Hello again friends,
I've had myself a day. Technically, I suppose, my day started in the wee hours while I was still at the 28th of July party hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) archaeology team. (July 28th is a big national holiday here - sort of a Peruvian 4th of July). They booked a local restaurant pub, hired a DJ, and we partied like archaeologists until the wee hours. I left at 2:30am feeling like an old biddy, as the party was still going strong. Lots of other arch-y folks who work in Southern Peru came too - it was the 25th annual 'Verticality Fiesta' after all. It was a really good time. (Good number 1).
So, the night was short and then I went to the lab to finish up my work there. I am essentially done (this is Good number 2). My sample is not as large as I hoped though, and I had some worries about whether it was big enough for a thesis. This is a question I had posed a few days back to my advisor.
When I checked my e-mail, I got my answer. Essentially, he said that with a sample that small, I'd have to find a new research question. I interpreted this as a red light - essentially telling me that, while this idea might have been good, it was also quixotic and at best might be a paper to write for a journal - not a thesis. So, I spent the next three hours in a state of disillusionment and depression (this would be 'The Bad').
I waited until after lunchtime in the States, and gave my advisor a call to talk it all over. As it turns out, my interpretation of his e-mail was a bit melodramatic and not at all accurate. Yes, the research question may need to be slighty tweeked from the last version that I presented to him, but the general plan is fine. I am cleared to go forward with my thesis using my samples from here, whatever size the final group turns out to be. WOO HOO! (This would be good number 3).
I buzzed around town, taking care of errands. Then after a brief stop at my hotel, I decided that tonight I would eat at the nice place down the road, where entrees cost up to $10! (This is very expensive by Peruvian standards.) I ordered one of my favorite things here, 'corvina a lo macho', which is sea bass covered in a fabulous tomato based sauce full of shellfish and octopus. The waiter checked to be sure they had shellfish - they did! But then he came back and told me that they were out of the fish. Bummer. He suggested 'camarones' (shrimp). Okay fine, I ordered the camerones sudado. I'd never had this dish before, but a sudado with fish is poached in a yummy broth with onion and herbs and served with rice - tasty stuff.
Okay, now we get to The Ugly. What arrives at my table is a bowl of broth, piled high with whole, steamed crawdads (minus the heads but otherwise entirely intact), and an extra bowl at the side for the dismembered bits that don't get eaten. This is not what I expected. For the second time in my life, I am sitting in a restaurant completely mystified as to how to go about eating the food in front of me. These critters are fairly large - 5 to 6 inches long, all curled up with legs and thorax and all. I tug at the legs. They don't come off. I sit staring at my plate. Finally, the waitress notices my distress and I try to explain that I didn't expect them to be whole. She thinks that I think she gave me something I didn't order. I assure her that I know I ordered this, I just don't know how to eat it. So, a little kid from a nearby table comes over and starts attacking one of my camarones with his fingers to show me how to peel it. His mother then comes over, removes the camaron to the scrap plate and tears it apart with her fingers. Okay, I get it. Then the waitress comes over to assist in the camaron-training session and dismembers the entire thing with a knife and fork. This is not quick or easy. It takes a good five minutes. At the end of the demo, she admits that it's easiest with fingers. So there I am, in my swanky restaurant, reduced to tearing apart critters with legs and squishy stuff that comes out of their thorax (I belive I know what this is, but I choose to not think about it).
For those who may not know, I'm a pseudo-vegetarian. Meaning that I eat seafood, but no other meats. I have trouble with food that looks like living critters. Tearing apart gushy crawdads in a fancy restaurant is not appetizing for me. But I also don't want critters who died to be on my plate to go to waste. So, I dutifully tore each and every crawdad in half, peeled the tail, and ate them. They were pretty tasty - just darn ugly. When I made it through the pile, the waitress came back to offer another lesson on how to further mutilate the remains to find more tasty bits inside. I declined. Sorry camerones - I just couldn't do it.
So, all in all, it's been a good day - with a few ups and downs. Tomorrow I have an adventure, heading down to the coast to see a museum, collect some water samples, and work on a side project with museum collections there if they'll let me. It should be fun. I'll tell you all about it on Thursday.
Until then, I hope you're all well and having fun this summer.
Karen
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
A day in the life
Hello friends,
I'm not sure that I can say that any day here is what I'd call 'normal' in my usual life, but I thought I'd tell you about a 'normal' day for me here in Moquegua.
I generally sleep until 7:30 or so, then shower and get ready to head out by about 8 or so. I have a good breakfast at my favorite place (I told you about the avocado and cheese and bread breakfast, right? It's lovely. I alternate between that and scrambled eggs with bread. Both meals come with coffee (Nescafe) and freshly pressed papaya juice, and the egg meal has yogurt too.) From there, I head to the museum lab by about 9am, and work there until 1ish, when I break for lunch.
The museum has collections on three levels, and in various rooms. It's a bit of a challenge to figure out where to look for which box. Space is at a premium, so many of the isles between shelving units don't have enough space for my shoulders if I stand perpendicular to the shelves. That makes pulling boxes in and out an interesting logistical problem. There's no Container Store here, so when it was discovered that whisky boxes could be purchased in Tacna in bulk, the shelves were designed to their proportions, and to walk the collections would make you think that there was a whole LOT of drinking going on by those archaeologists (even archaeologists can't drink THAT much). The shelves are high too, so there's a trick to finding a chair that actually fits between the shelves so that I can climb up and down. Once I find my boxes, I have a table to spread everything out on to examine it. It's not a huge table - only about a card-table sized space in the middle of a long stretch of other tables. The small size makes it interesting when I'm trying to lay out a full sized skeleton, but it works pretty well for mummy bundles - they are generally seated with their knees drawn up tight, so they don't take a lot of room. The other tables are occupied by other folks doing research, and we usually have a good soundtrack of contraband CDs going - Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, and Cold Play get a lot of air time.
Lunch varies day to day. It's the big meal of the day here, so assuming I'm in the lab all day, I'll often go to a restaurant and have a big plate of chicharones (mixed fried seafood) or chaufa (Peruvian Chinese food) or something. Whatever you order here comes with fried potatoes and white rice. These folks have never heard of the Atkins diet.
After lunch, it's back to the lab, where I generally work until 8pm or so. Then I find some dinner, maybe stop at the internet place and the phone place, and head back to my hotel.
About internet places and phone places...it seems that almost nobody does these things from home. Internet places are everywhere - each featuring several little cubbies with computers. They charge for time, but the rates are cheap. I'm currently paying about 35 cents per hour. Not bad. Phone places are similar - they build several little phone booths inside a storefront and you go there to make any sort of long distance call. The nicer ones have a wooden bench to sit on and a little desktop with the phone on it and a little box on the wall which tells you how long you've been talking and what it will cost you.
My new hotel is much better for me than the old one. It has a garden and I wake up to actual sunlight coming through the high windows. There were more angles involved in building the room than the carpenters could manage - some of the window frames follow the slant of the roof rather than the plane of the floor - but everything seems to open and close properly and it's cozy enough to call home for another week or so.
