Day 8, June 10

I woke up this morning after a great night’s sleep in one of the hammocks. I can understand why it’s such a popular sleeping arrangement in South America. I ate breakfast and made my lunch, preparing for a day in the field. As the graduate students and professors arrived we began to work on finishing our data dictionaries. Jessica and I talked with Dr. Lipo about our classification system and it allowed us to refine our methodology and gave us a better grasp on the type of identifiers that would be useful. After getting a good draft on paper we entered them into the computer and synced it to the Trimble unit. I still can’t get over how sophisticated these GPS’s are compared to the small commercial devices I have used in the past. The ability to create polygons and lines along with points is extremely useful, not to mention the degree of accuracy that they are able to maintain.

After another liberal dose of bug spray and sunscreen we loaded up and headed out to the ranch. It was quite hot outside and it was immediately apparent that it wasn’t going to be cooling down anytime soon. John was with us which was great. He is extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and it’s nice to have a former program participant to give some insight. After learning the basic commands needed to operate the devices and equipping ourselves with walkie talkies we broke off and started discussing the best way to go about collecting data. We weighed going through the valley in a systematic grid like way or documenting the features that we already knew were there and seeking out areas that seem likely to have them. In the end it was decided that due to multiple factors including the size of the valley and the goals of the project that we would do the latter. We started by walking along the road searching the visible area looking for the features that had been pointed out to us yesterday. During our trek we came across a few possible sites composed of many stones along the ground that looked out of place on the landscape. John was very helpful especially since I have no experience of what to expect in terms of Hawaiian architecture and archaeological remains. One was particularly interesting, across from the central stream was a large grouping of stones in what might have been in a somewhat circular pattern, but it was very much disturbed as would be expected. It took us along time to find the first feature that we were looking for. Things look much different on foot than on a bus. Once we did find it we had trouble acquiring enough satellites to mark a point because of the thick overhead canopy cover. An offset will probably be necessary to accurately map this particular one. It probably won’t be the only one. After eating lunch with Emily and Michelle we returned to meet with everyone. Jeanette told us both the terraces she had seen during her own surveying which was very exciting since that is one of the main features we were hoping to find. That is where we plan to begin tomorrow morning.

Once back at home base some people went on Aron to the store while another decided to wind down with a dip in the ocean. I decided to head to the beach. It was a nice way to cap off a day spent hiking in the heat. I am still surprised at how warm the pacific is. Swimming is always fun, but this time I had a personal encounter with one of the small blue jellyfish that I saw earlier. I got a stung across my forearm and it left a burning welt, but it passed before too long. We ate dinner which was great as ever. After eating we had a small house meeting to touch on some domestic logistics. We then attempted to download the information from the Trimble’s that we had taken. It is not a difficult process but for some reason the particular unit that we used was not connecting to the computer. We will have to resolve it tomorrow. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be more productive now that we have an idea of what to do.  I’m looking forward to it!