There is no more important point of a field project (except, perhaps, the actual digging, lab work, and reporting) than the beginning. We arrived in Belize late on a sweltering Saturday afternoon, after repeated delays and way too much airport coffee. Temperatures in Belize have been soaring at over 100 F, a sharp contrast to the still snowy conditions where we had just been (Calgary and Flagstaff).

Arriving in Belize to +100F weather

It has become our habit to arrive in Belize at least one week before fieldwork is set to commence, in order to take care of all the minutia—purchasing supplies, printing paperwork, renting vehicles, and picking up our permit (you may have seen an earlier post involving a “happy dance”). When things go smoothly, this leaves us with ample time to take care of other essentials to a successful field season—socializing, reconnecting with friends and family, taking in the sights, and acclimatizing. While things rarely go as smoothly as is ideal for the former, we always have ample time for the latter, and this year was no exception. Thank you to Ms. Erva and Mr. Landy, Nigel, Yvette, Karim, and all the rest of the Espat clan, to Raf Guerra, Kay Loague, and everyone else that we had the pleasure to reconnect with this week. We’ll see you at the Belize Archaeology Symposium in 5 weeks’ time!

Hanging out on Burns Avenue in San Ignacio, Cayo

Cooling off at the lovely Rio On Pools in the Pine Ridge

We met our other project members, Jill, Niki, and Frank (more members to follow next week), and headed out for Stann Creek District on Sunday, spending the day setting up our lab and going through items left in storage. We are ready and raring to go for our first week of the season!

Next week’s blog will introduce the goals of this season and outline our first week’s progress.

Best,
Meaghan, Shawn, and the SCRAP team.