I'm excited today because I sent my clothes out to be washed. Hopefully I'll come home to actual clean clothes! After a few weeks of working with dusty boxes full of things that came out of the dirt (and still carry a good bit of dirt with them) and also traipsing around at some local archaeological sites (I owe you stories), everything I have was filthy. But (hopefully) it will all be clean now. Yippee!
On that happy note, I'll say good night.
Good night!
Karen
I'm not sure that I can say that any day here is what I'd call 'normal' in my usual life, but I thought I'd tell you about a 'normal' day for me here in Moquegua.
I generally sleep until 7:30 or so, then shower and get ready to head out by about 8 or so. I have a good breakfast at my favorite place (I told you about the avocado and cheese and bread breakfast, right? It's lovely. I alternate between that and scrambled eggs with bread. Both meals come with coffee (Nescafe) and freshly pressed papaya juice, and the egg meal has yogurt too.) From there, I head to the museum lab by about 9am, and work there until 1ish, when I break for lunch.
The museum has collections on three levels, and in various rooms. It's a bit of a challenge to figure out where to look for which box. Space is at a premium, so many of the isles between shelving units don't have enough space for my shoulders if I stand perpendicular to the shelves. That makes pulling boxes in and out an interesting logistical problem. There's no Container Store here, so when it was discovered that whisky boxes could be purchased in Tacna in bulk, the shelves were designed to their proportions, and to walk the collections would make you think that there was a whole LOT of drinking going on by those archaeologists (even archaeologists can't drink THAT much). The shelves are high too, so there's a trick to finding a chair that actually fits between the shelves so that I can climb up and down. Once I find my boxes, I have a table to spread everything out on to examine it. It's not a huge table - only about a card-table sized space in the middle of a long stretch of other tables. The small size makes it interesting when I'm trying to lay out a full sized skeleton, but it works pretty well for mummy bundles - they are generally seated with their knees drawn up tight, so they don't take a lot of room. The other tables are occupied by other folks doing research, and we usually have a good soundtrack of contraband CDs going - Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, and Cold Play get a lot of air time.
Lunch varies day to day. It's the big meal of the day here, so assuming I'm in the lab all day, I'll often go to a restaurant and have a big plate of chicharones (mixed fried seafood) or chaufa (Peruvian Chinese food) or something. Whatever you order here comes with fried potatoes and white rice. These folks have never heard of the Atkins diet.
After lunch, it's back to the lab, where I generally work until 8pm or so. Then I find some dinner, maybe stop at the internet place and the phone place, and head back to my hotel.
About internet places and phone places...it seems that almost nobody does these things from home. Internet places are everywhere - each featuring several little cubbies with computers. They charge for time, but the rates are cheap. I'm currently paying about 35 cents per hour. Not bad. Phone places are similar - they build several little phone booths inside a storefront and you go there to make any sort of long distance call. The nicer ones have a wooden bench to sit on and a little desktop with the phone on it and a little box on the wall which tells you how long you've been talking and what it will cost you.
My new hotel is much better for me than the old one. It has a garden and I wake up to actual sunlight coming through the high windows. There were more angles involved in building the room than the carpenters could manage - some of the window frames follow the slant of the roof rather than the plane of the floor - but everything seems to open and close properly and it's cozy enough to call home for another week or so.
I'm excited today because I sent my clothes out to be washed. Hopefully I'll come home to actual clean clothes! After a few weeks of working with dusty boxes full of things that came out of the dirt (and still carry a good bit of dirt with them) and also traipsing around at some local archaeological sites (I owe you stories), everything I have was filthy. But (hopefully) it will all be clean now. Yippee!
On that happy note, I'll say good night.
Good night!
Karen
Monday, July 21, 2008
Boldly going where local folks go all the time...
So, I have an adventurous tale for you. It features me, the intreped seeker-of-water-slash-bioarchaeologist. Yesterday being Sunday, I decided to use my time by going south in search of undisturbed water systems. I couldn't find a decent map of the area (Lonely Planet has never heard of these places, and the museum has detailed maps for Moquegua but not the valleys south). I spent a dizzying time on Google Earth, and then received advice from Bruce and Yumilex and Marcos at the museum. They decided my best bet was to get water at the Sama bridge, then backtrack to the town of Locumba, and perhaps proceed to Tacna and then the mouth of the Sama river from there. This involved hitting three different rivers at various points. I had a hand drawn map in ball point pen in hand and was feeling good, so I headed down to the bus depot.
I wasn't actually looking for a bus. I was looking for a car. There are two kinds of colectivos here. I told you about the mini-bus sort of colectivo. The other kind is essentially a personal car which drives back and forth between places, carrying passengers. This is fairly informal, but there's a set price that all drivers charge to go to Tacna - 20 soles (about $7).
I told my driver I was only going to the Sama bridge. As it turned out, I got out at the Camiara Bridge, which is the river that flows through Locumba. Somehow this made more sense to me. I got my sample, climbed up the bank, and found another colectivo (of the minibus variety) which took me to the sweet little town of Locumba. Along the way we had a slight delay when we ran out of gas, and the driver grabbed a 1.5L pop bottle full of gasoline out of the back and poured it into the tank. That took us the rest of the way up the hill. Hooray.
Locumba has a few paved roads, a very pretty church next to the town plaza, and an enormous and professional looking soccer stadium (priorities, doncha know). A walkway led down from town to the stadium, and several of the townspeople gathered at the top with their chairs and their snacks to watch over the stadium walls. I walked on down the path and over to the river and took my sample, feeling mighty good to be outdoors and near a river.
When I got back up the hill, there was another collectivo in the plaza, on its way to Tacna. This was working out perfectly!!! I hopped in, and after a brief stop at the local police academy (where we were picking up visitors after family day), we headed off to Tacna. Along the way, we passed the Sama Bridge, where the river was very very low. This was a potential problem. The mouth of the Sama River was my goal for the evening, and it was likely to be much lower there. But, I was smooshed into the back of a colectivo, and had a vision of my goal, and I kept on riding to Tacna.
From there, I found a local bus going to Boca del Rio (the mouth of the river) which is also a popular seaside resort town, according to my Lonely Planet. I had fabulous visions of a seafood dinner and an evening walk on the beach to the mouth of the river for my sample gathering.
Yeah. Well. It didn't really work out that way.
We got to Boca del Rio about 7pm, and it was full on dark, and totally shut down. There was nothing resort looking about the place. About now I asked about when the bus was returning to Tacna and found out that it wasn't going back until the next day. Okay, well somehow I still thought that the cute and resorty part of town must be just ahead and I'd stay on the bus until we got there. Yeah. So the bus stops at the town just north of Boca del Rio, called Vila Vila. There are no hotels of any sort in Vila Vila. There is one restaurant. It sells sandwiches. The sandwiches are french fries and sliced hotdogs on hamburger buns. That's the menu. So, not being a meat eater, I had a french fry sandwich while trying to figure out what to do. (It was actually not bad.) My bus driver had helped me out with a few choices. I could sleep on the bus. I could sleep in his living room (this actually seemed to be a very innocent and helpful offer). Or, I could wait on this random street corner he showed me where a guy with a car came by every night at 8:20 to take people to Boca del Rio. I decided on the third option.
