I did field work in Guatemala as doctoral student in history in the 1990s. On my first trip, I rented a room as boarder in the town of Retalhuleu on the Pacific coast of the country. The food at the boarding house had been terrible. To survive I resorted to hunting down bananas, baked goods, and frozen fruit pops. At the time I was vegan which made the situation to tougher to endure particularly trying to find proteins. One day I learned about a farm nearby that grew and roasted cashews. I went and purchased a couple of pounds of the best tasting cashews I’ve had to date. Over time learned that local magistrates had shipped area records to the Archivo Nacíonal in Guatemala City. I felt like the guys sent to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! The sun in Retalhuleu had made me three shades darker and the lack of vegan food options, and lots of walking resulted in a loss of about 10 to 15 pounds!