Looks like it is back to work after a nice relaxing Spring Break! Last Thursday we finished excavating at Cerro La Virgen, and had a week off. Break started off on a high note. To celebrate our freedom, we went to Sabes, the gringo bar where the bartenders know our usuals: the Madonna play list and the pool balls and cues. After actually winning two games of pool, and not once knocking the cue ball off of the table and into the parking lot, which often occurs, Sean and I convinced the owner of the Tequenos Place to open up so we could eat tequenos burgers. The next morning was not as joyous, as I awoke to Patrick informing us that there had been a major earthquake in Japan and that tsunamis were heading towards multiple coastlines, including our own. As a result, we dined in Trujillo, a town further inland, to get away during the ETA of the tsunami. Luckily, all that happened was that tide came up significantly higher on the beach than usual. Everyone is safe and accounted for, although after weeks of sifting through piles of rocks in the hot sun, I cannot speak for the sanity of the collective group.
I spent the days recovering from the intense field work, reading on the beach and working on my tan. However, there were a few exciting excursions worth noting. I went sand boarding towards the end of break. For those who don’t know what this fun activity entails, it is simple. There is a wooden plank, which looked akin to a snowboard, with straps for your feet. You climb with your board to the top of a large sand dune, strap yourself in and try to slide down the hill. Although I could not stay upright for too much time, I was decent, and wiping out didn’t hurt as we were on soft sand. In fact, the most difficult part of sand boarding, apart from trying to keep my balance speeding down a steep slope on a wooden plank, was the climb to the top of the sand dunes. The tour agency gave us 4 hours, but we ended not being able to continue for the entire time as we all were quite winded after trekking up the dunes 5 or 6 times. It was definitely a blast, even though our instructor got eaten by sand sharks.
Over the week off, I also got to hang out with Robby and Mateo, the sons of the family who maintain order in the house we are all living in. Robby took me to La Maiseria in Trujillo, a massive market with everything you could possibly need, and quite a bit that you don’t ever want to see. Rows of shoes and clothes, toys, books, school supplies, toiletries, electronics, all in a massive open air market. There were bootleg DVD’s such as “Ninja Americano 1-5” the “Jesus Christ 5 en 1 Collecion” and the “Steven Segal More-Movies-Than-You-Wanted-To-Know-Existed Pack.” For some reason, I chose not to purchase any. Amongst the food vendors were various shaman suppliers and craft sellers. Here you can buy rosaries, incense, crucifixes, and various herbs and plants for medicinal purposes, at least that is what I assume. The only plant I actually recognized was the famous San Pedro cactus, used for a number of reasons, including the traditional shaman-concocted hallucinogenic substance. Robbie got me to buy the two of us a tasty beverage, which I was unable to identify, and an empanada. The food and drink were both quite delicious, and very inexpensive. In fact the ride to and from the market was more money than the actual nourishment consumed.
After our few days off, lab started up. With lab work, you have a 2 hour shift a day, 11-1 or 2-4. I usually take the 2-4 time slot, as anyone who knows me will admit that I am not a morning person. Also, with the NCAA tourney, we have had some great games going on lately. Luckily, our supervisors let us pull games up and listen to the commentary or listen to the Harry Potter books on tape while we work. In this case, work entails sorting through all of the juicy finds from Cerro La Virgen, First we dug, collected samples, sifted through massive amounts of cultural materials, separated them into piles such as ceramics, lithics, beads, bones, organic remains, coprolites, carbonized remains, etc., and then bagged it all. Now we are going through the bags of collected materials to see what all we actually have. This is tedious work, but extremely relaxing, and it gives you the chance to hold ancient Chimu ceramics, bones, shells, and the likes. At this stage, we also see where we have messed up, often finding rim sherds and decorated sherds in the body sherds bag, shells in the coprolites, and other such mistakes which cause Jen and Brian to shake their heads and sigh exasperatedly. Now we have about 3 more weeks left of lab work before our 2 weeks of travel to Cuzco and some other sites. Well, guess I better go keep up my constant obsessing over my bracket now. Hope everyone is doing well, and…GO HEELS!

Que bacan! The past week has been pretty eventful. Two weeks ago I turned 21. I never thought that I would become legally able to drink in the United States in a different country, much less be out of the country for a majority of my time being 20. I celebrated accordingly with some fun Peruvian drinks. My family surprised me by sending a delicious cake, a birthday balloon and a bear, named Nilla. The Peruvian family who own the house we are staying in cooked my favorite local meal, tequenos. I didn’t even mess anything up at the site that week. In fact, I found an crystal sherd while sorting. So unfortunately I still haven’t located the entire crystal skull, but the small piece of crystal from the site keeps me hopeful. Other cool finds include some rather large ceramic pots which are fully, or mostly, intact, a smooth black rock which looks akin to the monolith from 2001 a Space Odyssey, and a stone weight for fishing nets. Most recently a dog burial was found which we should be excavating this week.
That Saturday we got to enjoy one of the last celebrations in Carnival, a parade. Primarily, participants consisted of scantily clad women, and extremely intoxicated individuals in costume dancing down the street to music. Our friend Jorge’s featured a large clown doll being held up and shaken by a crowd of people in the back of a pickup. I think it is best just to nod and smile in this case and not think too much about it. The festivities were continued this past Saturday with a massive party in Club Huanchaco, the local country club. The festivities included a free food and drinks which are always a plus, and finally the paint war and chopping down of the gift tree. Tradition goes that whoever knocks down the tree pays for the tree the next year. Although I wanted to take a whack, I think it may be for the best that I did not attempt to bring down the gift tree. I don’t want to pay for a festival next year…The paint war, despite what you may think, actually is exactly what it sounds like. Everyone took paint and slathered it on their friends, enemies, and random passersby. I also went to church two weeks ago and witnessed a beautiful sunset. Since this is the Southern hemisphere, sunset is over the ocean and looks spectacular every night.
On Saturday after the festival, a few of us went to try and watch the UNC Duke game on the computer. Unfortunately, the usual sites I would stream sports with were siezed by the Department of Homeland Security. Luckily my mom has a webcam and thus we were able to stream the game over Skype. Although we finished our food well before the end of the game, we stayed at the restaurant to watch the final celebration. Afterwards, Robby and Mateo, two of our Peruvian friends, wanted to have a bonfire but that fell through. That may be for the best seeing how bonfires on Franklin Street usually work out.
On the weekends, I enjoy going to the beach to read a nice book or take a nap and work on my tan. Most recently I finished Zeitoun, a novel about an Arab-American living in New Orleans during Katrina. The novel resounded with me because of my being, like the protagonist, an Arab-American, as well as the fact that my first Robertson summer was spent in New Orleans. If you get a chance, pick up a copy, I really enjoyed it and hope you do too.
Right now we are on our last week of field work before Spring break and the commencement of lab work. Thursday is the final excavation day so we only have a limited window to find the pyramid, golden llama idol, and crystal skull. Looks like we better get serious here and quickly at that. But I think we can still find time to have fun. Feliz martes gordo (Happy Mardi Gras) everyone! Hope it is a good one. Remember to wear purple green and gold today, and eat some king cake if you can find a piece or two. Buena suerte amigos, ciao!