Flores, Guatemala

Sunday, June 23, 2013

First day of travels -- crossing the country and entering Guatemala to the west. While the day may have started out a little rough and had some slight confusion, it all worked out in the end.

Crossing the border was an interesting experience. We took a bus from Belize City to Flores, but when we reached the boundary we had to exit the bus and go through the immigration building. First we had to check out with Belize and pay an exit fee, then check in with Guatemala and pay an entrance fee. Once we did that we walked across the border and returned to our bus, which had crossed during this whole process.
 
After that it was smooth sailing to Flores. Here's a map of Guatemala for all of you who aren't familiar with the area:
                                
We chose Flores because of its nearby location to the archaeological site of Tikal. However, it turned out to be so much greater than a pit stop!

Flores is a little town located on an island in the middle of a lake. It is absolutely beautiful to behold. And its small size creates a quaintness about it that makes you want to stay there forever. It has cobbled, winding roads lined with brightly colored houses. Just about every street contains many small shops that sell souvenirs that are mostly handmade.

Being in Guatemala was such a different experience than Belize! For one, not very many people spoke English. In Belize, English is the official language, although Spanish is also widely spoken. But in Guatemala, Spanish is the official language, so only a handful of people spoke English. This was a semi-touristy town though, so there were people who at least knew some simple phrases of communication. And luckily for me, the friends I was travelling with knew some Spanish. Thank goodness, because my French skills were no good here! I did like that about the town though. It was kind of cool to be surrounded by the unknown. I even picked up a few helpful Spanish phrases!

Another great aspect about being in Guatemala versus Belize was the cost. Belize uses the Belizean Dollar, which has an exchange rate of 2:1 to the US Dollar. Therefore, something that costs $10 BZ is only $5 US. That was always nice. However, in Guatemala, their currency is the Quetzal, which has an exchange rate of about 8:1 to the US Dollar. So in this case, something that costs 40 quetzales is only $5 US. This took some getting used to when scanning prices, but once we got the hang of it we loved it!

An average meal would cost between 35-55 quetzales. What we really appreciated though, was happy hour. Typically drinks would be priced around 20 quetzales, but during happy hour they were usually half price at 10. One of the best parts of our day was relaxing at a restaurant overlooking the lake after a busy afternoon, having drinks for less than $1.50.

Overall, I just loved the atmosphere in Flores. It was so peaceful. I really felt at home there. I would love to go back again some day, and I would LOVE to bring my mom with me. I know she would love it just as much. Especially the shopping. So many stores, so little time! The people are great to bargain with too, so you can get so many great deals on wonderful items.

Flores was definitely a great highlight of my trip.

Last Day at MRP

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Today was our last day in the field and it was a little bittersweet.

After a long rainy week, the sun graced us with its presence once more and we were able to enjoy a beautiful day at Tulix Mul. We finally got to cut into the floor of one of the structures we had been working on, so that was very exciting.

It was nice to be able to do something besides excavate walls -- not that that wasn't fun, but this was a nice change. And it was much more thrilling. We had to identify the different layers of soil as we went down deeper into the floor to distinguish different lots. I'd say that was the hardest part, and we asked Fidel and Pete for a lot of advice.

Mostly we just found a ton of pottery and ceramic shards. But it was a large concentration of them and many of them seemed like they may be pieces of the same item. It was the most exciting when Maggie and I came across a large rim of pottery that we had to then carefully uncover with our trowels and brushes, while leaving it in place so we could photograph it.

We did find one little bone amidst everything, but there turned out to be no other counterparts that we could find, unfortunately.

As we packed up to leave, it was a little saddening, knowing we wouldn't be digging here every day any longer. Tonight is our last night at camp to hang out with new friends before we all board the bus in the morning to head off in different directions. However, as much as I'm going to miss MRP, I am really looking forward to travelling these next few days. Ready for some adventures!

Rainy Belize

You haven't lived until you've ridden in the back of a pick-up truck in the pouring down rain. Rain gear? Psht. You're gonna get soaked to the core no matter what.

Right now Belize is in its rainy season. Before this week we've had some unusually pleasant sunshine weather for this time of year. Now, however, the rain has finally caught up with us. All this week a tropical depression has settled over the country. It has been raining pretty much non-stop.

Working in the field in the rain is a totally different atmosphere. We're constantly adjusting tarps over certain areas of the site, or else just working in the wet and mud as long as it is not pouring too hard.

Back at base camp, it's weird trekking through the wet to and from the main house and my cabana. Everyone and everything is just constantly damp and soggy. Luckily I had brought enough clean shirts to last the entire trip. Some had to do their laundry, which then couldn't be dried out on the line and have been wet all week. No fun.

The past couple days the rain has slowed down a bit, just occurring for fifteen minute intervals throughout the day. So that's been a little more tolerable. It's just that we had gotten so used to the sunshine last week that now we would really appreciate its return.

Lamanai

Sunday is our one day off each week when we don’t go into the field. This past Sunday, a day trip was organized to the nearby archaeological site, Lamanai.

Lamanai is a beautiful site, basically situated in the middle of a rainforest. As we entered the area, we could hear howler monkeys all around in the trees above us. The atmosphere was just wonderful.

We broke off into smaller groups to explore the area. Our first stop was the Jaguar Temple. It was very impressive. The temple was very large, with jaguar faces cut into either side of the stairway leading to the top. At Lamanai, visitors are allowed to climb the temples, so of course we did. The view from the top was amazing. You don’t realize how high up you are until you get there.

The most impressive temple, however, was the High Temple. Simply astonishing. I don’t even know how high this one is, but it is LARGE. I climbed to the very tip top and felt like I had reached the top of the world. From the apex, you can see jungle stretch for miles in every direction. It was truly breathtaking.

