Pictures

Home with a happy boy 

The swelling continues. Still not sure why. 

Kitty friend back in Peru 

Coolest irrigation system ever 

Chan chan 

Machu Picchu 

Mirrors by water at MP 

Can't remember the name whoops 

Salt mines. I still regret not getting any salt from there. I really wanted to buy some but the tour guide didn't give us enough time.                                               I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since being back. I'm finally moved into the new place. The dogs are happy to be back to a routine that they have been used to for years. Work is busy, but I liked going back to a place where I am good at my job. Shane and I are going pronghorn hunting this weekend, so wish us luck. I'm going to start working with one of my old professors on some archaeology projects at UW. 

Last week

Tis the last week here in Peru. I feel like I've been here forever. We are kind of in a rush this last week to finish up the two units we have open. We have tons of ceramics to wash and float samples to complete. It's hard to get this stuff done though because it gets dark here by 6 since it is winter. But we will find a way. I've been spoiled these last few days after taking a taxi into town each evening and walking around the mall and Starbucks. We hike up a mountain every morning and now I'm all the way on top. Takes about 45 min to get there. My legs still get just as tired and my lungs hurt just as much as they did in the beginning. It also doesn't help that we have to carry all of our equipment up and down everyday, but it is the life as an archaeologist. We all just ate dinner that our Peruvian cook Natalie makes for us every night, but everyone went up to their rooms. I'm sitting in the back with my legs in the thermal heated pool, looking up at the stars and just thinking. I regret feeling so homesick but I think it's just unavoidable. I want to see the new house that Shane found for us, and to be where I am comfortable. It has been a trip with definite ups and downs, but I came here for a reason. I've been doing better rash wise, but it comes and goes even on immunosuppressants. I don't think I will know what the cause is unless I go home and still have the problem. In that case, I'm glad I work at a doctors office. I did a bit too much googling the other night and saw internal parasites as a possible reason for hives. Hopefully not, but it would make sense. My bags are pretty much packed to go home. I have bought so many souvenirs I needed to make sure they would all fit. Here are a few more pictures I have taken. 

One of several monolith structures that are in the area. Many times these act as doorways into rooms, but these stand on their own. Your guess is as good as mine as to their purpose. 

View from the top of the mountain we are on every day. 

These ladies help us everyday by clearing out all of the weeds that cover up fallen walls. You can see some of them in the picture. 

Another free standing monolith, but it is associated with the rock fall around it most likely. 

View walking down from the site area. 

Picture of one of the units. You can see the prehistoric walls. We still aren't done with it, although some bedrock did start to become exposed, which is a sign we are getting close to sterile levels. The project director Jason got caught in my photo as well. 

See the top? Yeah that is the brutal hike we make every morning. My legs hurt just thinking about it. Well, off to watch Netflix. More pictures of the last week to come. 

Home

Never have I been so happy to be back in the states. I'm writing from the final plane and final hour before I am in Denver and I get to see my little family. The last couple days has gone by so slow that I didn't think I would make it to this point. On Saturday, crystal and I went to Starbucks one last time in Cajamarca. I swear they make better drinks there than In the states. We went home and packed for a couple of hours after that. Around lunch the whole group went to a ceramic shop in Cajamarca where I bought more replicas from just about every cultural period in ancient Peru. I would have bought everything in there if I had the room. We ate at the Villa Rica and then washed ceramics until it was time to be picked up by the taxi. It didn't take long to get to the tiny bus station where we had almost 2 hours to wait. The early arrival was my fault however because I had managed to lose my ticket a few days before. Thank god it wasn't hard to get a new one and only cost 2 soles. Still with time to kill Crystal and went across the street and ate chifa one last time. That was some of my favorite food. The Chinese food in Laramie definitely does not compare. I can't remember why or when but I guess there was a big Chinese influence on the Peruvian peoples at one point, which is why chifa is big there. Out of the whole trip home the bus ride is what I dreaded most. 15 hours on a bus on the crazy Peruian roads with the crazy drivers was not appealing. It didn't take long for my body to start to get motion sick, so I quickly tried to fall asleep. 15 hours later we made it to Lima. And once again, we were there for a good portion of the day with lots of time to kill before going to the airport.                                                     In Lima we took a taxi to Hotel La Princesa where Claire and I had stayed way back in the beginning of the trip to pick up my bag I left there. By that time I could hardly remember what was in it. Whoops. We picked it up and then went to the Dragon Fly Hostel where we paid the equivalent of like 5 bucks to store our stuff and take showers. Met a few nice people there. We spent the day in Miraflores and shopped at the Larco Mar mall, got Starbucks, ect. We made it down to the ocean as well as Crystal had never had the chance to step in an ocean ever. I stood back and took pictures. She got a bit wet as we didn't anticipate the waves being so large. But I guess this is one of the dryest years ever, and they say there will be a large El Niño. I heard that seals are aborting their own babies because of the impending weather changes. Our last meal was an okay restaurant where I had pasta. I would have had one more pisco sour if I didn't have a headache or nervous stomach. We don't know why both of us were so nervous, but as I'm in this plane by myself getting so close to Denver, I feel good. I can't wait to jump into Shane's arms and to see my babies. We will head straight to Laramie as we have a lot of work to do on the new house.                 Looking back now the trip did and did not turn out how I expected it. I wish I had done parts of the trip on my own, so I would have been forced to meet more people and just to do things on my own terms. But it is also comforting to have someone with you especially in such a different country. There was a lot of drama at the house with students, but there is no taking that back. It was great working with 2 professors who love what they do, and it is comforting to see the lifestyle that is possible as an archaeologist. The trip reassured me how much I do love archaeology, but also made me realize what I am and am not willing to do. I know now that I am not willing to do archaeology abroad because I do have a family of my own, and it was really hard being away from them. I will absolutely do more traveling and I will help with projects abroad, but not for months at a time. My ideal job would be field work or museum work that allows me to go home every night, with some travel. And I love going to conferences. I'm going to reach out to more people in the UW anthropology department to see what more I can do in the states involving archaeology. But I love my stable job at Laramie Physicians and I plan on being there for a while longer.       Some final pictures from the trip. 

