chavin and take the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus and have religious experiences while talking to the idols in labyrinths beneath the temple. Meanwhile I was thinking, hey and when I was a kid I thought it was fun getting wine at mass. Talk about an incentive to rejoin an organized religion.
After the mountains, we began the 9 hour bus ride down to the coast, to our final destination for the next 4 months, Huanchaco. To get to the wonderful fishing village/beach resort, we rode through a canyon. I am not quite sure how we made it without falling off the side of the maybe 12 foot wide road, but we did. I think it provided moral support when Maggie, Kristen and I began to watch Magic School Bus on the back of the bus. Believe me, if you want a normal field trip with Brian (our professor)...NO WAY!
When we first arrived in Huanchaco, there was a surfing competition going on, creating a lot of hype. Lindsay and Jenny ran into a few of the surfers at our hotel and befriended them, boldly attempting to overcome the language barrier. Being college students, we quickly found the best hangouts in the town. Notably, Sunkella has live reggae music every Friday night, a popular choice for a chill evening replete with Bob Marley cover bands, dreds, and sketchy characters lingering in the shadows of the patio overhang. The other hotspot is Sabes, a stereotypical gringo bar. Despite being where the gringos congregate, they have cheap drinks during happy hour and a really nice pool table. Sean and I are currently working on our pool, or "tacu" game at the moment. Somehow we keep losing, like last week to Brian and Julio, our professor and TA. However, when we play each other, one of us is bound to win. Maybe we'll practice tonight...
We began our homestay about a week ago. Sean and I are currently housed with Cokie in a nice cozy house. The only problem is that it is a whole 4 blocks from the beach. Motivating myself to walk so far to get to the relaxing sand and sun can often be a challenge. Luckily though it is near the best basketball court in Huanchaco, where Sean, Patrick and I (the Brozone Lair as we like to be called) like to go play with our balls- it doubles as a soccer field. Cokie is very nice, and we are both always well fed. However, somehow she and her sister came under the impression that we like to sing Madonna songs, which although true does not mean that we want to sing them in front of all of Huanchaco at a luau this Saturday. Oh boy, guess Sean and I will have to pray to our luck star about that one...

On that note, I think it is time to go work on my tan. Hasta luego...