Teotihuacán / Patrimonito

Participation Fee: $2700 mexican pesos or 150 Euros Includes food, accommodation and administration costs
PROJECT DETAILS: The Patrimonito project is part of the World Heritage Program implemented by UNESCO’s World Heritage Center in cooperation with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service. Patrimonito integrates international workcamps as a means to raise awareness for the local population about the importance of protecting their local heritage, to demonstrate the value of non-formal education and to create spaces for cooperation between the World heritage managers and the local population. The 2013 Patrimonito edition proposed by VIMEX comprises a workcamp in the beautiful  Archeological Zone of Teotihuacan.
The project is developed by the Archaeological Monuments Zone of Teotihuacan to work with mural paintings such as the registration of the paintings, conservation, digitization and restoration of all evidence of the mural paintings. The work will be both in the archaeological structures as well as in archives. The work began in 2010 and is directed by Gloria Torres, a restorer, and Claudia Lopez, an archaeologist.
WORK: The work will consist of the detailed record of each mural painting “in situ” and in an archive to enlarge the database.  In detail the work will consist of: photographical registration of the fragments of the mural paintings to store it in the archive of the archaeological zone; registration of different information (description and characteristics); capturing of information and scanning of pictures for the database.
In addition, volunteers will participate in the following tasks:
Presentations about World Heritage and the volunteers’ countries in local schools, use of the World Heritage Map to show people and students where their site is placed and the volunteer countries.
Discussions about the importance of preserving the heritage where the volunteers are going to take part.
Volunteers will participate also in the preparation of the Festivities of the Virgin of Guadalupe and in helping cleaning public spaces.  
After work in the afternoon and evenings - Visiting families, talking with the locals about traditions during their daily life in the community.
ACCOMODATION: A house in the archaeological zone.
FOOD: You are going to cook yourselves. The place has everything you need to cook and store food.
LANGUAGE: Basis Spanish would be welcome in order to be able to be in contact with the community, however it is not necessary.
LOCATION: Circuito Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacán. Autopista Ecatepec-Pirámides Km 22 + 600. Zip Code
 55800.
FREE TIME: There will be guided tours in the archaeological zone as well as visits to other working places of INAH (National Institute of Archaeology and History). Moreover, there will be social events of bonding with the local people living close to the pyramids.
REQUIREMENTS: Good disposal to teamwork, responsibility, openness and interest in archaeology. In detail there will be needed 1 student, typist or programmer; 1 student of (professional) photography; 3 students of archaeology; and 5 persons/students who are interested in general in getting to know the basic processes of restoration and conservation of pre-colonial mural paintings (manual skills, patience, and openness to work on site will be needed). The activities of the typist, the photographer, and the archaeologists will be in the archive.
REMARK: You can take the Intensive Spanish Course that we offer to the volunteers in our camps before to go to your camp. See the information and conditions at the section of the Spanish Courses 2013.
The meeting point will be at the VIMEX office before the camp starts because all the volunteers will go together to the project