Rio de Janeiro..
Before even getting off the boat I was scared of Rio, the ship made sure to thoroughly frighten us with statistics and stories of the bad things that happen there. I had a field lab on the first day there and I was actually really happy about that. Ive found that seeing a lot of the city in the first day, even if it is on a bus, is the best thing to do because you get a little bit familiar at lease and you are able to orient yourself. The field lab was for my Popular Music in World Cultures class and we were supposed to spend the day exploring the samba. Supposed to.. we were originally told we would be getting a samba lesson but the plans changed a bit. We started off in the city of samba, a large area of warehouses where the 12 elite samba schools of the premier league house and create all of their floats and costumes for the upcoming Carnaval. Carnaval is a huge deal in Rio de Janeiro and Samba as you probably know is key in Brazilian identity. There are 83 samba schools in all and they are broken up into different groups of varying levels. So, our class got to take a tour of the samba school Grande Rio and see the floats and costumes for the next year's festivities. I really enjoyed most of it. We saw all the effort that goes into the production, the way themes and costumes are thought up and executed, and the general enthusiasm that Brazilians have for Samba and Carnaval. We also made shirts with sequins and feathers, which was odd considering it was a group of twenty something year olds, but whatever. I had a good time. We then had an amazing buffet lunch, around 4pm, and because the field lab was running late they gave us the option of going back to the ship or finishing the day and going to a "samba performance". I thought that the samba was the whole point of our field lab, so I opted to go out and see the samba. Another misunderstanding, we thought Samba performance meant a formal performance butttttt we ended up in the suburbs of Rio at a local neighborhood bar/ club where there was live music and lots of locals dancing. It was totally unexpected but it was probably the best way to learn about Samba anyways as well as Brazil in general. It wasn't dangerous or anything, it was almost like a block party. There were a bunch of people with their kids and everyone was drinking dancing and having a good time. We only stayed for half an hour or so and then headed back to the ship.
So like I said, I was totally paranoid about Rio, especially at night, so I didn't go out and just had a movie night with some friends. From what I saw of Rio on the first day, I thought that it was a bit dirty and way bigger than I thought it would be. Most people that live there are black or colored, but interestingly all the ads and billboards featured white people. I saw a bit of downtown/central area as well as the sambadrome, a large street where the top groups of samba schools parade through during carnaval and huge stands line both sides. No sign of Copacabana or Ipanema yet!
Next morning my friend Sumi and I ventured out into Rio with no idea what to do. We took the subway to the Copacabana stop (it wasn't sketchy during the day) and unfortunately I started to feel really sick. This slowed us down a bit, but we eventually made it to Leblon shopping center. Leblon is the area right next to Ipanema and we got to drive through it a bit. This part of Rio looked a lot nicer and more touristy. The mall totally made me feel at home.. there were christmas decorations up before thanksgiving, a real live santa (whom we took a picture with, naturally) and even a starbucks! Our mission was to buy a brazilian bikini before we left so we hunted around the mall for four hours. It was successful and we both left happy. Sumi had a field lab the next day and she really wanted to see Christo Redentor aka Christ the Redeemer aka my friend Jesus. I hadn't seen him yet so we headed off. We left the mall at 5:30 so it took us forever to get there, but cabs in Rio are dirt cheap luckily. We made it there in time for a bit of daylight. The train up the mountain takes a solid 15 minutes but the trek is worth it. By far it had one of the most beautiful views I have seen on the whole trip. Its tied with the view from the top of Table Top Mountain in Cape Town. Stunning. Its the kind of view that makes you happy to be alive and just feel like the luckiest person in the world. We got a the last bit of daylight and stayed up there for the sunset. We also got to see the city slowly light up as darkness fell. I changed my mind, it is the most amazing view of the whole trip. I would have traveled to Rio just to see my friend Jesus. We finally head down in darkness and didn't have much trouble getting a cab back to the ship. Didn't go out again.
The next days plan was to show some other friends where to buy the bikinis and then go to the beach. We only made it to the mall though. I should have known. When girls try and shop quickly it just never happens. We did take a cab to the mall though, so we drove the whole length of Copacabana and Ipanema, and I am happy I at least got to see them. I still had a good last day in rio, I bought another bikini at a little place by the terminal and also got a nice dinner before getting back on the ship with kebabs and yucca and yummy foods. I got back on the ship that night and had two more days before we got to Salvador. These two ports were overland ports, meaning I could stay off the ship when it was in transit between the two. I decided not to do it because I was scared plus it would be hella expensive. Im really glad I stayed on the ship because the crew did formal dining for those of us who stayed on (about 25 percent of the usual amount of people we have on the ship) and I got to lay out and tan and relax for two days.
