Jungle Sidewalk

As I have mentioned, it has been really wet here.  There is a path between two champas that are right in front of our family's tents.  This is the path where most people walk to get to their tents.  Over the several days of rain the mud there became inches deep and very slippery.  Cenzo and I decided to make a rock path over the worst part.  With the help of Gustavo (Cenzo's Spanish tutor), Omar (one of the semester abroad students) and, of course, a rock or two carried by Giancarlo, we made a sidewalk.  We collected chert, which is a rock that is everywhere here.  It is the material the Maya used for making some of their tools, as it flakes to make sharp edges.  Cenzo placed the chert and mortared it in with the mud - and the bajo mud will set like concrete.  And then we covered it with caliza, which is the dirt excavated from the limestone shelf that is everywhere under our part of the jungle (it is quarried  for use in restoration and reinforcements in parts of the archaeological excavations).  This also helped to set the stones.  It looks great and has worked wonderfully.