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| October 26 |
 Picks, shovel, mud, boiling water, more picks, shovels, rocks. Archaeology seems more like a Hadean purgatory than science at this point. Our objective for the day is to finish the lower platform, which means burrowing down to the base of the wall. Johan and José are convinced an artifact is against the east face—the direction most sacred to the Inca. On the outside of the wall at the base runs a stone slab, pointing like the needle of a compass, due east. The slab bisects the wall and extends inside the platform. We dig around it.
 “I’m surprised we haven’t found anything against the east wall,” Johan said. By the end of the day, we had reached bedrock (which everyone calls tierra madre) without a trace of an artifact. Arcadio clears away frozen mud and rock with boiling water, a technique Johan invented while excavating Ampato. José and Jimmy take a measure of the depth. We bury some fruit, an orange and two apples, to show respect to the Inca ancestors and the sacred mountains. |
 We fill the area back in with fill and continue working in two more areas. The entire platform wall is like a citadel, flanking the cliff face in a semicircular rock wall. The areas left to excavate are at both ends of the semicircle—places where sacrifices have been found. Late in the day we received a surprise when José unearthed layers of red and orange dirt. Yet again, we were duped by the Inca. Nothing was found. Johan has often said that finds often come after eight or nine days of toil. I reckon patience, or working, with a pick is not one of my stronger points. We should be thankful for the nine uninterrupted days of sunshine during this expedition. |
| At the beginning, we feared the worst and got the best. Weather that is. Only four weeks ago, Pichu Pichu was covered from top to bottom in snow. The expedition was in jeopardy. Then record heat arrived and melted most of it back. |
| We suspect the culprit for the variation is El Niño—a massive swathe of warm weather spread across the Pacific that every few years plays havoc with the world’s climate. This year’s effect is supposedly the worst in years. Yet no one here is complaining about the constant sunshine. Only my skin seems to mind. |
 Tomorrow, José and Jimmy are going on a reconnaissance mission to Creston Grande, that distant meseta mentioned earlier, to look for more ruins. We will finish up the first burial platform and with luck, begin on the summit platform. With only about two or three days left, we’ll have to hurry. |
Yancey Hall
nationalgeographic.com