We get to Salvador, the murder capital of Brazil, and I prepare myself for the worst. It wasn't bad though. The population of Salvador was more black than Rio, it was a major port in the slave trade era. An unbelievable amount of slaves passed through Salvador. The states got hundreds of thousands of slaves, Salvador alone saw 4 million.. just to give you an idea. We heard that there was a huge market of hand made crafts very close to the ship so we headed there. I bought some christmas gifts and had a good time exploring. Afterward we didn't know where to go, so we just picked a place on the map that looked cool and luckily were right! We took a huge elevator up the side of a cliff basically to a beautiful, although touristy, area and walked around for hours. They had more crafts and little stores all around as well as restaurants and cafes. We bought some more goodies and then stopped for an early dinner. We sampled the drink of Brazil, the Caiparinha ( I spelled that incorrectly) and had a great dinner. We walked back to the ship. It was dark by that time but still pretty early and I felt safe.
Day two we decided to do one of those double decker city bus tours because we literally didn't have any idea what to do. As the trip has progressed I have become increasingly lazy in researching things to do. The bus tour was nice though, they took us to the neighborhood with the best ice cream, I had a scoop of acai sorbet, and they also took us to the biggest mall ever where we got off for a while. My roommate was still searching for a Brazilian soccer jersey and I needed a Brazilian Vogue cover for my bulletin board. We also got some much needed wifi.. I am suffering from Pinterest withdrawals!! I got to see all the ingenious diy christmas decorations, new ideas for elf on the shelf and millions of recipes for peppermint bark and pumpkin goodies that come along with holidays on Pinterest. We hopped back on the bus and then back off in a different neighborhood on the water where we had appetizers and frozen beers. This is where our day gets a little interesting.. night is coming on and we were told to meet the bus at the spot it dropped us off at by 5:50.. 5:50 comes and goes and then 6:20 comes and goes too. Just as we are talking about getting a cab back home we see the bus! The bus comes to the intersection and then pulls a loop and goes the opposite direction!!! We were like…. what the hell. So, after establishing that the bus wasn't just turning around, and that it did indeed leave us, we tried to get a cab and hoped it would take us all the way to the ship with the only 20 reals we had left. Very luckily for us the first cab we hailed was nice and was ok with being paid a bit shy of the meter price. We made it back to the ship safely after a great day. Most of the drinking that seemed to go on in Salvador included people just buying bottles and drinking them near the ship. I again opted out. Im much more into movies… because Im cool.
I am kind of annoyed that the ship made such a big deal about the crime in Brazil. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I feel like had I not been so nervous I may have been a bit more adventurous and seen a bit more than I did of Brazil. But I also understand and am glad I was cautious because there were several cases of students being mugged and even one case of attempted sexual assault of a girl by a registered cab. But she was alone.. I feel like I wouldn't do that alone and maybe wouldn't be in that position, maybe it was bad luck. Rio seems like its a pretty safe place if you stick to being a smart tourist and just a smart individual in general. mixed feelings.. but I did really enjoy my time there, regardless.
Today is Thanksgiving!! The ship made us a turkey dinner with stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and even pumpkin pie. Even though yesterday felt like a summer day, I am definitely feeling more in the holiday spirit today! As I write this I am listening to my Jimmy Buffet Christmas album, dreaming of the not so cold winter Ill be having in Tampa so very soon. So Happy Thanksgiving to all my peeps, a mere 12 day stretch at sea, three days in Cuba and exams are all that stand between me and a Merry Tampa Christmas.
TTFN
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Don't Cry For Me Argentina
The day before I got to Buenos Aires I watched the Evita musical and finally learned where that song is from. I also learned that Evita was played by Madonna, who is hot.
So we had five whole days in Buenos Aires, and after 11 days stuck on the ship they were so so welcome. Cabin fever is real!!! Not really, but I think being stuck anywhere for over a week would drive anyone crazy. Laziness is setting in and I did not do a lot of research before coming into port. I just looked at wikivoyage and decided that there was not much to do. A lot of people were going to hike Patagonia (oh and embarrassing on my part, I didn't know Patagonia was a mountain, I totally just thought it was the brand of clothes) and other than that most people were staying in the city.
