Sea Olympics

We don’t have classes tomorrow due to Sea Olympics-this big competition between “Seas” on the ship. Each floor is divided in two section-and each has a Sea name. I’m on the Aegean Sea. Each Sea also has their own color and ours is pink. There’s events like Tug-o-War, Pictionary, Relays, Hula Hoop, Hot Dog Eating contest, Twister, Jeopardy, Sudoku, Spelling Bee, Flip Cup, Limbo, Human Knot, etc, etc. I signed up for Jeopardy and Spelling Bee. Everyone says that they’re the intellectual ones. I didn’t want to do the physical ones because my back and my neck are still hurting a little bit. I’ve never been in a Spelling Bee so I thought it would be fun.  Yay go Aegean Sea!

South Africa Day 3: Cape Town Winelands

The day before I booked a wine tour at the clock tower in the Waterfront. One of the nurses on the ship put a small group together and I decided to join in (yes, Semester at Sea is one of the few places you will probably drink with your professors and staff). So the wine tour would go through a total of six wineries in the Cape Winelands. We went to some of the best ones: Constantia & some in Stellenbosch.

Sunday was probably the best day to go wine tasting out of the whole week because the weather forecast was the best of the week. Our tour guide picked us up outside of the ship and we went to go pick up some non-SAS people who were coming along. In addition to four people from the ship, we had two old men who were really nice and this group of three young Australians (they were quite the entertainment the whole trip).

Our first stop was at Groot Constantia. We had a cellar tour and a tasting there. It was so much fun to see how they process the wine. And out of all the tasting, I think Constantia was the fanciest. Wine tasting in general just feels classy and fancy. So we had the cellar tour and the tasting, where one the ladies who worked there explained the order of drinking the wine, etc, etc. I had a little background on this because of my trip earlier this year to Napa Valley with TRENZA. But I enjoyed the refresher.

We had another tasting at Blaauwklippen Winelands which was outdoors so that was nice. Then, we went to Vrede en Lust, where we had a lunch and a tasting. The food there was absolutely delicious! I enjoyed the change from the food on the ship. Their winelands were also really, really nice-they had horse statues and fountains and a gorgeous landscape. Loved it.

Then, we went to our 4th stop, KWV. We arrived later than we were scheduled because the lunch took a while so it felt a little rushed. The wines here were my least favorite from the whole trip. I think I only drank 3 of the 6.  On to our last stop (I forgot the name of it)! I was happy to see other Semester at Sea students who also booked wine tours independently. So we had our last tasting, we mingled, snapped some pics and went back to the ship. After five tasting, the car ride back was quite amusing to say the least.

South Africa Day 2 - Table Mountain

I grabbed some breakfast and decided to do some solo shopping in the morning. They always tell us not to go anywhere alone but the mall was right by the ship and I didn’t want to feel rushed with someone behind me. I walked around the mall to see if I could find some deals and I was unsuccessful-everything was so expensive! I only bought a Cape Town tote bag because I desperately needed a one. I left the mall and walked around little souvenir shops around the Waterfront and bought a few little things like postcards and some jewelry.

Then, I came back to the ship to leave for Table Mountain. We took a charter bus there and then took the cable car up the mountain. Many people hike it but 1) I still had back pain from my injury, 2) it was a pretty steep hike, 3) it was kind of cold, and 4) the cable car was supposed to be pretty cool-it was a rotating cable car! So we got up to the top and then our guide told us some facts and then told us to take one of the 2 routes to walk around the top of the mountain. There was an easy, shorter route and then a longer one. I took the longer one with some friends. It had a beautiful view of Cape Town and there were lots of photo opportunities. We were the tour guide so he knew all the good angles. And, yes I was extra careful walking around! So after about an hour and a half, we finished the scenic walk and took the cable car back down.

We got back to the ship and it was dinner time and I went out to dinner with my floor-mates. We went to a restaurant right across from the ship called Quay Four. I had a rib burger which was decent. After dinner, a bunch of people went out to Long Street. I decided to stay in and went back to Quay Four that had free Wi-Fi to check some stuff online. It was another wonderful day in Cape Town!