Thought that was weird. 

View of one of the units 

Giant disgusting spider that was in my room. 

Another view of the unit 

On the last day a fire started down the mountain, which is where the cave was that we excavated in first. Never heard what happened. 

The unit up top. You can see just how deep it was. 

View from the top of the platform mound we were working on. 

My new favorite wine. Apparently it can be found in the states. I'm coming for you! 

Pretty view of the oldest church in Cajamarca. 

Picture from home :) 

My piggie 

View of the thermal heated pool in the backyard of the house. And our artifact washing station. 

Nerd table 

Nice big kitchen in the house 

What can I say, animals love me. 

Posh life in the super v bus as we are leaving Cajamarca to Lima 

Look a quarry of manos! Only my archaeology friends may appreciate this one. 

Back at the Pacific. It was pretty chilly outside. 

If I had time, I would have gone paragliding. 

Last random picture in my photo library. I'm pretty sure someone was living in it.   Still can't believe home is finally here. I haven't been able to have all of the amenities yet but I'm slowly realizing them. Being around English speakers. Not having to pay for toilet paper every time you walk into a public bathroom. Not being called gringa everywhere I go. Not having to use Peruvian soles. My phone working. Tis all I have for now folks. Back to life in a matter of hours. I can't wait to take out all of my souvenirs for people and get it to them. Countdown to seeing Shane and the boys is less than 2 hours. 

Pictures

One more week to go here. Pretty weird. Just going to be in the field this week hopefully finishing up the units we have open. Not going to lie, the hike up there every morning is pretty bad and my legs still don't feel used to it. 

I get to see this beautiful boy soon! 

Went to visit a Wari site and saw this poor cow get a bucket stuck on it's head. And yes, I did stay until it was able to get it off. 

Some well standing Wari walls. Not quite sure what the purpose of them was. They are on private property and I don't think any excavation has been done in the area. 

Have to save all of the puppy pictures sent to me of course. 

Mr bounty boy

Picture of the unit I am working on now. It's a 2 by 1 meter unit. We are working in a domestic space and were able to see just how well built the walls were. We are already 90 centimeters deep in the unit and there is no sign of it stopping any time soon. We are finding lots of ceramics and lithics. It's so deep now I can sit in it without having to feel the strong winds.                                           I'm currently sitting in a Starbucks in town eating a chocolate muffin and drinking my favorite refresher. Feels a bit like home. 

Pics

Dirty from excavating 

Lake titicaca 

Ventanillas or tombs carved into the stone 

An example of ancient irrigation systems 

Stones clearly shaped by humans not by nature 

Total station fun 

             We have been excavating again this week outside in a different area. The hike is pretty steep but it has been getting easier. 8 more days out in the field. We are excavating in a domestic area and have been dealing with a lot of wall fall. Today is Peru's Independence Day so there is a lot of noise in town and probably will be all night. Updates later. 

2 weeks left

This week went by super quick. I think it helped that I wasn't feeling sick all of the time. No hives, so that has been nice. We moved to a different area this week to do work. I got to learn how to use the total station which I thought was really fun. We mapped a lot of monumental architecture and probably domestic spaces. I found a bunch of manos which probably supports it being a more domestic area. I also found a nice grey chert scraper. We haven't had a chance to do any surface collections yet. We did pick out where the units will go on Monday so we can start out with that. Probably going into town tomorrow to do more shopping and then visiting sites on Monday. Getting ready to go home. 

Hot dogs with everything! 

Missing this beautiful boy. 

The difficulties of using the total station. 

Cajamarca pottery