But, while waiting there, I bought myself a bottle of water. The man there told me that a bus going to Tacna ran by town on the main road at 8pm, and would stop for passengers if I got there in time. So much for the guy with the car. I booked it back uphill to the road, caught the bus, made it to Tacna, found a car to Moquegua, and was back in town by 11:15pm. Whew! What a night!
The whole thing was a bit silly as far as the water fetching project (other than the first two stops, I got no samples and probably they wouldn't have been worthwhile anyway given the low river level). But it was an adventure, and it all came out well. Everyone I asked for directions or help was truly nice to me. I really have never felt threatened in Peru. It's a great country.
Livin' the traveller's life,
Karen
I wasn't actually looking for a bus. I was looking for a car. There are two kinds of colectivos here. I told you about the mini-bus sort of colectivo. The other kind is essentially a personal car which drives back and forth between places, carrying passengers. This is fairly informal, but there's a set price that all drivers charge to go to Tacna - 20 soles (about $7).
I told my driver I was only going to the Sama bridge. As it turned out, I got out at the Camiara Bridge, which is the river that flows through Locumba. Somehow this made more sense to me. I got my sample, climbed up the bank, and found another colectivo (of the minibus variety) which took me to the sweet little town of Locumba. Along the way we had a slight delay when we ran out of gas, and the driver grabbed a 1.5L pop bottle full of gasoline out of the back and poured it into the tank. That took us the rest of the way up the hill. Hooray.
Locumba has a few paved roads, a very pretty church next to the town plaza, and an enormous and professional looking soccer stadium (priorities, doncha know). A walkway led down from town to the stadium, and several of the townspeople gathered at the top with their chairs and their snacks to watch over the stadium walls. I walked on down the path and over to the river and took my sample, feeling mighty good to be outdoors and near a river.
When I got back up the hill, there was another collectivo in the plaza, on its way to Tacna. This was working out perfectly!!! I hopped in, and after a brief stop at the local police academy (where we were picking up visitors after family day), we headed off to Tacna. Along the way, we passed the Sama Bridge, where the river was very very low. This was a potential problem. The mouth of the Sama River was my goal for the evening, and it was likely to be much lower there. But, I was smooshed into the back of a colectivo, and had a vision of my goal, and I kept on riding to Tacna.
From there, I found a local bus going to Boca del Rio (the mouth of the river) which is also a popular seaside resort town, according to my Lonely Planet. I had fabulous visions of a seafood dinner and an evening walk on the beach to the mouth of the river for my sample gathering.
Yeah. Well. It didn't really work out that way.
We got to Boca del Rio about 7pm, and it was full on dark, and totally shut down. There was nothing resort looking about the place. About now I asked about when the bus was returning to Tacna and found out that it wasn't going back until the next day. Okay, well somehow I still thought that the cute and resorty part of town must be just ahead and I'd stay on the bus until we got there. Yeah. So the bus stops at the town just north of Boca del Rio, called Vila Vila. There are no hotels of any sort in Vila Vila. There is one restaurant. It sells sandwiches. The sandwiches are french fries and sliced hotdogs on hamburger buns. That's the menu. So, not being a meat eater, I had a french fry sandwich while trying to figure out what to do. (It was actually not bad.) My bus driver had helped me out with a few choices. I could sleep on the bus. I could sleep in his living room (this actually seemed to be a very innocent and helpful offer). Or, I could wait on this random street corner he showed me where a guy with a car came by every night at 8:20 to take people to Boca del Rio. I decided on the third option.
But, while waiting there, I bought myself a bottle of water. The man there told me that a bus going to Tacna ran by town on the main road at 8pm, and would stop for passengers if I got there in time. So much for the guy with the car. I booked it back uphill to the road, caught the bus, made it to Tacna, found a car to Moquegua, and was back in town by 11:15pm. Whew! What a night!
The whole thing was a bit silly as far as the water fetching project (other than the first two stops, I got no samples and probably they wouldn't have been worthwhile anyway given the low river level). But it was an adventure, and it all came out well. Everyone I asked for directions or help was truly nice to me. I really have never felt threatened in Peru. It's a great country.
Livin' the traveller's life,
Karen
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Can you ever have too many mummies?
So, this has been my problem of late. For my project, I need good preservation - hair has to have survived for 1000-1200 years. This actually isn't a problem here. Moquegua is at the northern end of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert on earth, which is great for drying things out. The problem I'm facing is that preservation is too good. Which is to say, when I look for individuals with hair to sample, I'm finding that the rest of them preserved too - they're full-on mummies, skin and all. So, this presents a little problem for me. It's one thing to say that I want a little sample of bone from a disarticulated skeleton (usually a rib end). But to saw through intact skin with a dremel and hack out a bone just seems wrong somehow. (Yes, I have very weird ethical dilemmas).
But, thankfully, I have a solution. I got approval today to forego bone when it's just too destructive. I can do it all with hair. Ain't that grand?!? So, this helps me out a lot with getting a sample size that's adequately big and also representative of all the people in the population (somehow, up to now, I'm just getting women and kids).
By the way, if all of this casual talk about the deceased is bothersome to you, I do apologize. Spending a lot of time with bioarchaeologists can radically change your perspective. And, you might as well face it if you're reading my blog....I really like bones.
So, it's back to the lab for me on Monday. But first, there's more water to be gathered. Today I took a taxi up the Moquegua Valley to a lovely spot on the river and took a sample there. Tomorrow, I head south and try to find a good sample in that direction. This will involve taking a colectivo (see previous blog for words on those), then getting dropped off at a crossroads, flagging another ride of some sort, finding the river, making sure that I'm upriver from the copper plant, and then doing all of that in reverse to get back to Moquegua. No worries! (Mom, if you're reading this don't worry - people are truly very nice here and I've done this sort of crazy thing before).
Life in Moquegua is going very well. I'm spending lots of time in the lab, and seeking out good places to eat. I'm fond of the "Moquegua Breakfast". It's a large bread roll shaped like a starfish, served with a whole avocado, cut in half, and a slab of local cheese (queso andino - it's soft and white and a little bit sour and very yummy). This comes with the "special juice" which is something like an orange julius, and a fabulous cup of NesCafe (yes I said fabulous...I'm trying to convince myself since it's the only coffee to be had here). In any case, the bread and avocado and cheese combo is a delicious, if unusual for me, way to start the day. Oh, and tomorrow morning, I'm moving to a new hostal with a lovely garden courtyard - much better than the tiny, loud, windowless room (which still smells a bit of fish) that I have now in a hostal on a busy street. It will cost me an extra 4 soles per night (about $1.35). I think it's worth it!
I hope that all is well with all of you at home. I'm getting things done here. It feels good to be productive. And I'm coming home four weeks from today! Woo hoo.
Karen
But, thankfully, I have a solution. I got approval today to forego bone when it's just too destructive. I can do it all with hair. Ain't that grand?!? So, this helps me out a lot with getting a sample size that's adequately big and also representative of all the people in the population (somehow, up to now, I'm just getting women and kids).
By the way, if all of this casual talk about the deceased is bothersome to you, I do apologize. Spending a lot of time with bioarchaeologists can radically change your perspective. And, you might as well face it if you're reading my blog....I really like bones.
