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moved through that the water was only about a foot deep, but to Eze-
quiel's dismay, the Fiat was pretty well spent. We basically had to tow
it through the receding water. But once we had forded the stream,
which was still about a quarter mile in width, the road improved dra-
matically.
By 7:30
P.M.
we limped into the tiny, rustic village of Auca
Mahuida, where we intended to camp this year. Less than ten people
live in this small outpost, nestled in a picturesque ravine of reddish
sandstone layers. Like Dona Dora and her family, the inhabitants now
eke out a living off the land by raising sheep, goats, horses, and cattle;
however, the town initially developed around the activities at a nearby
asphalt mine. Once a relatively prosperous community of several
hundred miners, Auca Mahuida experienced a sudden eclipse in the
late 1940s when a fire killed seventeen workers and the authorities
decided to close the mine. The village was abandoned, and the mod-
ern community evokes a ghostly image of its former heyday. Most
houses have crumbled, and the desert has reclaimed most of the
surroundings. Nonetheless, the village is only a ten-minute drive
from our site, so our daily commute would be much shorter than the
thirty-minute trek from Dona Dora's. In addition, the people of the
village allowed us to use a partially crumbled and abandoned house.
A few rooms still had roofs intact to protect our equipment and
food, but we soon realized that each time we entered our sanctuary
would be an adventure in itself when Rodolfo was struck by a falling
brick, which opened an inch-long cut across his forehead. In spite of
this precarious shelter, the town was furnished with a working well, so
we would have fresh water without shipping it in from Neuquen or
Plaza Huincul.
Rodolfo and his crew greeted us as we drove into town. Within an
hour, we had pitched our tents and begun to settle in. Much to our
delight, Rodolfo's crew was preparing a celebratory
asado
to mark
our reunion in the field. As we dried out by the fire and toasted our
arrival, the tribulations of the afternoon deluge quickly gave way to
enthusiastic discussions of past triumphs and impending adven-
tures. We could hardly wait to get started.
We set out for the site on the morning of March 1 and spent most
of the morning introducing our new crew members to the surround-
ings, including where we had found fossils the previous year and the