Unfortunately, as we were descending the High Temple, it started to rain. This of course made it more difficult as every surface became slippery. Already the steps to the temple are hazardously steep. The slickness only made it more dangerous and a little terrifying. But we all made it all right and it was fine in the end.

The other interesting temple that we saw was the Masked Temple. It was probably the smallest of all the temples that we visited, but it was adorned with giant face masks on either side of the center staircase. It was a cool temple.

After we were done exploring the site, we all went to lunch. A bunch of us went to this little empanada place in the nearby town. It takes a while for the food to come, but it is well worth the wait. Delicious empanadas for only 1 Belize -- talk about deals.

Then we all hung out at the Lamanai Outpost Lodge for a bit. They serve food and drinks and things and are situated right along the body of water there (I believe it is a river, but don’t quote me on that). It was all really wonderful until it started down pouring again. We all scrambled inside, drenched, and had to wait out the worst of the rain before we could go home.

The Archaeology

I've never been so dirty before in my life, and yet I'm totally cool with that.

Each morning we head to our sites around 7am. I was assigned to Tulix Mul, which is about a half hour drive from base camp. The site is pretty awesome. It's small, but compact. It is right along the edge of some beautiful rolling hills, but situated within a small jungle patch. It is very sunny, which sometimes makes the heat unbearable, but we take shade and water breaks. And at least it is not too buggy, like most of the other sites. So we don't have to worry about that, which is nice.

The site has a lot of structures which we are working on unveiling. A lot of the work is picking and shoveling and hauling buckets, but I enjoy it. I guess I'm working on my muscles... Our team is wonderful so that makes it all worth while. We each have a team nickname and we joke that we have the best site and the best team.

We work for about 8 hours each day, with a lunch break. We leave around 3 or 3:30 to head back to camp. Overall, the work is difficult sometimes but definitely worth it. I've learned so much about techniques and practices. And we've found some amazing things so far!

We've uncovered tons of ceramic pottery shards. In the main structure we uncovered a cache in the doorway with a pot and a whole obsidian blade, plus a skeleton underneath! There's also another room leading off from the main one that we are eventually going to break into. It's really cool because we think the back wall may have been built to block off more of the room behind it. Hopefully we'll be able to find out more.

Our main job has been uncovering walls of the buildings. Hills have developed on top of them through time. So we had to dig through that to find the wall and reveal it. So that's what we've been spending a lot of time on this week. We make great progress though, and already have a lot done. We have really good teamwork and we've figured out a great tag team process. It's pretty great.

At the end of the day back at camp we're all pretty exhausted. Just awake enough to take a cold shower and eat dinner. Some nights we have a lecture. Otherwise we have free time to do whatever. We go to bed early since we get up so early, but sometimes we hang out in the palapa and socialize for a bit. It's pretty relaxing after a hard day's work.

I feel like a real explorer

First impressions of Belize:
The humidity slapped me in the face the moment I stepped off the plane.
The roads are really rough but everyone drives crazy fast anyway.
The rain is super unpredictable.
This country is beautiful.

My first day at the site was just orientation. We learned about the site history, how things work, and who would be in our site teams. It was a pretty laid back morning. The camp is so rustic in a wonderful way. It actually feels like you're at summer camp. We live in cabanas, these tiny little tin houses with two beds and some shelves. I got lucky enough to get assigned to one without a roommate. Not sure how that happened... I took pictures of the whole area, but won't have a chance to upload them until later. It's so picturesque all around -- hills and trees surrounding the camp. The view from the roof of the main building is absolutely wonderful.

The afternoon of our first day we were taken to one of the archaeological sites for a tour. Before we left they asked us if we liked roller coasters -- because next thing we knew, we were in the back of a pickup truck holding on for dear life as we sped down the rocky road, through a few cow pastures, and to the edge of the jungle. This is when it hit me where I was, what I came here to do, and the excitement of it all. Once you got over your initial fear of falling out of the vehicle, the ride was pretty spectacular.

From there it just got better. We trekked through the jungle, one of our leaders using a machete to cut a path through the trees. (The site hasn't been excavated in a few years so it's pretty overgrown now.) We got to see some really cool archaeology and have a little adventure. We even heard some howler monkeys! I was disappointed we couldn't spot any, but I still have some time.

Today was our first day actually going to our respective sites and doing some real archaeology, but I'll get to that in another post.

Going on an Adventure

I'm leaving for Belize in the morning and it still seems a little unreal. Recently it has hit me just how much of an adventure this is going to be. Two weeks on an archaeological dig focused on the Maya - a dream come true in itself. Then I'm spending an extra four days in the country to just explore. How can this be my life?? I'm so excited!

I have always loved the notion of adventuring -- one of my favorite books when I was little was "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," which I would act out in our basement. But for some reason, until just the other day, I hadn't realized how great of an adventure this trip is going to be. Don't get me wrong, I was so looking forward to the archaeology part of it, but that's all I was focusing on. Now making last minute purchases for hiking boots, mosquito nets, rain ponchos, and so on, it has finally dawned on me. This is going to be EPIC.

Belize is mostly jungle. There's going to be actual wilderness nearby. With jungle animals. Like jaguars. And MONKEYS. You don't even understand how excited I am to see some monkeys. It's always been a dream of mine to visit the rainforest and this is me coming at least close to achieving that.

Yet at the same time, a part of me is a little terrified for this trip. Those of you who know me know that one of my biggest fears is trying new things. So you can imagine how I may be a little anxious. Of course while I have studied abroad before, I have a feeling this is going to be a slightly different experience than Paris...

But my excitement definitely outweighs my nervousness. I am so so looking forward to this adventure and all the new experiences it will bring. So if you'd like, keep an eye out for posts from me while I'm there. No promises as to how often I'll be able to upload though...