I just recently returned from a two week venture in Guatemala. I was working with my Professor, Dr. Neff and two other students from CSULB at a middle Formative site in the town of La Blanca.
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We completed an intensive geophysical survey of an area surrounding Mound 1. This mound once towered 25 meters and from the top of it a person could see all of La Blanca and even the Guatemalan Pacific Coastline which is approximately 15 km from the town of La Blanca. However, the mound was leveled in the 70s by a construction company for reasons I'm not quite sure of. We worked in association with Dr. Michael Love of California State University Northridge and several of his students from CSUN. Dr. Love has devoted numerous years of work at the site of La Blanca and along the Pacific Coast of Guatemala.
The main form of geophysical survey we performed was ground penetrating radar or (GPR) using Geonics SIR-3000 with a 400 MHz antenna. We then processed the data using GPR Slice, a software program developed by Dean Goodman that proves extremely dynamic in processing and interpreting raw GPR data. You can find out more about GPR and GPR Slice at www.archaeogeophysics.org
The results from the survey are still being analyzed. We located several anomalies and geometric alignments that may prove to be the original edges of the mound but we have to take into consideration the dampness of the soil which may have affected our results. Changes in aridity in the soil change the dielectric properties of the soil thus affecting the signals received by the antenna resulting in noticible changes in the radargrams. We mainly survey in plantain fields but we also surveyed in an open pasture and a couple of corn fields as well. A word of advice: if you ever have to spend a lengthy period of time in a corn field, make sure and wear long sleeves and something to cover your neck like a bandana. Corn leaves give you small cuts that turn into a rash causing you to itch like crazy.
Outside of all the hard work we put in, we managed to have a lot of fun as well. We stopped in Antigua twice: once on the way to La Blanc and once on the way back to Guatemala City. Antigua has probably the most hospitable climate I've ever experienced. The city is beautiful, there's a descent nightlife, the surrounding mountains are breathtaking, and there's a little hotel called the Rosario that's really cozy and relaxing; not to mention affordable. The only bad thing about Antigua is the countless number of tourists which makes the experience seem more like a theme park than a Spanish Colonial town.
On the way from Guatemala city to Antigua the first time around we were able to stop in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, the small city closest to the site of El Baul. El Baul is the site where I collected the data for my thesis. In January of 2007 and January of 2008 Dr. Neff invited myself and several other CSULB students to work at the site of El Baul. During our visits we befriended a young lad by the name of Chepe. That's his nickname. We tried to send him a care package from the States, but he did not receive it. So this time around we brought the package down to him. He and his mother met us in the park just outside the Catholic Church in the center of Santa Lucia. We were excited to see him again. He seemed to have grown taller between the time we last saw him in January. Chepe was a great help to us those two field seasons. He brought us all kinds of fruit and iced water to help keep us cool while we were working. He even helped to screen on occasion.
During our stay in La Blanca I managed to escape a few times down to the beach. Tilapa was the name of the small beach community there. You could take either the bus or the these small three wheeled taxis from La Blanca down to Tilapa for only 5 Quetzales a person, which translates to approximately 75 cents a person. The waves at Tilapa were pretty huge. There were two breaks. The breaks closer to the shore were a little smaller and pretty descent for body surfing. All along the beach there were shelters with thatched roofs that served cold Gallo Cerveza and fresh fried fish, shrimp, and fries. After a long hard day under the hot Guatemalan Sun, this was the perfect way to wind down, relax, and fuel up for another day of work.
The last two days we worked in La Blanca, the Northridge team began excavation. It would have been nice to stay a little longer to see if any of our observations in the GPR data coincided with something uncovered in the excavations. But alas, there is work to be done here in Long Beach and a life to get back to. Adrian and Maureen, the two other students from CSULB, came back with thesis topics, which is exciting for them. I came back with even greater adoration for Guatemala, its people, and its history.
I plan to post pictures from this last trip to Guatemala on Flickr soon. You can link to them via the Flickr link on the side of the page. I'll post a direct link in this blog post as soon as I get them up.