On the first day my roommate and usual travel buddy Amber wanted to go see all the sites of Eva Peron aka Evita and I didn't feel like doing that so I went out to explore with another friend, Ellen. We started walking in no direction in particular and following other SASers but they didn't seem to know where they were going either. We branched off and decided to venture into the subway system. My Spanish always is worse than I think it is when I attempt speaking it, so after much gesticulating and blank looks we were on a subway heading to Palermo, a (supposedly) nice area in Buenos Aires. Both of us were wearing shorts which I guess is not a thing in Buenos Aires because everyone and their mothers had on pants. It was warm outside so I assumed it was a cultural thing. We made it to Palermo and didn't know where to go, we walked in the direction of Palermo Soho and hoped to find something. It was really beautiful, most of Buenos Aires is, and we walked for a bit before finding a nice cafe. It had wifi and we sat there for a while Facebooking and Instagramming and talking to friends. The rest of the first day we walked walked walked back through Palermo Soho, into Recoleta, another neighborhood, and then cabbed it back to the ship. One funny thing about Buenos Aires is that there are so many dogs. People own them and their are just random street dogs. There are dog walkers that walk fifteen dogs at a time, and you have to always watch where you step! Recoleta was nice, its lots of stores on the street, pretty trees grow over the streets and shade them, and there are a lot of restaurants and places to sit and chill out. We had told a girl that we would go back to the ship to meet her for lunch but somehow miscommunicated and that didn't work out.
We headed back out for lunch and had an altercation with a cab driver. A traveling tip: cabs will hang around areas with lots of tourists and try and tell you twenty american dollars to get to some place. They are usually ripping you off, and they can change the price when you arrive if they are mean. So the tip is to always use the meter! That is really common sense, but us SASers are dumb kids and take a while to pick up on these things. One cabbie was like $10 to go there so we were like yeah, it cost us 60 pesos to get from that same area to the ship, so we knew it was fair. When we got there we handed him a 100 peso bill and wanted change back but he tried to keep it. We were like dude we need change and he tried to tell us that 100 pesos is 10 dollars but we were like no, its not, don't be an ass. I tried to explain in Spanish but he kept shaking his head when we gave him 60. I was not going to get out of the cab unless he took the 60, I was considering running away but luckily he gave in after legit 3 minutes of back and forth. When I got out of the cab and started to walk I realized how freaked out I was. Always get a cab that uses the meter!! Lesson learned.
We had lunch at an Italian place. There are tons of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires and its the biggest community of Jewish people in South America too. They have the only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel. Fun fact. After lunch we went to the Recoleta cemetery. This is definitely something you have to do in Buenos Aires, the cemetery is for all the rich society people and they build these huge crypt like things for the dead people. Some have glass doors and you can see the coffin (is that what thats called? I don't know if that is the right word.. but its the box that the dead person is buried in). It is really creepy and beautiful at the same time. Some of the architecture is pretty amazing. We saw Eva's grave, got some dulce de leche ice cream (because its the famous flavor of Argentina) and then walked around the parks before walking back to the ship. Buenos Aires is huge and the ship was a 45-60 minute walk from Recoleta, which was the closest neighborhood you would want to walk around in. I had a field program the next day, so I skipped going out and went to bed early. Because I'm cool.
So the second day in Argentina was better than the first, I had a field program called Cafes of Buenos Aires and it was super. The group was small and half were older people, faculty and lifelong learners, and half were students. I liked it better than all my other field programs. We toured the city on a bus and stopped first in San Telmo, another neighborhood, and it was so pretty. They had a beautiful church (cathedral? meh) and a great square with some local people selling crafts and Plaza Dorrego cafe and bar. It was really cool inside, they had kept all the old decorations and had old liquor bottles lining the walls. Right across the street there was a Starbucks. We got to look around and then we got back on the bus, passed Casa Rosada ("Pink House", another famous thing in Buenos Aires) quickly and saw the square and other famous things and then stopped at the next cafe, Cafe Tortoni, on the busy Avenida de Mayo. This is a famous cafe because really famous argentinian writers and artists always hung out here. We get back on the bus and head out from the city center to Cafe de los Angelitos. This cafe used to be where all the robbers and thieves hung out back in the day and was ironically named angel's cafe. We stopped here for an hour to have coffee and medialunas (croissants). It was amazing coffee, I felt proud when I could drink it without milk unlike the other americans. We had two more stops, the next was in Recoleta, I didn't catch the name of the cafe or why we stopped there but we got to walk around. It was actually right next to where I had lunch the day before. I bought an alfajores, the famous argentinian cookie. Yumm. Last stop was a cafe in a book store. The bookstore though wasn't just any bookstore.. It was a bookstore in an old theater and it was amazing. I will try and email pictures to the blog so you all can see it, it was really cool. The field program ended there, me and a few others decided to hang out there rather than go back to the ship. We walked a lot and popped in and out of stores, had empanadas for lunch in Recoleta, went to the mall in Recoleta and then headed back to the ship. The stores outside of the mall were kind of cheap/ nothing special but the mall had a combination of American brands and amazing little boutiques. Back at the ship I took a nap and woke up to get ready to go out but I didn't feel like it so I just stayed in and watched a movie with Sumi and Maia. Because I'm cool.