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Studying for midterms has been taking up most of my time lately. I had a midterm for one of my psychology classes today and I think it went well. I have a few more exams and papers due these next few days. Yesterday I had a 50 minute massage at the spa and that was very relaxing! Professors are doing all the exams right now because after India, we only have about 2-3 days between ports so it’s hard to schedule assignments then. So most of us are jammed with homework and studying! But one more week till India!

South Africa Day 1 - The Waterfront & the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa three days after leaving Namibia. We arrived in the early morning so like in previous ports, I get up for breakfast and get ready for the Diplomatic Briefing. The officials didn’t end up showing up for the Diplomatic Briefing so that was cancelled. Getting through customs was not an issue because they didn’t even end up stamping our passport (tear). So the ship was cleared really early (around 9:30am) and we were free to disembark.

I had a trip with Semester at Sea to the Botanical Gardens at 1pm so I had some time to go explore before leaving. Our ship was docked at the beautiful Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. I went with some friends to walk around the dock area and immediately, you could tell it was a major tourist destination. It had a bunch of little shops with postcard stands outside of them. There was also a craft market, an aquarium, and some statues of major activists like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The dock area reminded me a little bit of San Francisco because a ferry-ride away, it had an island that also used to be a prison, which Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in. This reminded me of Alcatraz. However, when the ship arrived, we were lured by Table Mountain in the landscape. Table Mountain is visible from almost everywhere in Cape Town and it’s this beautiful mountain that has a flat area (hence, Table Mountain). This mountain (among other things, of course) is what set it apart from SF.

We then went to the Waterfront Mall. In the pre-ports, they told us that it was a really nice mall and that we would be able to shop till we dropped. Well, yes, this was true. But only if you had quite a bit of money to spend. They had designer stores like Gucci and LV among other independent designer stores. We window shopped and then stopped at the food court for lunch. By now, everyone is sick and tired of the ship food and most of us like to eat out when possible. I had some fast food Thai food and I was quite disappointed. I was really craving Thai food and we saw a fancy Thai restaurant but it was closed so I had to settle for the food court. But I ate it and then we went back to the ship.

I ran to my cabin to grab my video camera for the Botanical Gardens. We took a motor coach to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. We stopped at the Compton Herbarium to look at some dry plants, then we went inside the actual Gardens. These Botanical Gardens are one of the most beautiful and abundant in the world, and it was clear why. It had a beautiful landscape and Table Mountain in the background added to its picturesque scenery. We were accompanied by a tour guide and he explained the plants and flora. There was medicinal plants, scented plants, and lots of other pretty things! We ended our tour and I stopped by the gift shop to get a few little things.

That evening, we had dinner at the City Grill (also in the Waterfront) and I had a very interesting dish! I had a skewer which had impala, kudu, ostrich and warthog!! A lot of the students have had zebra, springbuck, and alligator and I had yet to try these new foods. They were interesting. I ate all of them except for the impala which I didn’t like too much. Other than that, it was a nice dinner!

Day 1 in South Africa was only the beginning of an incredible visit.

Namibia

Namibia definitely had its ups and downs. It’s a beautiful country and the people were really nice and welcoming. The first day I spent in Walvis Bay, the port city we arrived in. We all immediately felt the difference between Salvador and this port city. We had lunch at a nice place called Bonaroma and it was really good and the Namibian dollar went a long way. The second day I went to Swakopmund, a Germany town outside of Walvis Bay. It was a cute little town that reminded me of Solvang in Santa Barbara. We walked around and went into some little shops

The third day I went on a Seal & Dolphin Encounter with Semester at Sea and that was nice except it was FREEZING cold on the little boat we went on. We didn’t see any dolphins but we did get to see a seal very up close. It actually came on our boat! We had oysters, finger foods, and white wine on the boat so that was fancy. I tried an oyster but I tried chewing it and then spit out overboard. The fourth day I went on a hot air balloon ride! It was really nice and a cool experience to have.

