Camp Life

Nabitunich Resort could only be described as rustic, but I’ve loved staying here so far. All the professors, PhD students, and undergraduates live in cabins with 2-3 people. There’s also a dining hall with a big porch, which is the main common area, the lab building (which really just consists of some beams holding up a roof), and the homes of the people who live and work here. They grow some crops here, mainly fruit and coffee, and they have a lot of pastures for cows, horses, and goats.

There are three professors here, a few postdoctoral researchers, probably about twelve PhD students, and eight undergraduates. All the undergrads are UTSA students. Dominique, the owner of Nabitunich, and several other people who work here year round also have their own houses here. One of the workers is Nelson, the night watchman, who we see walking around all the time with his dog, Big Ears. Nelson is the nicest guy ever and all the undergrads have adopted him as our uncle. When we had our bonfire last weekend he’s the one who set it up for us, and he told us lots of crazy stories. My personal favorite is his story from when Snoop Dogg came to Xunantunich when he was a teenager. Apparently they shut down the ferry so that people couldn’t follow him up, so Nelson and his friends jumped in the river and swam across to meet him.

There’s also Marta and her cooking crew, who make us delicious meals. We usually have tacos for breakfast, and a mix of Belizean and American food for dinner, but it’s always good. The highlight was definitely when they made lasagna. There’s also a cat that just had kittens, and they’re living in the kitchen and they’re ADORABLE.

I’m sharing a cabin with two other girls. It’s a pretty small room that just barely fits our three beds, a shelf, and a little dresser. Our bathroom has no mirror and no hot water, but a cold shower feels pretty amazing after a long day of work out in the heat. We also have no AC, and our ceiling fan doesn’t work, so we have three electric fans in our room. They only do so much during the day, but at night it actually feels pretty cool in our cabin. With the large cracks under the door and around the roof bugs are unavoidable. We’ve had quite the variety, from ants to moths to june bugs. At this point we’re pretty used to them and we just leave them alone and hope the spiders get them... One time an iguana even got into our neighbor’s room through the crack under the door and we had to chase it out with a broom. On top of all that, every now and then the water tank runs out or the power goes off. It doesn’t usually last longer than an hour so we’ve just learned to live with it. I know it sounds like I’m complaining a lot but I actually like living here. It’s even been nice to be without my phone all the time.

Here’s how a typical day goes at the field school:

We wake up at 5:15am and eat breakfast at 6, then pack our lunches, which are usually pb&j sandwiches. At 6:45 we leave for Xunantunich so we can start work at 7. We take a 15 minute break at 9 and a 30 minute lunch at noon, but otherwise we’re working until 3:30. Then we come back and check in our artifact bags at the lab, and we have a couple hours to shower and relax. Dinner is at 6, and after dinner the undergrads usually hang out for a couple hours, maybe play cards or something. Then we go to bed at 9 and start all over the next day. I thought it would be a tough adjustment, but I’m actually really enjoying the routine.