So, it's back to the lab for me on Monday. But first, there's more water to be gathered. Today I took a taxi up the Moquegua Valley to a lovely spot on the river and took a sample there. Tomorrow, I head south and try to find a good sample in that direction. This will involve taking a colectivo (see previous blog for words on those), then getting dropped off at a crossroads, flagging another ride of some sort, finding the river, making sure that I'm upriver from the copper plant, and then doing all of that in reverse to get back to Moquegua. No worries! (Mom, if you're reading this don't worry - people are truly very nice here and I've done this sort of crazy thing before).
Life in Moquegua is going very well. I'm spending lots of time in the lab, and seeking out good places to eat. I'm fond of the "Moquegua Breakfast". It's a large bread roll shaped like a starfish, served with a whole avocado, cut in half, and a slab of local cheese (queso andino - it's soft and white and a little bit sour and very yummy). This comes with the "special juice" which is something like an orange julius, and a fabulous cup of NesCafe (yes I said fabulous...I'm trying to convince myself since it's the only coffee to be had here). In any case, the bread and avocado and cheese combo is a delicious, if unusual for me, way to start the day. Oh, and tomorrow morning, I'm moving to a new hostal with a lovely garden courtyard - much better than the tiny, loud, windowless room (which still smells a bit of fish) that I have now in a hostal on a busy street. It will cost me an extra 4 soles per night (about $1.35). I think it's worth it!
I hope that all is well with all of you at home. I'm getting things done here. It feels good to be productive. And I'm coming home four weeks from today! Woo hoo.
Karen
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Getting down to business
So, now that I'm in Moquegua, it's time to get down to business and collect my bone and hair samples. I spent today at the museum here, Museo Contisuyo, which is a truly impressive place. Here's their website http://bruceowen.com/contisuyo/MuseoE.html. Check it out!
The museum collections are all from groups who lived in this immediate area, from 10,000 BC to the 16th century. Things are well labeled, in both Spanish and English, and the walls are decorated with large conte-crayon original drawings of people from the various eras living their lives (created by Raul, the friendly guy at the front desk). It's a lovely combination of very professional and very homey and approachable.
I was greeted by Patty Palacios, the archaeologist I've corresponded with at the museum, and she was fabulously helpful, as was the director of the museum, Antonio Oquiche Hernani, who saw me reaching for a dictionary one too many times while drafting my petition for access to the collections and wrote it for me instead. What a guy! He said it would be quicker that way. I sucked up my humble pie and was grateful. The letter worked like a charm, and by 10:30, I had access to the collections.
The collections are amazing! The llama mummies are here! (I wrote a paper on camelid domestication a year ago or so, and the llama mummies were the stars). There are many, many human mummies as well, and boxes of bones, ceramics, lithics, all kinds of things. (By the way, mummies here are not all wrapped up in bandages. They are naturally dessicated and seated in a tight crouch and wrapped in textiles - except the llamas - no textiles for them).
Patty put together a list of boxes I'd likely be interested in (again, fabulously helpful), and I'm on my way through, sorting bones and hair and sometimes even working with mummies (yikes!). It's going to be really interesting and productive (and challenging too). There are several other students and archaeologists here. It's a very supportive and stimulating atmosphere.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, cleaning fish in a hotel sink is an icky thing to do. But I did it, and it's done, and now I have some darn good looking fish-bone samples to bring home. And my bathroom smells a little bit fishy, but they were darn fresh, so it's not too bad, and the rest of the fish left with the trash today.
Speaking of fish, I found a fish place for lunch today and dined on tasty 'chicharones' which is Peruvian for batter-fried anything (chicken, fish, octopus, whatever). Of course, I had the octopus (who wouldn't?). Well actually, I had mixed seafood, including octopus, and watched a Spanish dubbed version of 'The Mummy' with Brendan Fraser while eating chicarones with ají chili sauce and drinking a Peruvian Coca-cola (made with real sugar - yum). I loved the irony of watching 'real archaeology' across the street from the museum.
Oh, Bruce Owen, my thesis advisor for all things Andean, arrived today too, so that's a relief. I don't expect that he'll be working closely with me, as he has his own projects here, but he's around and it's nice to have someone to ask questions of now and then.
So, things are going well. And it's possible that this blog will get a bit boring. I hope not. I still owe you a back story about my time on the Isla del Sol (the Island of the Sun). It's a good story, but I'm saving it for a slow spell.
Hope you all are well at home. Thanks to those of you who've commented or sent e-mails about this blog. I'm glad that you're enjoying reading it, and that it maybe makes the world a little smaller.
Con cariño,
Karen
The museum collections are all from groups who lived in this immediate area, from 10,000 BC to the 16th century. Things are well labeled, in both Spanish and English, and the walls are decorated with large conte-crayon original drawings of people from the various eras living their lives (created by Raul, the friendly guy at the front desk). It's a lovely combination of very professional and very homey and approachable.
I was greeted by Patty Palacios, the archaeologist I've corresponded with at the museum, and she was fabulously helpful, as was the director of the museum, Antonio Oquiche Hernani, who saw me reaching for a dictionary one too many times while drafting my petition for access to the collections and wrote it for me instead. What a guy! He said it would be quicker that way. I sucked up my humble pie and was grateful. The letter worked like a charm, and by 10:30, I had access to the collections.
The collections are amazing! The llama mummies are here! (I wrote a paper on camelid domestication a year ago or so, and the llama mummies were the stars). There are many, many human mummies as well, and boxes of bones, ceramics, lithics, all kinds of things. (By the way, mummies here are not all wrapped up in bandages. They are naturally dessicated and seated in a tight crouch and wrapped in textiles - except the llamas - no textiles for them).
Patty put together a list of boxes I'd likely be interested in (again, fabulously helpful), and I'm on my way through, sorting bones and hair and sometimes even working with mummies (yikes!). It's going to be really interesting and productive (and challenging too). There are several other students and archaeologists here. It's a very supportive and stimulating atmosphere.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, cleaning fish in a hotel sink is an icky thing to do. But I did it, and it's done, and now I have some darn good looking fish-bone samples to bring home. And my bathroom smells a little bit fishy, but they were darn fresh, so it's not too bad, and the rest of the fish left with the trash today.
Speaking of fish, I found a fish place for lunch today and dined on tasty 'chicharones' which is Peruvian for batter-fried anything (chicken, fish, octopus, whatever). Of course, I had the octopus (who wouldn't?). Well actually, I had mixed seafood, including octopus, and watched a Spanish dubbed version of 'The Mummy' with Brendan Fraser while eating chicarones with ají chili sauce and drinking a Peruvian Coca-cola (made with real sugar - yum). I loved the irony of watching 'real archaeology' across the street from the museum.
Oh, Bruce Owen, my thesis advisor for all things Andean, arrived today too, so that's a relief. I don't expect that he'll be working closely with me, as he has his own projects here, but he's around and it's nice to have someone to ask questions of now and then.
So, things are going well. And it's possible that this blog will get a bit boring. I hope not. I still owe you a back story about my time on the Isla del Sol (the Island of the Sun). It's a good story, but I'm saving it for a slow spell.