But the fifth day is what ruined everything. I wasn’t going to go quad biking because I had already spent a lot of money on the hot air balloon ride but everyone I talked to told me that they did it and how much fun it was so I really wanted to try it. I met a group of people who was going to go this last day so we all went to this company on the way to Swakopmund. We went on the bikes and they quickly told us how to use them. They stupidly didn’t make us put on helmets and I don’t remember them even offering them. Anyway so about an hour into the biking, I hit a dip and flipped over and the bike fell on top of me. I quickly got up and seemed to be okay, just some chest pain and a headache from the impact. We ended our tour soon afterwards and they took me back to the ship in their company car. I felt okay and good enough to go back out into town to pick up a few things I needed. I got back to the ship and had bad neck pains. I visited the doctor and he said everything seemed to be okay and that the pain would be worse tomorrow. It’s now tomorrow, and yes, it is worse. But it seems to be more soreness than pain so I hope it goes away soon. I look back and know that I’m lucky to be alive. I learned my lesson to be extra careful and not to try to do everything.

Amazon in a Nutshell

So that I can move onto Namibia, I will quickly summarize the rest of my time in Brazil. I spent three amazing days at the Amazon River in Manaus. The only downside of the trip was the travel time-we met at 4:50 am on Monday, September 8th and arrived in Manaus around 1pm [8 hours]. Of course that includes getting everyone together, bus to the airport, flight (we transferred in Brasilia), and another bus to the riverboats. It was a similar situation the way back. When we got off the bus to get on the riverboat, there were 3 right next to each other and one had a banner that said “Welcome Semester at Sea.” It was really cute-there were these 2 dancers who greeted us by giving us a necklace and a hat. I’ve really gotten used to being greeted each time I go on a trip with Semester at Sea!

Anyway so we got on the riverboats and chose our hammocks where we were going to sleep on for 2 nights. They were surprisingly comfortable! Then our guides briefed on our activities for the 3 days and introduced the crew of the boat. There were like 2 or 3 captains (I think 2 of those people just hung out most of the time), the kitchen crew, and our guides. Then we had a snack that included fried plantains, fruit, little empanadas, and fruit juices.

So Day 1: After the mini-orientation, we arrived at the Meeting of the Waters, where the black waters of the Rio Negro meet the brown waters of the Solimoes to form the Amazon River proper. From here, you could see the division of the waters. Our guides explained why this happens and the different composition of the 2 types of waters. Umm I can’t exactly remember but I think I got it on video. Then we went to the Lake January region, where we saw giant Victoria Regia water lilies. They were so big and pretty. Then, we went with our guides by canoe to catch alligators with their bare hands! Okay imagine reading this in your itinerary. You picture like these two men going into the water, catching this huge alligator, getting on top of the alligator and fighting with it to keep it’s jaw shut! That’s what I thought at least. Well, not quite. It was really dark by this time and they told us that only one of the two canoes was going to be getting an alligator. So the other canoe had caught one and we are going up to it and we’re like, where is it? We get closer and it’s like this tiny little cayman (reptile similar to the alligator, a baby). It was a little bigger than a lizard. So that was a little disappointing but I did get to hold it and take a picture with it. Then we had dinner as we went up the Jacareubal region for our overnight location.

Day 2: We got up early for breakfast. The hammock was really comfortable this night, I think because everyone was really tired. The hammocks were on the second level of the riverboat and there was only a small tarp covering us so I awoke to the bright sunlight. We went on a jungle trek and it was SUPER HOT. I was sweating the whole time, like soaked. It was humid which added to it. Our guides showed us some of the cool things in the Amazon like a water cane that people used to drink water from. It was pretty cool-they chopped off this thick branch and water came out of it. There were other plants also used for medicinal purposes. They also showed us “survival techniques.” One of them included what to do in case you are in a plane crash in the Amazon. Apparently, there was one of those some years ago and people died of the cold. So they showed us how to make a fire using: batteries (common item on a plane?), steel wool (from the kitchen?), and a piece of paper. So you’re supposed to put the batteries together from end to end and then rub the steel wool at the ends to create a spark. Then when you have a spark, you throw in the piece of paper to make the bigger fire. Well, we stood there for a good half an hour while our guides, Ronaldo and Mathias, tried to create the fire. The batteries were too weak and it didn’t work. It was so funny because they would argue in Portuguese and I could pick some of it up. Then, at the end of the trek, we stopped at a small waterfall where we got in the water so that was refreshing. We returned to the riverboats.

