Earthwatch, the scientists and the staff

First I want to introduce the scientists who were our hosts and bosses on this dig. Bienvenido if you read this, guys!

Josep Gibert: This was El Jefe, the chief, a paleontologist. An older man (in his 70's?), generally sporting very classic-looking field archaeology outfits. His are the important finds described in the previous posts. He had very little English.

Luis Gibert: He is the son of Josep, and is a geologist. He was the principal English speaker, and led the work in Cueva Victoria. He's married, and as of this writing they are expecting their first child in November. He's got interesting taste in music: reggae, 70's rock, blues, jazz.

Father and son.


Alfredo Diéguez: He and Luis met when they were teenagers. He is an archaeologist, and led the work on the outside site (darn name is escaping at the moment). He is married with two children. He was the "wild man" of the expedition. Due to his origin (most proudly expressed) in Galicia, the far northwest of Spain, he was dubbed Galicopithecus Dieguensis, with stories about how Galicopithecus came to Spain livening up some of the evenings. His English, while poor, improved while we were there. His Spanish was slightly different -- he speaks mostly Gallego, the dialect of Galicia, which has something in common with Portuguese.

On the outside site, we were joined on a few occasions by a female archaeologist named Mariana something-or-other (perhaps a reader who knows will tell me). She had previously worked on the same site, work originally done in the 80s.

Alfredo and Mariana.


We stayed in a house about 20 minutes outside the city of Cartagena, where we were ably hosted by Jose and Antonia, who produced the fabulous meals we ate every day.

[TODO: get pic of Jose and Antonia from Terrence]