Hope you all are well at home. Thanks to those of you who've commented or sent e-mails about this blog. I'm glad that you're enjoying reading it, and that it maybe makes the world a little smaller.
Con cariño,
Karen
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Begging for fish bones
High on the list of things I never envisioned myself doing is going door to door to restaurants, begging for fish bones. Yet, this is how I spent most of my afternoon and evening yesterday. But first, let me catch you up a bit.
Yesterday was a good day for me in Puno. I went for a walk by the harbor and along the promenade there, and took a water sample at the far end of the boardwalk. I had lunch at Govinda's (a Hare Krishna chain of vegetarian restaurants in Peru - this amuses the heck out of me, and the food is cheap and a no-brainer for me to eat). Then I toured a local museum full of mostly unprovenienced archaeological artifacts from all around Peru. And finally, after all of that, I met up with my friends Abby and Craig, who are working on an archaeology project nearby. We had a good time catching up (although Craig's been hit with some nasty bug - feel better Craig!), and then they took off and I went off to get another water sample, at a cleaner site north of the city.
But I digress. I was talking about begging for fish bones.
Once I was done with all of the above, I realized that if I am to prove that Tiwanaku colonists ate fish from Lake Titicaca, I am going to have to have samples of fish bones for comparison. So, I began my search.
The problem is, everyone is crazy for trout and trout is an introduced species (not helpful for my research). The other fish that all the restaurants claim to serve is pejerrey (kingfish). However, it seemed that nobody actually had kingfish. Also, most everyone had already cleaned their fish and disposed of the bones by 5:00. Surprisingly, nobody looked at me as though I was stark, raving mad. I talked to probably 20 restaurants and scored one trout skeleton. I went to the market, but all they had was trout.
I eventually gave up and stopped for dinner, but the place that I chose just didn't have anything that appealed so I left.
I decided instead to go back to the place where I'd met Abby and Craig earlier, which turned out to be a brilliant stroke of luck. The waitress was a fabulous woman from Minnesota who not only served me a wonderful meal, but also listened to my crazy last bid for fish bones politely and set out to help. She said that restaurant didn't have any, but she'd talk to the folks in the kitchen, because they likely had connections with other restaurants and perhaps they'd know who could help me. So, she took off and I ate wonderful food, and then she returned and said that there was a man named Señor Miguel who owned a cevicheria (fish restaurant) who would meet me at 8am the next morning and give me what I needed. Eureka! It was a miracle.
So, this was my morning... My bus for Moquegua was scheduled to leave at 9:30am. Keep this in mind....
6:30 - I got up, packed, and had breakfast at the hotel.
7:50 - I arrived at the cevicheria (it was just two blocks from my hotel).
8:00 - To be polite, I waited until 8:00 to knock. No answer. The outer door was open, and there was a courtyard inside, so I went in and knocked on the interior door. No answer.
8:05 - I asked the girl at the store next door about Señor Miguel, she said he should be there.
8:10 - A young woman comes down the street and enters the door I've been knocking on. I tell her my situation, and she says that Señor Miguel probably won't arrive until 9, but then she says he may be sooner - I should wait.
8:30 - I knock again to get her attention, she says I should wait.
8:40 - Señor Miguel arrives! He tells me that I don't want the type of fish I think I want. He turns out to be a brilliant source of information about local fish, and tells me we have to go to the market to get the right species to represent native lake fish in Titicaca. We hop in a cab.
8:45 - Señor Miguel whisks me through the market, pointing out exactly what I should use for my samples and helping me with everything.
9:00 - We arrive back at the cevicheria. Señor Miguel says there's no time to clean the fish (by the way, these fish are so fresh some are still alive and wiggling in my bags).
9:10 - I'm checked out of my hotel. The fish (still wiggling) are double zip-locked in my luggage, and I hop in a cab for the bus station.
9:20 - I arrive at the bus station.
9:25 - I've purchased my departure tax stamp and arrive with my luggage in the waiting area for my bus with 5 minutes to spare.
The bus isn't there. The bus is late. The bus arrives at 10:00am.
10:10 - I'm on my way to Moquegua!
T'was a crazy day! I love this story because it is so quitessentially Peru. People will go out of their way to help you, for no reason other than to be helpful. But time is kind of a fluid thing. Nothing happens early. You can see why I fit in here so well....
Hope all is well at home!
Karen
p.s. I have to go back to my room and clean some fish now. Another thing I don't generally picture myself doing. Ah the glamour of bioarchaeology!
Yesterday was a good day for me in Puno. I went for a walk by the harbor and along the promenade there, and took a water sample at the far end of the boardwalk. I had lunch at Govinda's (a Hare Krishna chain of vegetarian restaurants in Peru - this amuses the heck out of me, and the food is cheap and a no-brainer for me to eat). Then I toured a local museum full of mostly unprovenienced archaeological artifacts from all around Peru. And finally, after all of that, I met up with my friends Abby and Craig, who are working on an archaeology project nearby. We had a good time catching up (although Craig's been hit with some nasty bug - feel better Craig!), and then they took off and I went off to get another water sample, at a cleaner site north of the city.
But I digress. I was talking about begging for fish bones.
Once I was done with all of the above, I realized that if I am to prove that Tiwanaku colonists ate fish from Lake Titicaca, I am going to have to have samples of fish bones for comparison. So, I began my search.
The problem is, everyone is crazy for trout and trout is an introduced species (not helpful for my research). The other fish that all the restaurants claim to serve is pejerrey (kingfish). However, it seemed that nobody actually had kingfish. Also, most everyone had already cleaned their fish and disposed of the bones by 5:00. Surprisingly, nobody looked at me as though I was stark, raving mad. I talked to probably 20 restaurants and scored one trout skeleton. I went to the market, but all they had was trout.
I eventually gave up and stopped for dinner, but the place that I chose just didn't have anything that appealed so I left.
I decided instead to go back to the place where I'd met Abby and Craig earlier, which turned out to be a brilliant stroke of luck. The waitress was a fabulous woman from Minnesota who not only served me a wonderful meal, but also listened to my crazy last bid for fish bones politely and set out to help. She said that restaurant didn't have any, but she'd talk to the folks in the kitchen, because they likely had connections with other restaurants and perhaps they'd know who could help me. So, she took off and I ate wonderful food, and then she returned and said that there was a man named Señor Miguel who owned a cevicheria (fish restaurant) who would meet me at 8am the next morning and give me what I needed. Eureka! It was a miracle.
So, this was my morning... My bus for Moquegua was scheduled to leave at 9:30am. Keep this in mind....
6:30 - I got up, packed, and had breakfast at the hotel.
7:50 - I arrived at the cevicheria (it was just two blocks from my hotel).
8:00 - To be polite, I waited until 8:00 to knock. No answer. The outer door was open, and there was a courtyard inside, so I went in and knocked on the interior door. No answer.
8:05 - I asked the girl at the store next door about Señor Miguel, she said he should be there.
8:10 - A young woman comes down the street and enters the door I've been knocking on. I tell her my situation, and she says that Señor Miguel probably won't arrive until 9, but then she says he may be sooner - I should wait.
8:30 - I knock again to get her attention, she says I should wait.
