Oh Look, the Herd is On the Move Again, Sire

Okay! So here I am, in Cusco, Peru, capital of the Inka empire and biggest tourist draw in Peru. I arrived last Sunday and spent the week until Huaro, the small town about 45 minutes away from the city. Conditions were pretty rustic out there-- we rented one room in a house for sleeping, eating, and lab work, with a separate bathroom downstairs-- but it was a good week of work and kind of refreshing to be away from it all! I was working on the skeletons excavated from a Wari (pre-inka empire/state cultural group) site in the valley and it was pretty interesting. Nice to have some comparison to my skeletal samples in Bolivia!

The neighboring town of Urcos (5minutes drive, 20-30minutes walk) is slightly bigger and the capital of the province and it had a big party one night celebrating its founding. We went and drank some beer in the town square with one of Maeve's Huaro friends and it was fun to see everyone dressed up, drinking, and dancing. There were two bands, the first of which was a classic South American pop group-- a full band and then 1 girl and 4 guys whose entire job seemed to be looking good and doing coordinated dance moves. For some reason, this really really amuses me and I mostly just stared at the band and laughed whenever they did a group spin, or, my favorite, a bunny hop/humping type maneuver.

We returned to Cusco yesterday, checked email, and then went out to another archaeological site on the other side of town, where two of Maeve's archaeologist friends are excavating. A really cool location-- great view of the valley and towering snowcapped peaks in the distance-- and the site was cool too- Wari, Late Intermediate and Inka occupations. There was also a cave up above that used to have burials in it (and probably still does under the collected rubble) that I climbed into. No one wants to excavated it currently because they are afraid of earthquakes and collapse but I think it would be great! (I'm also crazy though so that helps!)

Today is Inti Raymi, so the entire city of Cusco will be partying until... forever, haha. I'm going to witness the madness with a few archaeologist friends and then I think we are going watch some EuroCup games!

Raindrops keep falling on my head

But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning! Its been rainy here in the lake basin which is totally strange since it is the dry season. It generally is cloudy/rainy until around noon, then clears up for the rest of the day. Stasia says that this is the weather pattern during the rainy season, but that was supposed to end  in March. Climate change, anyone?

I've been busy in the lab this week, trying to confirm data on one of the collections that we are going to return to the community where it was excavated from. Part of that deal will include permissions to revisit the collection in the future, if we need to collect more data or newer technology comes about, so its not the last time I could look at these bones. But it does feel kind of final and awesome to think that this is it, this is the dissertation data!

Copacabana remains more or less unchanged, although this year I have located the post office (previously unopen) and 2 ATMs! Additionally, I'm able to steal the wifi from a neighboring hostel on my computer so I can check my email very regularly, at least until I go to Cusco. Welcome to the 1st World!

The trip to Cusco begins on Sunday with a 10-11hr bus ride from Copacabana. The other graduate student I am working with there will be meeting me at the bus station and then we go to Huaro, a town about 45minutes north of Cusco where her site and collections are. I'm not sure what the accommodations there will be like yet, but it will be a great adventure!

Until next time!

Potatoes and Sunshine

So, I've made it back to Copacabana! I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia at 5:15 Tuesday morning. Normally we take a few days to acclimate to the altitude in La Paz (3500m) before heading to Copacabana (3900m) to ease the huge transition up, but this year I arrived a few days after the other students from CMU so we headed up to the altiplano that same day. Only after buying all of the supplies we'd need for a few weeks which included fruit, bread, TP, and of course lots of potatoes! Once we finally headed out on the road to Copacabana, it was already 1pm and I was exhausted! The trip was relatively uneventful but gorgeous as always.

Once we got close to Copacabana, we learned that there was a surprise party being thrown for Sergio and Stasia in the neighboring town of Ch'isi (also a town that has a really awesome archaeological site where some of my dissertation skeletal collection comes from). Sergio and Stasia are going to be the "padrinos" or godparents of the town's high school graduation this year in December so they were regaling them with lots of flowers, food, and beer, followed by lots of dancing! It was really cool although somewhat extreme for my poor unadjusted self! I got really out of breath super fast while dancing and felt some chest tightness like never before. Kind of cool (especially since nothing bad happened, haha)!

Since then we have been reuniting with lots of people and also doing a bit of travelling- to Ch'isi again and then down to the (relative) lowlands of Sorata (2500m). Nice and warm down there although with bugs that bite worse than mosquitoes! We had a lot of fun scrambling around a friend's farm picking delicious fruit (grenadillas! yum!) and feasting. We got back to Copacabana last night and have a good week's work ahead out of us, which is good because I leave for Cusco a week from tomorrow! Eeps! This summer is already going so fast!