I woke up before dawn to the sounds of pipes/whistles/flutes (I'm not sure which). There were two, and they seemed to be calling to each other from different parts of the neighbourhood (kind of an Andean Marco-Polo with musical instruments). It was a curious and intriguing way to wake up. I went back to sleep, though, for another hour or so. I generally prefer to wake up after the sun has.

Coffee time.

We figured out the percolator! Coffee is now tolerable (still not fantastic, but tolerable).

***

There's really nothing like sitting down to have breakfast at the same table you unpacked and tagged human remains at the day before. Ah, archaeology.

***

I cooked bacon for sandwiches for lunch. The matches to light the stove are awful. They break easily and are really small. The sandwiches were quite good, though the bread disintegrated when touched. Doing the dishes involved the use of a bright, neon-yellow soap in a container which one wipes with a wet sponge to use, rather than immersing it in the water itself. It was interestng. Well, not really, I guess, but I felt I should note it anyway.

***

So, I just had my first shower in the big green house. i realize I've been here a few days now and probably should have had one sooner, but it just didn't happen until now. I feel so much better without the collected grime of centuries of artifacts coating my entire being. Despite the fact that it was a cold shower with a device that is supposed to heat the water with electricity (thus adding the thrill of possible electrocution to the process), it truly felt great.

***

We're pretty much organized now and can begin the actual analysis portion of the job. We've separated everything into the various sites, pushed to the side all the artifacts from Ross' grad students and pulled out all the faunal material , charcoal, and botanical remains for study later (and likely by others), leaving us with the ceramics, lithics, glass, metal and soil to look at here. We start tomorrow.

***

A rather amusing story was just relayed to us. Apparently, there's a town 5-10 km south of Riobamba where Mastodon and other Pleistocene fossils have been found. The people there are apparently hostile to outsiders, even Ecuadorian outsiders. If someone they don't know goes up the valley to look at, or take, the fossils, one of the villagers (the one that first sees the outsider, I assume) will call out "Thief!" in Quechua and blow a large, loud horn. This will signal the rest of the villagers to grab sharpened sticks and stones and appear, Indiana Jones-esque, over the hills, surrounding the invader. they then will proceed to strip the intruder naked and beat him (pardon the androcentricism) with nettles, plunge him into cold water and repeat until it is understood not to come and take the bones. Ross isn't sure how much of this is true, but doesn't really feel the urge to test it out. Besides, we're archaeologists, not paleontologists.

***

Ross and José-Luis just came in with the craziest looking Jesus candle. I have pictures of each of us with it. I think we're taking it to Pepe and Elva's for the dinner party they have planned.

***

We didn't take it to Pepe and Elva's. That would have been highly inappropriate. It's just a decoration for our home for the month. We'll be spending much of our free time watching Jesus melt, I guess.

***

We had a pretty good time at Pepe and Elva's. Dinner, wine, converstaion; can one ask for more? We were all given a shot of cane alcohol to start the evening. It was poured out of a 5l plastic container and had the feel, and taste, of a sweet, Ecuadorian moonshine. As for the conversation, I felt much better about it this time. While I was often lost, I could understand quite a bit and was even able to contribute, albeit haltingly.

Afterwards, we hung out on our roof top patio and watched the fireworks from a real fiesta a few blocks away and drank Jim's scotch. Soon it got cold and Jim went to bed, so Ross, José-Luis and I went downstairs to have some beer. We ended up flipping through my notebook of random phrases and having Ross translate them into Spanish for José-Luis. They really didn't translate very well, although my haiku about canned ham did generate some confused amusement among both of them. I also ended up telling the infamous horse joke, which did translate well, apparently.

***

On a side note, completely irrelevant to the events of the day, it has been pointed out that two very popular names for boys in Ecuador are Lenin and Stalin. How truly bizarre.