Day three! Sumi had been occupied for the first two days trying to get her visa for Brazil, but today she was free and Amber, Sumi and I went to San Telmo. They had more crafts than the day before and it was a beautiful day with perfect weather. We stopped for coffee, shopped, walked down the street to an indoor market and had a nice day. San Telmo is known for its antiques and cool stores, we all bought something. We saw a tango performance outside and bought more alfajores. We also took advantage of wifi at Starbucks and looked for a place to eat dinner that was close and inexpensive. Cabbing around always takes a toll on the wallet. We found a place that had beer and cheap empanadas. Score. We sat and talked and drank and ate for a while. Amber was meeting up with other people at the apartment they rented so that she could go out that night, Sumi and I left for Tango Porteño to see a tango show! Porteño is the word for Argentinians. Side note. The show without dinner was only $45 and we were able to buy tickets at 9:45 for the show at 10:00. It worked out perfectly and the show was spectacular. They had singers and the most amazing dancers. I think I got a little bit more sexy just by watching them. After the show we went back to the ship.
Day fouuuuuuurrrrrrr. I had to register for classes back at home, so I did that at twelve. Sumi, Maia and I then headed out to Palermo Soho to shop. We didn't really do a great job of finding stores, but we did find food and the best guacamole ever. All of my food experiences in Buenos Aires have been great, but I have heard from others that its not the best. After lunch we continued walking around. I wanted to find the area that had all the yarn shops. There is a big knitting club on the ship, so I bought some materials and I have already made a headband! Some guys though are legit and are making sweaters for themselves. Anyways, after the yarn we didn't know what else to do so we went back to the ship and ate dinner and then took a nap before going out for Friday night. I almost didn't make it out, but my roommate bullied me into it. We left for Plaza Serrano in Palermo where all the bars and clubs are and made it to one place. We got there at 1, ordered margaritas, ate more guacamole, had more margaritas.. I swear these margaritas were not normal margaritas. I had a fight with a margarita and the margarita almost won, but in the end I prevailed. We had a good time and headed back to the ship.
Day five was a saturday and we heard that there was a great market in recoleta on saturday. We went there to spend the last of our pesos on gifts, fresh squeezed orange juice and sandwiches. The weather was still beautiful out and it was a great last day. We headed back to the ship a bit early to avoid the lines and spent the rest of the day watching movies.
Buenos Aires isn't the most exciting of places but there is definitely enough to do if you try. I had a great time. Now its three days on the ship and then onto Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Salvador, Brazil, 12 days at sea, Havana, Cuba, exams and then home!! The homesickness is definitely present but it doesn't make me enjoy the ports any less. We have only 5 classes left, which is crazy, and then we arrive in Fort Lauderdale. There is a rumor going around that because its the 50th year of SAS we are having a surprise stop in the Bahamas, but I don't think that will happen. I am trying not to get my hopes up about it anyways.
Lets see, what else. We were only two hours behind Tampa time in Argentina, tonight we lose an hour as we travel east again. Thats all I have for you guys for now. As always please email and add me on Facebook! maren.douglas.fa13@semesteratsea.org
Peace
So we had five whole days in Buenos Aires, and after 11 days stuck on the ship they were so so welcome. Cabin fever is real!!! Not really, but I think being stuck anywhere for over a week would drive anyone crazy. Laziness is setting in and I did not do a lot of research before coming into port. I just looked at wikivoyage and decided that there was not much to do. A lot of people were going to hike Patagonia (oh and embarrassing on my part, I didn't know Patagonia was a mountain, I totally just thought it was the brand of clothes) and other than that most people were staying in the city.
On the first day my roommate and usual travel buddy Amber wanted to go see all the sites of Eva Peron aka Evita and I didn't feel like doing that so I went out to explore with another friend, Ellen. We started walking in no direction in particular and following other SASers but they didn't seem to know where they were going either. We branched off and decided to venture into the subway system. My Spanish always is worse than I think it is when I attempt speaking it, so after much gesticulating and blank looks we were on a subway heading to Palermo, a (supposedly) nice area in Buenos Aires. Both of us were wearing shorts which I guess is not a thing in Buenos Aires because everyone and their mothers had on pants. It was warm outside so I assumed it was a cultural thing. We made it to Palermo and didn't know where to go, we walked in the direction of Palermo Soho and hoped to find something. It was really beautiful, most of Buenos Aires is, and we walked for a bit before finding a nice cafe. It had wifi and we sat there for a while Facebooking and Instagramming and talking to friends. The rest of the first day we walked walked walked back through Palermo Soho, into Recoleta, another neighborhood, and then cabbed it back to the ship. One funny thing about Buenos Aires is that there are so many dogs. People own them and their are just random street dogs. There are dog walkers that walk fifteen dogs at a time, and you have to always watch where you step! Recoleta was nice, its lots of stores on the street, pretty trees grow over the streets and shade them, and there are a lot of restaurants and places to sit and chill out. We had told a girl that we would go back to the ship to meet her for lunch but somehow miscommunicated and that didn't work out.
