Another beautiful morning for diving in Cahuita! The goals of the field school are progressing well, and at this rate we should complete all our tasks by the time we head back to Greenville, North Carolina! We were back working on the brick site today. The entire crew really worked well and came together as … Read more
Today, our team (Lauren and Scott) continued to map our unit at the Brick Site. After refining our technique over the past few days, we found that we were becoming quite efficient at the task. We were also able to increase our bottom time through slow deliberate breathing in order to conserve air; some of … Read more
Sunday marked the end of the first week of our field school here in Costa Rica. For most of us, getting on the plane a week ago feels like the distant past. A lot has happened since we arrived in this beautiful coastal town. On any given day, we are up at 7am for breakfast. After … Read more
Today we only had two boats available to take us to the wreck sites. The snorkel group, which included Dr. Harris, Dr. Richards, Kelsey, Wale, and I, elected to hike through Cahuita National Park to get to the brick scatter near the Cannon site. This brick scatter was only recently discovered when Dr. Harris and … Read more
Today we continued mapping the Brick Site in Cahuita’s National Park. The weather was perfect, the visibility was great, and the water temperature was better than anyone could have asked for. The baseline is 54 meters in length, so we split up the site into 5 meter units. In total there are 22 units and … Read more
If a picture is worth a thousand words than a map is worth a million. The finished product will be invaluable to presenting the site to the public, stakeholders, and other professionals. Mapping a site is one of the most rewarding aspects of a project. Now that recording is complete at the cannon site, the … Read more
Richard Wilson is a local fisherman and tour guide residing in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Originally born in Nicaragua, he moved to Costa Rica to be with family members and to embrace the local culture. He uses his boat, Jamaica Town, to support himself financially through fishing and snorkeling tours. Eighteen years ago, he found the … Read more
On day six of the Costa Rica summer field school, participants continued to conduct an ethnographic survey of the town of Cahuita. To complement the boat recording, conversations with the captains are being held and documented. My team, which consisted of myself, Jeremy Borrelli, Wale Oyediran, Allyson Ropp, and Devin Urban, was fortunate enough to … Read more
Today, two groups basically finished working on the cannon and anchor site. My group was in charge of taking the compass bearings for each of the cannon and taking the distances between certain features on the site, including; three cannon, the two anchors, and the shore. To do this, we used a data scope which … Read more
Today, we saw first-hand the dangers of the ocean that we might encounter any given day on a job site. While on the boat, monitoring divers and recording data sets, a distressed snorkeler came crying out of the water on the Brick Site. Luis, one of the local boat captains, brought the woman and her … Read more