After lunch, we visited a village called the Terra Preta (the Black Land). We walked around and observed their lifestyle. It was really amazing to see this community with the bare minimum and they looked happy and content. In their view, they had everything they needed. We interacted with the children and they were so intrigued with us. One of my friends, Jasmine, bought stickers and they wouldn’t stop following her! They were really cute-they played with our cameras and we took some pictures with them.

We left and then we had a cookout at a white-sand beach. The riverboat arrived at the beach and then the kitchen crew got off to prepare. We went with our guides to wander around in a canoe for more than an hour. After about an hour, people were getting antsy and hungry and started rushing Ronaldo. I was having a good time getting to know the people around me and I felt bad that other people were giving him a hard time about getting us back. Again, here I noticed the time situation and how we were all rushing. So finally, our guide gave in and took us back to the beach. When we arrived, they gave HIM a hard time because things weren’t ready yet. I noticed that they weren’t done setting up because they had some fireworks that they probably wanted to set off when we were arriving at the shore but they set them off until after we had already gotten off the canoe. When we got back, it was really, really nice. They had the fireworks, the chairs set up in a circle with a string of lights all around them, and music. They had the food set up on some long table with a delicious chocolate cake and flan at the dessert section. Everything looked SO good. We waited for the other boats and then formed a line for the food. It was pretty late by now and everyone was understandably hungry. The food was indeed delicious-especially some breaded catfish and the chocolate cake! Then, the guides started some games for everyone. We played musical chairs, tug of war, and this one game that I had never played but was really fun. There were two people who spun their head around a stick for a while and then raced to get a water bottle to take it to the opposite side. Sounds simple but it was hilarious because after people spun in circles, they usually fell or ran the wrong way. My friend Estefania and I tried it and indeed, we both fell down. After all this fun and games, we returned to the boat and called it a night.

Day 3: I’ll try to make this one short because this is already two pages long. We went piranha fishing! I caught one! Just kidding. But someone in our canoe did catch one and I took a picture with it as if I caught it. Then we visited another village that wasn’t as exciting as the one the day before but it was still nice to observe their lifestyle. This one was a little more developed. Then we went swimming in the Amazon!! It was really cool and the water was really, really warm. After dinner, ,we went to a lodge where we met up with all the other Amazon groups from SAS and we had a big celebration to end our time at the Amazon. It was so amazing. We watched performances by a group who did dances based on the “Legends and Rituals of the Amazon.” They had really detailed costumes and it was really nice. After they performed, they honored the guides, and then the students danced along with the performers. After the celebration was over, around midnight, we went back to the riverboat to pack up and go to the airport and arrived to Salvador the next day around 1pm.

Overall, the Amazon was a really incredible experience! Oh we didn’t get to shower this entire time, I forgot to mention that. But, we had rainfall on one of the days so some us took advantage of this and took a shower in the rain. As a side note, we also learned about the limited educational and medical resources the Amazon has. It is unfortunate that many of the children that live there don’t have the opportunities for higher education. Also, some of the people further in are far away from the city and in case of emergency, it takes a while to get there by boat.  However, the Amazon is really one of the natural wonders of the world and I’m glad I had this opportunity to visit.

I don’t know how close this was to being in a nutshell...

First Stop: Salvador, Brazil!

Our long awaited first stop on Semester at Sea was Salvador, Brazil. We arrived on Sunday, September 7th, were at the dock at 5:30am and anchored by 7am. It felt so weird to wake up that morning to a still ship! I looked out my window and saw industrial-like buildings. They were going to start calling students at 7:15am to get cleared by customs. They wanted to do face-to-face passport checks so we weren’t expected to be cleared for another 2-3 hours. In the end, it turned out that Brazil customs wasn’t going to do that after all, so we proceeded to pick up our passports at the faculty and staff lounge and were ready to disembark-Yay!

We disembarked the ship and were greeted by a traditional Bahian woman giving us these ribbons for our wrists. We got tons more of these while we walked around Salvador. We went through the Port of Salvador building that had an area that seemed to be designed just for Semester at Sea students. It had postcards, stamps, computers for internet use, telephones, and little souvenir and convenience stands. We were too anxious to stop and figured it was probably overpriced so we proceeded to the city.