We headed back out for lunch and had an altercation with a cab driver. A traveling tip: cabs will hang around areas with lots of tourists and try and tell you twenty american dollars to get to some place. They are usually ripping you off, and they can change the price when you arrive if they are mean. So the tip is to always use the meter! That is really common sense, but us SASers are dumb kids and take a while to pick up on these things. One cabbie was like $10 to go there so we were like yeah, it cost us 60 pesos to get from that same area to the ship, so we knew it was fair. When we got there we handed him a 100 peso bill and wanted change back but he tried to keep it. We were like dude we need change and he tried to tell us that 100 pesos is 10 dollars but we were like no, its not, don't be an ass. I tried to explain in Spanish but he kept shaking his head when we gave him 60. I was not going to get out of the cab unless he took the 60, I was considering running away but luckily he gave in after legit 3 minutes of back and forth. When I got out of the cab and started to walk I realized how freaked out I was. Always get a cab that uses the meter!! Lesson learned.
We had lunch at an Italian place. There are tons of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires and its the biggest community of Jewish people in South America too. They have the only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel. Fun fact. After lunch we went to the Recoleta cemetery. This is definitely something you have to do in Buenos Aires, the cemetery is for all the rich society people and they build these huge crypt like things for the dead people. Some have glass doors and you can see the coffin (is that what thats called? I don't know if that is the right word.. but its the box that the dead person is buried in). It is really creepy and beautiful at the same time. Some of the architecture is pretty amazing. We saw Eva's grave, got some dulce de leche ice cream (because its the famous flavor of Argentina) and then walked around the parks before walking back to the ship. Buenos Aires is huge and the ship was a 45-60 minute walk from Recoleta, which was the closest neighborhood you would want to walk around in. I had a field program the next day, so I skipped going out and went to bed early. Because I'm cool.
So the second day in Argentina was better than the first, I had a field program called Cafes of Buenos Aires and it was super. The group was small and half were older people, faculty and lifelong learners, and half were students. I liked it better than all my other field programs. We toured the city on a bus and stopped first in San Telmo, another neighborhood, and it was so pretty. They had a beautiful church (cathedral? meh) and a great square with some local people selling crafts and Plaza Dorrego cafe and bar. It was really cool inside, they had kept all the old decorations and had old liquor bottles lining the walls. Right across the street there was a Starbucks. We got to look around and then we got back on the bus, passed Casa Rosada ("Pink House", another famous thing in Buenos Aires) quickly and saw the square and other famous things and then stopped at the next cafe, Cafe Tortoni, on the busy Avenida de Mayo. This is a famous cafe because really famous argentinian writers and artists always hung out here. We get back on the bus and head out from the city center to Cafe de los Angelitos. This cafe used to be where all the robbers and thieves hung out back in the day and was ironically named angel's cafe. We stopped here for an hour to have coffee and medialunas (croissants). It was amazing coffee, I felt proud when I could drink it without milk unlike the other americans. We had two more stops, the next was in Recoleta, I didn't catch the name of the cafe or why we stopped there but we got to walk around. It was actually right next to where I had lunch the day before. I bought an alfajores, the famous argentinian cookie. Yumm. Last stop was a cafe in a book store. The bookstore though wasn't just any bookstore.. It was a bookstore in an old theater and it was amazing. I will try and email pictures to the blog so you all can see it, it was really cool. The field program ended there, me and a few others decided to hang out there rather than go back to the ship. We walked a lot and popped in and out of stores, had empanadas for lunch in Recoleta, went to the mall in Recoleta and then headed back to the ship. The stores outside of the mall were kind of cheap/ nothing special but the mall had a combination of American brands and amazing little boutiques. Back at the ship I took a nap and woke up to get ready to go out but I didn't feel like it so I just stayed in and watched a movie with Sumi and Maia. Because I'm cool.
Day three! Sumi had been occupied for the first two days trying to get her visa for Brazil, but today she was free and Amber, Sumi and I went to San Telmo. They had more crafts than the day before and it was a beautiful day with perfect weather. We stopped for coffee, shopped, walked down the street to an indoor market and had a nice day. San Telmo is known for its antiques and cool stores, we all bought something. We saw a tango performance outside and bought more alfajores. We also took advantage of wifi at Starbucks and looked for a place to eat dinner that was close and inexpensive. Cabbing around always takes a toll on the wallet. We found a place that had beer and cheap empanadas. Score. We sat and talked and drank and ate for a while. Amber was meeting up with other people at the apartment they rented so that she could go out that night, Sumi and I left for Tango Porteño to see a tango show! Porteño is the word for Argentinians. Side note. The show without dinner was only $45 and we were able to buy tickets at 9:45 for the show at 10:00. It worked out perfectly and the show was spectacular. They had singers and the most amazing dancers. I think I got a little bit more sexy just by watching them. After the show we went back to the ship.
