eau d'actun

Such an amazing week so far in Belize! Saturday we went to check out a Cave and then we went to our Main site of Pacbitun.  The Cave was amazing and though I was a little scared of spiders and getting stuck, I went in and I had an amazing time!  It was so cool to explore and be in something that huge with just a little light.  Jon the PhD student who is a caver had us turn off our lights for a minute to see what total darkness is like.  It was slightly creepy, but kind of calming.  After the caves we went to Pacbitun and walked around.  It was covered in jungle and Dr. Powis said that the trees are only 25 years old because they had chopped the jungle in the 80s.  It started raining hard and I was the only one who remembered to bring my poncho so I was walking around visiting everyone that was hiding under trees from the rain.  Saturday night a few of us went out to a bar called the Blue Angels to have a few drinks and play pool.  It was SO LOUD again since we had gone there the other day.  Me and Matt (a KSU student) went on a wild goose chase throughout San Ignacio to find the rest of the group who had gone out to a different bar, only to find that they had left a long time before we got there.  We had to take a taxi to the bar and then a different taxi back to the hotel.  It was an adventure, but pretty hilarious finding out they'd been at the hotel for about an hour.  I was finally glad to get back to the hotel and get to sleep! 

Sunday I felt awful even though I hadn't drank much.  But luckily Sunday was a pretty simple day which involved going to the Belize Zoo and the Blue Hole (not the ocean one).  The Zoo was really nice and had a bunch of different animals.  My favorite was April the Tapir, you could pet her and it was really cool.  We even got to go into a cage in the Jaguar pit and got to pet and have my head licked by Junior the Jaguar who was raised at the zoo.  It was WEIRD!  After the zoo, we went to the Blue Hole, which is a natural spring that you can swim in, it was COLD which was an amazing feeling to have in the jungle of Belize.  It was also nice to swim around.

Monday we started on our excavations.  Everyone was split into groups to work on different sites, and I got to work in the caves with KSU students Tammy, Craig, and Michael.  It was cool to learn how to set up a unit and learn the process of doing an excavation, because I'd never done one before.  The hike up to the cave was so muddy and I am so glad I got my ugly hiking boots.  They came in handy since it had rained the night before.  

Tuesday I didn't feel to good again from something I ate, the ride to the Caves is very bumpy so it was a little painful.  The walk up to the cave was a little slower than Monday but I made it and I think I sweat out all the ick.  I finished my first level of my Unit and I found A LOT of pottery.  11 bags of artifacts total, 6 big ones total.  I felt bad since we have to clean the artifacts we find everyday when we get back form the site.  I was so excited to be digging and be in the caves finding things and learning about the Maya and their use of caves.  It was exciting and interesting!  I was kind of slow excavating my unit, but Jon the PhD student said that is better and allows you to find more.  A LOT MORE!  The only problem with more is that we have to carry it back down the hill.  I got to work with a local man named John who knows a TON more about archaeology than I do and helped me a ton sifting through artifacts while I dug.  

I am having an amazing time here in Belize and I am excited for day 3 of digging in the cave and hope I find even more interesting stuff in my unit before I have to switch to working on a different site!  Sorry I haven't updated since Friday, I've been super busy and super tired.  But my trainer Jamie would be proud because I have to walk about 1.5 km to get to my site everyday and I've been sweating the whole time.  We smell awful the whole time, but that is okay since we all have the same stench.  I've never sweat so much in my life, which leads to the explanation of the blog title...actun is cave in Mayan, and the smell of caves is potent!  I'll update again soon and I love you guys!  Hope you all are enjoying your air conditioning during the day and not crawling around in the mud!  Because I'm enjoying my time here!  LOVE YOU GUYS!