8:40 - Señor Miguel arrives! He tells me that I don't want the type of fish I think I want. He turns out to be a brilliant source of information about local fish, and tells me we have to go to the market to get the right species to represent native lake fish in Titicaca. We hop in a cab.
8:45 - Señor Miguel whisks me through the market, pointing out exactly what I should use for my samples and helping me with everything.
9:00 - We arrive back at the cevicheria. Señor Miguel says there's no time to clean the fish (by the way, these fish are so fresh some are still alive and wiggling in my bags).
9:10 - I'm checked out of my hotel. The fish (still wiggling) are double zip-locked in my luggage, and I hop in a cab for the bus station.
9:20 - I arrive at the bus station.
9:25 - I've purchased my departure tax stamp and arrive with my luggage in the waiting area for my bus with 5 minutes to spare.
The bus isn't there. The bus is late. The bus arrives at 10:00am.
10:10 - I'm on my way to Moquegua!
T'was a crazy day! I love this story because it is so quitessentially Peru. People will go out of their way to help you, for no reason other than to be helpful. But time is kind of a fluid thing. Nothing happens early. You can see why I fit in here so well....
Hope all is well at home!
Karen
p.s. I have to go back to my room and clean some fish now. Another thing I don't generally picture myself doing. Ah the glamour of bioarchaeology!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Hello from Copacabana
And no, I haven't seen Barry Manilow (or Lola for that matter). Copacabana is a sweet little town on the Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca. It's a spiritual center and a vacation mecca for Bolivians (and backpacking gringos too). I have a place right on the lake with a lovely view and a private bathroom for about $14. Sweet! I just arrived in town at 3pm today, and tomorrow I'll leave at 8am to go to the Isla del Sol (island of the sun). I don't expect to have much connectivity with the world while I'm there, and Sunday will be in transit, so it may be Monday before I blog again - just warning y'all so nobody goes worrying or anything...
Yesterday was quite a day. I woke up suffering a bit with altitude (just the headache, but bletch, who needs it?). It was 11am before I really got on the road, which made the rest of the day a bit comical. I took a cab to meet a collectivo, which took me to the site of Tiwanaku.
A side note about collectivos. Collectivos are Toyota vans, the size of a VW Bus, which are miracles of engineering and sheer will. They usually hold about 5 bench seats, in addition to the front row (no they're not longer than your standard bus). At 5'4", I max out the femur length that can fit between one seat and another. Yesterday our collectivo had 22 people in it on the way to Tiwanaku. On the return trip, we only had 11, much to the consternation of the driver, who honked his horn all the way down the highway hoping for a field worker who wanted a ride. When he actually found one, we drove off the highway, across a culvert, and through a field to meet the passenger. All this for about $1.50 per person! The ride is about 2 hours long, give or take, allowing for lots of stops to gather more and more passengers.
Okay, back to Tiwanaku. By the time I arrived, I had about 4 hours to see and photograph anything of interest at the site (which is actually two sites about a km apart) and the museum, and to find the sacred spring which is another .5 km from one of the sites and unmarked, so that I could take a water sample. The amazing thing is, I got it all done, well pretty much, there was a bit of prioritizing...
To find the spring, I asked the site guard for directions. He pointed me across a field and said "see where there are five cows over there and the fourth is black? It's just past that." Fabulous. So, using those directions and my compass and John Janusek's wonderful book about the Tiwanaku which describes the spring, I set out and actually found it. If it weren't for the photo in the Janusek book, I'd have never recognized it. It's not marked and the water is very low and mucky. I took my sample anyway...it wasn't ideal, but how could I exclude the sacred spring at the cultural center????
After this, I zipped over to the museum, did a quick run through. Asked the guard if the sign saying no photos REALLY meant no photos, and he said I could take a few if nobody saw me and I bought him a coke. FABULOUS! So, we made a deal, and I bought him a very large Coca-cola. Hopefully the photos will come out well! There were some awesome cranial modifications.
I zipped through the site, took lots of pictures, and got back to the bus stop about 1 minute before the last bus of the day came through to take me back to La Paz. Whew! It would have made some people I know a little crazy - you know I like to cut it close!
Back in La Paz, I got news that a wild fire is very near my house near Chico, CA. There are evacuations going on. Very scary, and hard to be far away with that sort of thing going on. My very wonderful husband reminded me that I'm safe and he's safe, and the house is just full of things - not what really matters. So, not to worry. As of this morning, it looks like the fire is holding off and the threat is not imminent at least.
But then, later in the evening, true calamity befell me. What's worse for a traveller than hearing that their house may burn down......losing their Lonely Planet guide! Yes, my Lonely Planet Bolivia has gone missing, and I was very distraught. I mean, it has all the information, the maps, my reservations, the location of the sacred spring on the Isla del Sol! Disaster! I looked everywhere, had the hotel call the restaurant I ate at the night before, no luck. But, there's a rainbow at the end of my story. This morning, while checking out, I spotted some other travellers with a LP in English and asked if I could borrow it, just for a minute. They said, we're on our way to Chile, you can have it. HURRAY! Balance is restored to my universe.
And that's probably all I should say for now. Sorry to be so longwinded. Blame the beer I drank while watching the sunset over Lake Titicaca (it just seemed to be the right thing to do).
: )
Karen
Yesterday was quite a day. I woke up suffering a bit with altitude (just the headache, but bletch, who needs it?). It was 11am before I really got on the road, which made the rest of the day a bit comical. I took a cab to meet a collectivo, which took me to the site of Tiwanaku.
A side note about collectivos. Collectivos are Toyota vans, the size of a VW Bus, which are miracles of engineering and sheer will. They usually hold about 5 bench seats, in addition to the front row (no they're not longer than your standard bus). At 5'4", I max out the femur length that can fit between one seat and another. Yesterday our collectivo had 22 people in it on the way to Tiwanaku. On the return trip, we only had 11, much to the consternation of the driver, who honked his horn all the way down the highway hoping for a field worker who wanted a ride. When he actually found one, we drove off the highway, across a culvert, and through a field to meet the passenger. All this for about $1.50 per person! The ride is about 2 hours long, give or take, allowing for lots of stops to gather more and more passengers.
Okay, back to Tiwanaku. By the time I arrived, I had about 4 hours to see and photograph anything of interest at the site (which is actually two sites about a km apart) and the museum, and to find the sacred spring which is another .5 km from one of the sites and unmarked, so that I could take a water sample. The amazing thing is, I got it all done, well pretty much, there was a bit of prioritizing...
To find the spring, I asked the site guard for directions. He pointed me across a field and said "see where there are five cows over there and the fourth is black? It's just past that." Fabulous. So, using those directions and my compass and John Janusek's wonderful book about the Tiwanaku which describes the spring, I set out and actually found it. If it weren't for the photo in the Janusek book, I'd have never recognized it. It's not marked and the water is very low and mucky. I took my sample anyway...it wasn't ideal, but how could I exclude the sacred spring at the cultural center????
After this, I zipped over to the museum, did a quick run through. Asked the guard if the sign saying no photos REALLY meant no photos, and he said I could take a few if nobody saw me and I bought him a coke. FABULOUS! So, we made a deal, and I bought him a very large Coca-cola. Hopefully the photos will come out well! There were some awesome cranial modifications.