Day fouuuuuuurrrrrrr. I had to register for classes back at home, so I did that at twelve. Sumi, Maia and I then headed out to Palermo Soho to shop. We didn't really do a great job of finding stores, but we did find food and the best guacamole ever. All of my food experiences in Buenos Aires have been great, but I have heard from others that its not the best. After lunch we continued walking around. I wanted to find the area that had all the yarn shops. There is a big knitting club on the ship, so I bought some materials and I have already made a headband! Some guys though are legit and are making sweaters for themselves. Anyways, after the yarn we didn't know what else to do so we went back to the ship and ate dinner and then took a nap before going out for Friday night. I almost didn't make it out, but my roommate bullied me into it. We left for Plaza Serrano in Palermo where all the bars and clubs are and made it to one place. We got there at 1, ordered margaritas, ate more guacamole, had more margaritas.. I swear these margaritas were not normal margaritas. I had a fight with a margarita and the margarita almost won, but in the end I prevailed. We had a good time and headed back to the ship.
Day five was a saturday and we heard that there was a great market in recoleta on saturday. We went there to spend the last of our pesos on gifts, fresh squeezed orange juice and sandwiches. The weather was still beautiful out and it was a great last day. We headed back to the ship a bit early to avoid the lines and spent the rest of the day watching movies.
Buenos Aires isn't the most exciting of places but there is definitely enough to do if you try. I had a great time. Now its three days on the ship and then onto Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Salvador, Brazil, 12 days at sea, Havana, Cuba, exams and then home!! The homesickness is definitely present but it doesn't make me enjoy the ports any less. We have only 5 classes left, which is crazy, and then we arrive in Fort Lauderdale. There is a rumor going around that because its the 50th year of SAS we are having a surprise stop in the Bahamas, but I don't think that will happen. I am trying not to get my hopes up about it anyways.
Lets see, what else. We were only two hours behind Tampa time in Argentina, tonight we lose an hour as we travel east again. Thats all I have for you guys for now. As always please email and add me on Facebook! maren.douglas.fa13@semesteratsea.org
Peace
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Waka Waka
South Africa!
Well, it may just be paradise. In the city center you are surrounded by mountains and the ocean. There are a number of things to keep you occupied for days on end and its just stunning and awesome and I don't have the energy to think of bigger/ more impressive ways of writing that besides totally freaking awesome and so pretty and stunning and cooooooool. Ugh. When we had our pre-port meeting about Capetown they told us it was one of the most dangerous cities. Crime there is apparently high but just like any big city you must be cautious. I didn't know what to expect and had no real plans but it ended up being one of the best ports so far. We had five days which is longer than we have had in any port and I think I slept less than I have in any port too.
The first day in port was off to an early start as we were called out of bed at 6am to get off the boat, go through customs, get back on the boat and then get off the boat. All part of some new system that the port had just started called being obnoxious. Amber, Sumi and I left the ship in the morning and headed to V&A Waterfront, a huge mall and area of restaurants on the bay. It was really beautiful spot, there were even some seals playing in the water. Picture perfect. We stopped at a great restaurant for sushi. You seriously start to miss some things after living on the boat, one of them being sushi! So that filled a serious hole in my heart. We also shopped around a bit and then headed to a more local market in the city. The only thing about the waterfront is that it just feels like you are back home. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a mall in the US and this one. The local market gave us a better feel for SA. They had all sorts of great crafts and things, and I definitely got some Christmas shopping done, whoop whoop! We hung out, got some drinks and saw a parade of people dress like zombies (early halloween thing?). The taxis are crazy cheap in Capetown which was was surprising. I thought it was going to be really expensive but it never really turned out to be. We walked from the market to Long street, the "place to be" for going out at night. During the day it is nothing special, almost creepy, but we stopped for early dinner at a pizza place before heading back to the ship. We got back and got ready to go out. We had a heard from a friend's friend who lived in Capetown for a semester the cool places to go, one of them being Bob's Bistro. We started there and had a great time dancing and then these two guys from Capetown we had met took us to another cool place. It was a small place upstairs and they had a DJ and I imagined that this is the type of place cool people hang out. It was kind of like that except the people weren't that cool, but it was still fun. I got to quiz the the two guys from Capetown on what race relations and politics were like now in South Africa after the Apartheid ended. He said that it was a really bad thing to be racist now, it was the worst thing to be and no one was like that. In apartheid times white people were guaranteed a job and now there are white people that don't have jobs. I think thats what he was getting at. I find that theres no racism now hard to believe. But Ill just let that one go for now.
