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Wrapping Up and Moving Forward For the 1994 field season, we had three things we wished to accomplish. First, there were a few loose ends to tie up in Operation E. Second, we wanted to dig in an area that might yield some spectacular burials in Operation D. Depending on the outcome of that work, our third goal was to do a shovel test pit survey of the entire area that we knew was part of the site, from Operation D all the way to Operation C. We arrived in Costa Rica in mid-January. I had a sabbatical , so I could be in the field through most of February although, due to family obligations, I couldn’t stay longer. The excavation of the suspected cemetery in Operation D would take a lot of planning, and the shovel test pit work would take a long time. Our plan, then, was to begin with the more straightforward work in Operation E while we figured out the details of how to do the Operation D work. Then we would dig the burials in Operation D, to be followed by the shovel test pit survey. Starting OF with a Bang Jeff Frost, Chris Raymond, and I all arrived in Costa Rica within a few days of one another. I had some business to do in San José, to get our excavation permits in order, so we all met there and went down south together , on the bus, over the mountains, to San Isidro. Aida Blanco kindly offered us space in her home in San Isidro while we looked for a house to rent in Rivas. We never stayed in the same house twice, but there was always some place to rent since one family or another was away picking coffee, staying with relatives elsewhere in Costa Rica, or living in New Jersey, making money by working at jobs such as busboys or kitchen assistants in restaurants. But who was away at any particular time varied, and this time it seemed as if everybody was staying in Rivas. The three of us spread out on Aida’s couch and floor. After a week we still hadn’t found a place to rent, and we were feeling uncomfortable imposing on Aida for so long, although she never complained. One Sunday night, Jeff and Chris said they were going to a dance farther up the valley from Rivas at a chapter four expanding our understanding of the site, 1994 place called San Gerardo. I told them to try and be back at least by midnight as we had work to do in the morning. They took off in the Land Rover. I stayed up late, reading. They weren’t back by 11:00, and I dozed off with the lights on. I woke at 2:00 and they still hadn’t returned. I began to worry and drifted fitfully between sleep and wakefulness for the following hours. Finally, at 5:00 .. I heard the sound of the Rover coming up the silent street. Jeff and Chris burst in. They had been driving back from San Gerardo fairly early when they rounded a corner near Rivas to find a car wreck. It must have just happened. A jeep had overturned after a collision with an avocado tree. It lay on its side with pools of gasoline around it. Nine people were lying all over the road, groaning, some with twisted limbs and others with head injuries, a broken leg, and a broken pelvis. Despite the quantities of alcohol they had consumed at the dance, they were in a lot of pain. Chris attended to the injured as best he could while Jeff used a chain hitched to the Rover to drag the jeep to one side to clear the road. The gasoline pools made the operation particularly dicey, as it was a rocky road and a spark easily could have set off a blaze and explosion. The injured were piled into the Rover, and the two gringos drove them to the nearest hospital, in San Isidro . Jeff and Chris waited until the doctors had fixed up the walking wounded and then drove them back to their homes. Jeff and Chris became local heroes for a while, treated to many drinks at bars. For several weeks we drove around with a single cowboy boot in the back of the Rover, left by one of the injured. Eventually , the owner started complaining that we had stolen his...

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