I zipped through the site, took lots of pictures, and got back to the bus stop about 1 minute before the last bus of the day came through to take me back to La Paz. Whew! It would have made some people I know a little crazy - you know I like to cut it close!
Back in La Paz, I got news that a wild fire is very near my house near Chico, CA. There are evacuations going on. Very scary, and hard to be far away with that sort of thing going on. My very wonderful husband reminded me that I'm safe and he's safe, and the house is just full of things - not what really matters. So, not to worry. As of this morning, it looks like the fire is holding off and the threat is not imminent at least.
But then, later in the evening, true calamity befell me. What's worse for a traveller than hearing that their house may burn down......losing their Lonely Planet guide! Yes, my Lonely Planet Bolivia has gone missing, and I was very distraught. I mean, it has all the information, the maps, my reservations, the location of the sacred spring on the Isla del Sol! Disaster! I looked everywhere, had the hotel call the restaurant I ate at the night before, no luck. But, there's a rainbow at the end of my story. This morning, while checking out, I spotted some other travellers with a LP in English and asked if I could borrow it, just for a minute. They said, we're on our way to Chile, you can have it. HURRAY! Balance is restored to my universe.
And that's probably all I should say for now. Sorry to be so longwinded. Blame the beer I drank while watching the sunset over Lake Titicaca (it just seemed to be the right thing to do).
: )
Karen
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Adventures in La Paz
Hello friends,
I had a good day yesterday, visiting the archaeological museum, the impressive church of San Francisco, and the museum of coca (why not?). I also made my hotel arrangements for the next few stops, so that's a relief. Today I'm running off to Tiwanaku.
The internet here has been iffy, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post again tomorrow, but if not, know that I'm fine and off having adventures.
It's my niece Megan's birthday today. Happy Birthday Megan!
Karen
I had a good day yesterday, visiting the archaeological museum, the impressive church of San Francisco, and the museum of coca (why not?). I also made my hotel arrangements for the next few stops, so that's a relief. Today I'm running off to Tiwanaku.
The internet here has been iffy, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post again tomorrow, but if not, know that I'm fine and off having adventures.
It's my niece Megan's birthday today. Happy Birthday Megan!
Karen
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Wednesday Part 2: What I am doing here
Okay, now that I've explained all of that, here's what I'm actually up to. I'm in La Paz right now, where my main goals are to get my bearings, learn more about Tiwanaku history, and visit the actual site of Tiwanaku (where I'll collect a water sample).
Yesterday I did the first part. I bought phone cards and bottle water, explored the local streets, and did some research in a lovely little coffeehouse (yes, I said coffee! It seems that Bolivians actually make real brewed coffee, which is a rarity in Peru). I also visited a wonderful museum, the Museo de Etnografia y Historia. They had an amazing textile collection, spanning 3000 years. There was also a lovely display of ceremonial masks from the 20th century - elaborate and amazing and very nicely presented. One hall held a collection of feather crafts, most of which were extraordinary headpieces - some more than 4 feet tall and 8 feet wide! The last room had a collection of ceramics, again spanning about 3000 years. Lovely!
Today I'm going to the archeological museum here and making my travel arrangements for the next few stops.
Life is good.
Karen
Yesterday I did the first part. I bought phone cards and bottle water, explored the local streets, and did some research in a lovely little coffeehouse (yes, I said coffee! It seems that Bolivians actually make real brewed coffee, which is a rarity in Peru). I also visited a wonderful museum, the Museo de Etnografia y Historia. They had an amazing textile collection, spanning 3000 years. There was also a lovely display of ceremonial masks from the 20th century - elaborate and amazing and very nicely presented. One hall held a collection of feather crafts, most of which were extraordinary headpieces - some more than 4 feet tall and 8 feet wide! The last room had a collection of ceramics, again spanning about 3000 years. Lovely!
Today I'm going to the archeological museum here and making my travel arrangements for the next few stops.
Life is good.
Karen
Wednesday Part 1: What am I doing here?
It seems like a good time to explain myself. Many of you have heard this before, but I need to practice saying it and getting all the pieces in the right order. I'm trying to figure out how to be concise, but that doesn't seem to be working. If you have any suggestions, I'd be grateful!
I'm here in Bolivia (and Peru next ) doing research for my Masters Thesis for a degree in Anthropology with a specialization in Bioarchaeology. I have a passion for Andean archaeology and that's how it all ties together. I am studying the economic system of a pre-Inkan group, who lived in what is now northwestern Bolivia and southern Peru, called the Tiwanaku. This culture centered around the city or ceremonial center of Tiwanaku (also spelled Tiahuanaco) and rose to power around 600AD. By 800AD they were expanding, and colonists settled in regions with different ecosystems to capitalize on the resources available there. One such region was the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru.
My goal is to study the travel patterns of individual colonists in Moquegua. To do this I'm going to use chemistry. Humans are constantly rebuilding our bodies, and all this new tissue is made up of what we eat and what we drink. As hair grows, the oxygen contained within it is largely derived from drinking water. The water of any location will have a chemical signature, based on the distance from the coast and other conditions. So, hair provides a record of where people have been (based on the ratios of stable oxygen isotopes). This record isn't exactly precise to location, but should give a general idea of distance from the coast, which is helpful considering that the valley where these folks lived changes altitude by thousands of feet between the coast and the Andes. This technique is being used now forensically, to help determine where unidentified murder victims might be from. I was inspired by that idea and decided to apply it to archaeology.
The other thing I'm doing is looking at bone chemistry to see what people have been eating. By looking at the ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes, I will be able to tell if individuals have been eating marine foods (only available on the coast), or corn (only available around Moquegua and environments of similar altitude), and hopefully lake fish (from around Lake Titicaca). Once I know this, I can combine the record of where people have been with what they've been eating to talk about their economic system.
My project here will involve the collection of water samples, to determine the chemical, oxygen isotope, signature of locations where the Moquegua colonists might have traveled. Then I'll gather samples of hair and bone from individuals who have been recovered from archaeological sites around Moquegua (that part just involves working with collections in a museum). Once I get all this gathered up, I'll go to Lima to arrange for permits to bring it all back to our labs at Chico for analysis and write it all into a thesis by next spring.
See, I told you I don't know how to say this briefly! Let me know if you have any suggestions for shortening it up or any questions about my work.
Karen
I'm here in Bolivia (and Peru next ) doing research for my Masters Thesis for a degree in Anthropology with a specialization in Bioarchaeology. I have a passion for Andean archaeology and that's how it all ties together. I am studying the economic system of a pre-Inkan group, who lived in what is now northwestern Bolivia and southern Peru, called the Tiwanaku. This culture centered around the city or ceremonial center of Tiwanaku (also spelled Tiahuanaco) and rose to power around 600AD. By 800AD they were expanding, and colonists settled in regions with different ecosystems to capitalize on the resources available there. One such region was the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru.