Anyways, we got back to the ship late and woke up bright and early to go to this great beach we heard about from our cape town friends! Yay for mornings! We had a late breakfast at a nice place in the city and some delicious croissant french toast and bacon. When you get off the ship you just eat because the food on the ship has just gotten so old. We went about 45 - 60 minutes away to this beach and I can't remember the name right now but I will eventually. Just kidding I remember, its called Boulder Beach! It looks like a screen saver, it's that gorgeous! Its surrounded by these huge boulders and it creates this little protected lagoon and I just want to live there. Not to mention the PENGUINS that live right next to it!!! You walk down a ways and there are just hundreds of penguins. We hung out at the beach and had great fun looking at the penguins. Both these places were close to cape point, the southern tip where you can see the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right, and had I known this we would have gone. But I found out after so now I tell you all this so that you won't find out after you go. We stopped back at V&A Waterfront to go the grocery store and then dinner. We sat outside right in front of the performance area that kept having these interesting Indian fusion dancers. There are a lot of Indians in Capetown. Some of our friends had rented a villa in town and invited us to hang out. Amber was spending the night there but I had to be back on the ship that night because I had a trip the next day that was leaving at 3:45 in the morning or something ridiculous. We went to the villa and hung out, and I finally fixed my phone! So now I have pictures again, but I put them all up on Facebook and didn't have time to put them up here. But you are all welcome to add me on Facebook to see them! Im hoping Ill eventually put them all up here but it may or may not be in December. The villa was in Camps Bay, a really nice area of Capetown, put that on your list of things to do when you visit. I got back to the ship around 3am, and when I got through security I see the ship and it is on the other side of the canal. The opposite side. This is a bit of an issue as I wish to get back on the ship. I saw a bunch of people sitting down outside. They weren't letting anyone on the ship. I asked what was going on and apparentlyyyyy a baby humpback whale had lodged itself in between the ship and the dock. They had to call the sea rescue team and everything and move the ship so the baby whale could leave the harbor. They finally got the ship back to our side at 4 am and I was super late to meet the girls I was going with on the trip. Luckily I ran into them on the way out on the way in and told them to wait for me.
We finally make it on the road and drive for like four or five hours to Botlierskop Private Game Reserve. Botlierskop means Lion's Head in Afrikaans. My friend Laurel had set up this day trip that included riding elephants, a safari, and shark cage diving and thats where SA can get kind of expensive as I found out. So we got to the game reserve around 9:30 am and we had just missed the elephant ride. We were really pissed because our guide had stopped the car on the way there three times even though no one had to pee, and had we not stopped we would have made it. But he said we could come back later and squeeze it in before our safari. We then got back in the car and went 30 minutes to the coast where we had snacks and a safety briefing at the shark cage dive place. The safety video is really quite self explanatory.. they were like yeah just don't try and touch the shark and keep all body parts in the cage. Thanks for that captain obvious. So we head out on this surprisingly small boat for 25 people and the day is perfect, it made me so happy to just be out on the water. We drive out to seal island, and I think its the actual seal island, the one on animal planet and discovery channel and everything. They anchor and start chumming the water and they throw this huge fish head in the water on a rope. We wait for about 10 or 15 minutes before we see the first shark. It was a medium sized one ( So they said, it looked huge to me) and they got the first group in wetsuits ready to get out there. I was not in the first group. I went in the first group surfing back in Lisbon but that is the extent of my bravery when it comes to going first. Sharks were involved, it was different. So I watch as everyone gets into the cage and they start teasing the shark with the fish head. They never actually let the shark get it and I learned later that its against regulations to ever feed the sharks. I sat in the tower and took pictures while the first two groups went in the cages. Then I had to put the wetsuit on and it was the hardest damn part of the whole experience. Just imagine Ross when he tries to put his sweaty and shrunken leather pants back on in Friends.. I get in the cage and the water isn't too cold. They just give you west suits and a mask and drop you in. You put your hands on the inside bar and your feet either go in the back of the cage against the boat or on the front of the cage on a lower bar. You first see the dark shadow in front of you and then they tell you to go down. It was really hard to see the shark unless it was right in front of you, I actually thought I could see everything better with my head above water. They just drag the fish head around and when the shark goes for it they bring it super close to the cage so you can see. Its not scary when you are out of the water but once you are at the the sharks level it is terrifying. These things are huge and I forgot to mention two other, larger sharks came to the boat a bit later and they are attacking the fish and sometimes start thrashing against the cage. Its so scary. You know they can't get through the cage but just imagine 16 ft man eating sharks 2 inches away from you! It was exhilarating and just plain frightening but I really liked it and am so glad I went through with it. We get out and back to shore where we walk back to the shark diving place and eat lunch while we watch this really cheesy video of our dive. I think at this point it was around 3pm and we were in a hurry to get back to the game reserve. When we get there our guide