Farm and Survey

Yesterday I went to the farm with the Foothill group to learn about Ted and Linda’s research to see if I could incorporate the information into my research project. We dug a soil test pit (Kay, I was thinking about you) to locate where the good soil was for farming. It was kind of interesting but I know that I don’t want to do that for my topic, I won’t bore you with the details. It was hot! So hot that I got sunburned though my shirt. Foothill has it so good out there though, they have a toilet seat and an occasional breeze with lots of breaks and no mosquitoes. I can’t wait to see them out at Aguacate….hehe. We got to swim in a pool at the resort that they are farming on called Chaa Creek. It felt nice to get in the water again! Still unsure about what I will do for my project but I have time and I think that I want to focus on terracing found at archaeological sites. Who knows I will probably change my mind a lot!
Today Eric invited me to survey with him and Gilbert and I went for it. So much fun! We probably hiked about five miles total. It was hot but so much better than digging all day! We mapped out a new site that could possibly have evidence of terracing. It was small compared to Aguacate but on top of a pretty steep hill. The mounds were only about three meters high and there were only four of them. A Mennonite who owns the land helped us find it and was really cooperative about the whole situation. I should mention that Aguacate is in Spanish Lookout which is Mennonite central for Belize. After mapping the site we hiked up a road for a long time and started mapping out the different mounds on the way. The mounds are everywhere! We used a compass and GPS to locate the mounds. It was the best time I’ve had out in the field so far! I get so antsy digging all day in a 2 by 2 so it was a nice change!