Salvador is interesting because it has an upper and lower city. The ship’s dock and more industrial areas seemed to be in the lower city. They advised us to take the Lacerda Elevator to the upper city where most of the tourist sites were. We took a right exiting the port building and walked down this street that had a very strong smell of urine. My friends and I quickly crossed to the other side of the street to avoid the smell. We walked through some blocks where there were always taxi drivers asking us if we wanted a taxi. One taxi driver advised us to avoid where we were because there were “bandits”. They kind of scared us at the pre-port meetings telling us that Salvador is a very big city and to be careful not to look like tourist targets.

Well, we finally found the elevator to get to the upper city and found some nice architectural sites and other places. Throughout this whole time, street vendors approached us and little kids asked us for money. The vendors would put the necklaces around our necks and wouldn’t let us give it back because they really wanted us to buy the item. We quickly learned to avoid them so that this wouldn’t happen. But sometimes it was really unavoidable. The sequence of events was something I wasn’t used to. Bahian women dressed in traditional costumes would come over to pose for a photo and ask for money AFTERWARDS. Capoeira performers would also do a small performance for us pretending like it’s free and then they would ask us for money, explaining that this is what they do for a living and need the money. I felt bad walking away and ignoring them but one of my friends made the point that this is going to be happening in many of the countries we’re visiting and we can’t get haggled in each one. Also, at the Diplomatic Briefing, they told us not to give money to the children on the streets and that if we were so inclined to give money, to find an organization to donate to.

After a few of these episodes, we got hungry and asked a taxi driver where we could find a Churrasceria, a traditional Brazilian BBQ. He said there wasn’t one in the near vicinity but that he knew of a place where it was about 35 Reals for all you can eat. This is equivalent to about $20 so we thought it was worth it and hopped in. We get to the restaurant and it is this really fancy place called Boi Preto Grill where we feel very underdressed. And it was not 35 Reals but 65 Reals (about $40). But it was a really nice place where they come around and slice fresh meat and they did have a nice buffet. But as soon as I walked in I noticed a stark difference than where I had just been. Where were all the Afro-Brazilians that roamed the streets of Centro Historico and by the elevator? The servers were all dressed nicely and the people who were eating were better dressed. I wanted a more authentic dining experience but of course, the food here was delicious as well.

We finished eating and took a taxi back to the port. On the way, we saw a shopping mall called Salvador Shopping and I wanted to get a few things so we told the taxi driver to drop us off there. So he drops us off and we go inside and notice that all the shops are closed. We actually knew that it was Brazil’s Independence Day but saw that there were so many cars, we figured it was open. It is a really nice mall actually but the only things open were the movie theater and the restaurants. We browsed around the mall and then left to Centro Historico. I found this to be an interesting observation-there were so many people at this mall just walking around and relaxing even though it was closed. The aspect of time was quite different in Brazil. I’m used to being on “Go” mode all the time and Brazil was not like this at all. Everyone was just relaxing, sitting around. I observed this when I was at the Amazon as well. I’ll get to that.

We visited the town of Pelourinho that had lots of colorful establishments and souvenir stops. We noticed there was many SAS students and saw that we were close to where we started. I visited the Igreja de Sao Francisco, a church that I had seen on a postcard that had a really nice interior. We paid 3 Reals to get in and it actually had much to see. It was museum-like with a lot of rooms with many artifacts. The interior didn’t look as spectacular as the postcard but it was quite intricate and beautiful.

There were other little events but this is getting really long. We finally came back to the ship because I had a Welcome Reception with Brazilian students to attend. I saw Estefania, another girl I knew was going and asked her what she was going to wear. She was with some friends and they said they were wearing dresses so I guess this was going to be a little more formal. I rushed through dinner and got ready for the Reception. The reception was really fun!!! They had a capoeira show, an act with girls that do tricks on ribbons (like at the circus), and dancing. There was hardly any Brazilian students but Estefania, Ale, and I had a great time together! Again, there was also Bahian women dressed in the traditional dresses. They had Brazilian finger foods like grilled cheese on a stick, little shrimp things made with palm oil, and unlimited beer. So it was well worth the $60 we paid to attend.

I’m going to try to use my Internet minutes and upload some pictures so I hope it works! This is super long and that was just my first day in Brazil!