Premolars and panoramas

I consider today a case study in the awesomeness that is San Pedro. I will present it to you as an example of all the wonderful things this place holds and an argument for why there is no reason that your butt is not on a plane right now headed down to see me. 
I spent part of my morning measuring crania (hopefully this will turn into the most studly study of genetic affinity ever to hit the Middle Horizon). Then the museum director and I brought order to the giant chaos that is the deposito 2. We arranged all of the Solcor 3 cemetery remains into numerical order by tomb number. I was in anal retentive heaven. The morning was capped off with a lunch of tacos, curry vegetables, and watermelon juice. That is right -- fresh WATERMELON in JUICE form. Yum frickin' yum. If you have seen the "Chile is the land of bountiful fruits and vegetables" commercials, you know what I am talking about. 
Then the real fun began. After lunch, I learned how to make casts of the dentition from our skeletons. If you have ever been to the dentist (ahem, boyfriend), you may remember when they do the casts and it is icky and tastes like what bubblegum, grape, or mint might taste like in hell. Well that is what my skeletons got to errr, enjoy. We used an alginate to make a negative impression, and then filled that with plaster to make a positive. One of mine broke, but the other turned out just swell. Photos of the process are in the works (That means I haven't taken any and probably won't ever). Which is too bad for you because you will just have to imagine me with the diabolical look all dentists possess, a facemask, and a skull themed apron slapping a tray full of pink goop onto a thousand-plus year old skull. 
But before you get too caught up in that imagery, let's move on to the coup de resistance. I rode my bike home and what was waiting for me but this: 

Life is pretty damn good. 

Fulbright conversations

And here is the highly intellectual discourse two Fulbrighters shared yesterday:
Me: STTTTTRRRREEEEETTTTTTCCCCCCCHHHHH 
Fellow intellectual: Are you making baby dinosaurs in there? 

News from the Atacama

I know you all have been eagerly awaiting my blog post, and so I am here to please. I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, safe and sound. Life is wonderful, beautiful, and both immensely complicated and simple all at the same time. Life in San Pedro is at a much slower pace, which is very nice. However, with my spanish ability equivalent to that of a three year old and the basic errands of every day life a little different here, getting anything done has proved difficult. But I know you all have lots of pressing questions, so here is my very own San Pedro Q&A:
1) Yes there is running water. It is usually hot. No we do not drink it unless under duress. There is bottled water for that. And no there is no recycling and I am trying to apologize to the earth for messing it up even more with my plastic bottles, so if you know its number, can you send it to me? 
2) There is electricity, phone, and even internet. Yes, even 100 miles from real civilization you can check facebook (not that I will be posting photos, so don't ask). And you can even get 500 channels on dish network if you are so inclined. 
3) Blair is here!!!!! She got here on Sunday and we have been having a blast ever since. She has lots of work to do :( but still manages to be awesome and fun! Thank god, because I couldn't imagine enough trouble to get into by myself. 
4) I am about to rent a house. Right now I am living in a tourist cabin until my house is ready. The rent is about the same as an apartment in Denver. And going out to dinner can be even more, easily. So don't think you will all be getting awesome alpaca scarves because that alone would be more than the GDP of several small nations. 
5) I have a sexy, sexy bike. It is shiny silver with black and red accents. The guys who I bought it from were so drunk they put the pedals on wrong not once, but three times. This can be excused because it is Carnival (related to Mardi Gras) here this week. And also because the bike only put me out $130, instead of the $400+ I would have paid for a new bike. I am accepting name applications, because sexy sexy bike is not the name of a bike you can bring home to mom and dad. 
6) If any of you are single and wish to meet some Chilean men, I can hook you up. I have several friends that are very nice. Obviously they will not be as good-looking/charming/funny as my boyfriend, but he is taken. And don't even think about stealing my man. I will come home and kick your butt. 
7) I am very happy. I miss home, friends, family, thai food, and my boyfriend. But life is nice and I can't say this isn't an amazing adventure.

(Top to bottom: Town church at night; me in a salt mine; Red Fox; view of Licancabur Volcano from the museum)

Pictures of this year's trip will be coming soon....At the moment I can only leave you with some parting shots from past years.

(Top to bottom: Me imitating the dinosaur-head like rock formation; the ever-present backpacker; dog eating the equivalent of go-gurt)