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I arrived back home this Monday after 26 hours of traveling. Fortunately I slept for most of that time so it was not that bad. My time in Peru was a bit of a whirlwind. I was very busy and only got a limited amount of time to myself. Which made it difficult to have time to update this blog very much. I also learned a lot. I think the most important thing I got out of the whole experience was getting to talk to current graduate students about graduate school. Before this summer I was not even really considering it and now I am looking up which GRE prep book I want to start reading. I also changed my schedule for this next semester. I am now taking Spanish and a higher level archaeology class, Zooarchaeology.

Back to Peru for a little bit. I left off the week before we went to Ilo. Ilo is a city on the coast of Peru which has a number of archaeological sites outside of it. We visited a couple of the sites and then we stopped near the water and got to take photos and collect sea shells. After we ate lunch at a seafood restaurant. The rest of the group all had ceviche which is fresh raw seafood marinated in citrus juices, usually lemon. I do not enjoy seafood so I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We then got some time to see the downtown area of Ilo.

The week after Ilo we spent our time in the field working on our excavating skills. Near the end of the week we worked on drawing profiles. Which involves drawing the strata changes on the walls of an excavated unit once excavation is complete. By friday I was assigned to three units which I would observe the excavation of and then write my final papers using the information I learned from these 3 units.

The fourth weekend we visited a bodega in Moquegua called El Moche. Bodegas are where pisco, a Peruvian alcohol, is made. We got to try all types of pisco they sold. The Bodega also had a number of animals we got to see. They had a couple of peacocks, a little of puppies and some really cute baby ducks.

The last week in the field we finished up our final projects and helped our TA's finish up some of the excavating and drawing that needed to be done. We got to take Friday off to finish writing our papers. Saturday a couple of us took a taxi up to a Nunnery to visit a shop they have where they sell chocolates and honey. We ended up showing up in the middle of a Nun taking her vows. Which we got to watch the tail end of. After the Nunnery I head back to the house and finished packing up my things and the we all head up to our professors house for our despedida or goodbye party. The next morning we all got on a bus at 10am headed for Arequipa for our flights to Lima and then back to the United States.

Peru Summer 2011

Here is a link to the photos I took while in Peru. I wish I had taken more.

Week 2

(Written July 7th)

I have officaly ran out of peanut butter. I am really regretting bring the extra shoes instead of peanut butter. I found one store that sells it here but it is about 6 US dollars for half a jar. I got to start digging this week. We spent last week learning how to screen soil removed from units and observing experieced excavators.

On Saturday we had a big 4th of July party at our professors house here in Moquegua. Her house is really nice and has some great views of the city. Another field school from the area was there. The food at party was awesome. There was chicken, potato salad, and some really good sauage I couldn´t get enough of.

Sunday we had a lab about botanical remains found in an archaeological context. The concept and significance of it all was interesting but the process of analyzing involves staring at super small soil grains looking for what might be plant remains...fun.

Monday I went out to dinner with a friend. We got, what was explained to me as, cow heart kabobs. I was a little weirded out but it ended up being some of the best meat I have ever had. After we got some pisco sours, which is a drink specific to Peru.

Tomorrow I am going to finish up excavating the 1 by 1 meter square I started Monday. So far digging has been the most interesting part. This weekend we are going to Ilo, which is near the coast.