My goal is to study the travel patterns of individual colonists in Moquegua. To do this I'm going to use chemistry. Humans are constantly rebuilding our bodies, and all this new tissue is made up of what we eat and what we drink. As hair grows, the oxygen contained within it is largely derived from drinking water. The water of any location will have a chemical signature, based on the distance from the coast and other conditions. So, hair provides a record of where people have been (based on the ratios of stable oxygen isotopes). This record isn't exactly precise to location, but should give a general idea of distance from the coast, which is helpful considering that the valley where these folks lived changes altitude by thousands of feet between the coast and the Andes. This technique is being used now forensically, to help determine where unidentified murder victims might be from. I was inspired by that idea and decided to apply it to archaeology.
The other thing I'm doing is looking at bone chemistry to see what people have been eating. By looking at the ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes, I will be able to tell if individuals have been eating marine foods (only available on the coast), or corn (only available around Moquegua and environments of similar altitude), and hopefully lake fish (from around Lake Titicaca). Once I know this, I can combine the record of where people have been with what they've been eating to talk about their economic system.
My project here will involve the collection of water samples, to determine the chemical, oxygen isotope, signature of locations where the Moquegua colonists might have traveled. Then I'll gather samples of hair and bone from individuals who have been recovered from archaeological sites around Moquegua (that part just involves working with collections in a museum). Once I get all this gathered up, I'll go to Lima to arrange for permits to bring it all back to our labs at Chico for analysis and write it all into a thesis by next spring.
See, I told you I don't know how to say this briefly! Let me know if you have any suggestions for shortening it up or any questions about my work.
Karen
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
¡He llegado! (I've arrived)
Yes, I've arrived in La Paz. I almost forgot how much I love it down here. It's like there's another me that is just waiting to burst out and navigate cobblestone streets while speaking Spanish.
My trip went very smoothly. The flight across the US was lovely - right on time and I had a window view. The Sierras were snowcapped and gorgeous, the badlands (or somewhere around Utah or New Mexico) were decorated with incised canyons which sprawled together in shapes that looked like coral, the everglades were an otherworldly abstract of plant colors and water. I also got a lot of reading done about the Tiwanaku (you'll be hearing a lot more about them).
The flight from Miami to La Paz was full and I gave my window seat up so a very young Menninite couple with a baby could sit together. I wondered what they were planning to do in Bolivia - travel I guess. Anyway, that left me with a center seat across the isle with a very cozy fit between two long-legged men. I will definitely need a nap today.
I arrived in La Paz an hour or two late, but no worries. The flight was supposed to arrive at 5:30am, so another hour or two was helpful. I got my Bolivian visa ($135!!!) and made it through customs just fine. A taxi was waiting and brought me right to my hotel for 50 Bolivianos (about $7). Good deal! Even more exciting, my room was ready when I arrived, so I'm all checked in and unpacked already.
I had toasted quinoa cereal with bananas and yogurt for breakfast, along with a glass of fresh squeezed juice (the only kind here) and a cup of coca leaf tea. The coca is a must here for dealing with the altitude.
Yes, have I mentioned that the La Paz airport is at 13,400 feet above sea level? The city is at 12,000 feet or so. The air is THIN. I have to keep taking deep breaths. Coca tea helps with the adjustment to altitude, and it's tasty too (and no, it's not like drinking cocaine...much much milder, with a nice herby flavor).
It's great to be back!
Karen
My trip went very smoothly. The flight across the US was lovely - right on time and I had a window view. The Sierras were snowcapped and gorgeous, the badlands (or somewhere around Utah or New Mexico) were decorated with incised canyons which sprawled together in shapes that looked like coral, the everglades were an otherworldly abstract of plant colors and water. I also got a lot of reading done about the Tiwanaku (you'll be hearing a lot more about them).
The flight from Miami to La Paz was full and I gave my window seat up so a very young Menninite couple with a baby could sit together. I wondered what they were planning to do in Bolivia - travel I guess. Anyway, that left me with a center seat across the isle with a very cozy fit between two long-legged men. I will definitely need a nap today.
I arrived in La Paz an hour or two late, but no worries. The flight was supposed to arrive at 5:30am, so another hour or two was helpful. I got my Bolivian visa ($135!!!) and made it through customs just fine. A taxi was waiting and brought me right to my hotel for 50 Bolivianos (about $7). Good deal! Even more exciting, my room was ready when I arrived, so I'm all checked in and unpacked already.
I had toasted quinoa cereal with bananas and yogurt for breakfast, along with a glass of fresh squeezed juice (the only kind here) and a cup of coca leaf tea. The coca is a must here for dealing with the altitude.
Yes, have I mentioned that the La Paz airport is at 13,400 feet above sea level? The city is at 12,000 feet or so. The air is THIN. I have to keep taking deep breaths. Coca tea helps with the adjustment to altitude, and it's tasty too (and no, it's not like drinking cocaine...much much milder, with a nice herby flavor).
It's great to be back!
Karen
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Here I go again!
Hello friends, and welcome back to my travel blog.
If you're new to my blog, you can find previous trips under http://kareninperu.blogspot.com. I can't seem to transfer the old blog to my new gmail address, so I added a "2", and this should work just fine.
It's hard for me to even wrap my head around my plans for the summer, but they're coming at me fast and furious. I'll be leaving tomorrow (Monday July 7th) for La Paz, Bolivia to begin my thesis research. I'll be exploring important sites of the Tiwanaku polity, a pre-Inka culture who lived in the area around Lake Titicaca during the first milleneum AD. After just a few days in Bolivia, I'll head over to Peru, and the rest of my time will be spent there, gathering the bulk of my research samples for stable isotope analysis and working on getting permits to bring them home.
It's freezing in La Paz right now - high temperatures have been in the mid-40s (F) with lows in the mid 20s every night. One thing that I've found is that you can get some great deals on winter wear in California this time of year! Today's my big packing day. I just hope I remember everything!
I'll keep you all posted about my adventures as I travel. This time, I'll mostly be in or around cities, so hopefully the posting will be fairly constant.
I hope you are all having a great summer! I'll miss you while I'm away, but I'll be back in mid-August!
Wish me luck (please).
Karen
If you're new to my blog, you can find previous trips under http://kareninperu.blogspot.com. I can't seem to transfer the old blog to my new gmail address, so I added a "2", and this should work just fine.
It's hard for me to even wrap my head around my plans for the summer, but they're coming at me fast and furious. I'll be leaving tomorrow (Monday July 7th) for La Paz, Bolivia to begin my thesis research. I'll be exploring important sites of the Tiwanaku polity, a pre-Inka culture who lived in the area around Lake Titicaca during the first milleneum AD. After just a few days in Bolivia, I'll head over to Peru, and the rest of my time will be spent there, gathering the bulk of my research samples for stable isotope analysis and working on getting permits to bring them home.
It's freezing in La Paz right now - high temperatures have been in the mid-40s (F) with lows in the mid 20s every night. One thing that I've found is that you can get some great deals on winter wear in California this time of year! Today's my big packing day. I just hope I remember everything!
I'll keep you all posted about my adventures as I travel. This time, I'll mostly be in or around cities, so hopefully the posting will be fairly constant.
I hope you are all having a great summer! I'll miss you while I'm away, but I'll be back in mid-August!
Wish me luck (please).
Karen
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