somehow manages to talk the place into squeezing in two more elephant rides in for us before our safari. It was really interesting to ride the elephant. It was not a smooth ride at all and the skin is not even skin. Its so rough and cracked and chafes your leg the whole time haha. The elephant ride was cool but it was scary too because when you think about it you could get really hurt if it decided to throw you off or if it got upset or something. We started our safari at 5:30 and they said it would be done by 7. We ended up being done at 8 but Im not complaining at all. The safari was truly amazing. The game reserve is full of these huge hills, and being from Florida I always think hills are really interesting, like woah.. hills. What a concept! Anyways, the sun was setting and we just drove along and saw a bunch of animals. We saw zebras, rhinos, ostrich, wildebeest I think, dassie ( a little furry thing which is the closest living relative of the elephant funnily enough) and others. It was just getting dark when we got to the lion area. We drove right up the male lion. Our guide was like yeah he's really playful he may follow us as we leave. Sure enough we drive away and he leaps up and starts chasing us! This safari truck isn't protected in any way, the driver just has this long wooden stick. I thought he was insane but we made it out alive. The whole day was amazing. When our safari was finished we still had a 5 hour drive back to Capetown. We stopped for a quick dinner. Now.. our guide had this really obnoxious thing he started doing. In the morning he had played wrecking ball, and naturally the car full of 8 girls began singing along. He then would play it frequently and when he did he would blast it. I am 20 years old and I play music loudly, I can dig it, but this guy was playing it just way too loud. And only when wrecking ball came on. Hey continued to do this the whole five hours home. We would just be drifting off to sleep and then you would be wide awake because wrecking ball would be playing louder than I could scream! Wtf!!! Most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with. On top of that he still managed to stop three times on the way home. I finally realized why.. he had to stop and smoke a cigarette every hour or so..
I get back to my room at 1 in the morning highly agitated, extremely tired and pretty dirty and salty. Just a hot mess. I shower and crash. The plan the next day was to hike table mountain. We had heard the best thing to do was hike in the morning because it was cooler. I had set my alarm for 8 but my roommate hadn't gotten back yet from the villa so I got to sleep longer. She gets back and after we catch up its already 11 and really cloudy. We make plans to meet with everyone else at three on the ship to decide if we would go to the top or not. Meanwhile we went to a different mall farther way at the suggestion of a cab driver. It was 15 minutes away and we got overcharged and we felt pretty stupid. The mall was huge and uninteresting but we got lunch and then went back to the ship by 2. We met up with everyone and decided we wouldn't hike to the top but we would just take the cable car. The top of table mountain is supposed to have the best views of capetown but we got the best views on the way up in the cable car. Once we got high enough we were in a cloud and couldn't see anything at all. Walking around up at the top was like being in a different world. It was foggy and freezing but they had a gift shop and a good coffee shop so I wasn't too disappointed. lol. My phone died so I will steal someone else's pictures from table mountain and post it for you all. The view really was amazing. That night I was determined to see a music performance because it was required for one of my classes. My teacher had recommended The Crypt for jazz so Amber, my friend Monica and Amber's professor came with me. We had a nice night and good food. Amber and Monica went to the villa and I went back to the ship. I had to be back by 12 because I had a field lab for my Marine Biology class the next day.
Our field lab included whale watching and a visit to the south african shark conservatory in Hermanus. Hermanus is only an hour and a half drive from Capetown. On the way there we passed some of the townships. Townships are areas where only black people lived during the Apartheid. People still live there today. They consisted of some government housing but there was still a scary amount of shacks. Metal pieces were just put together as shelter. It was the only time I had seen that while in Capetown. It was similar to what was described in Kaffir Boy, a book we had to read for Race and Ethnic Relations. I really recommend the book for anyone, it was great. It described the life of a boy who lived in the township of Alexandra until he moved to the states on a tennis scholarship and the horrible conditions black people lived in under apartheid. The tourist areas are really good at making you forget the nastiness of apartheid. The nice areas of capetown are really nice, but there are some really devastating areas still. SAS offered tours of some townships. This raised some questions within our community. I personally think theres and issue going around a township in a bus and taking pictures out of a window at the place and the people, it reminds me of a zoo. South Africa still seemed really separated to me.
We got to Hermanus and its just as stunning as Capetown. Mountains are right next to the ocean and the water is beautiful. We were whale watching for about 2 hours. We look out and see rocks, but the rocks were actually whales. The Southern Right Whales are in South Africa to give birth to their calves and rest in the warmer water. They didn't do anything particularly exciting until we were about to leave (naturally). They started jumping out of the water and playing around. We then when to the shark conservatory and watched them dissect a shark. We also visited a penguin colony on the way back to Capetown. We couldn't leave the ship after we got back on so my trip ended with that.
Capetown and all of South Africa is stunning. The landscape and the mountains are amazing. I would recommend this as the best place to visit out of everywhere I have been so far. It has everything. You can stay somewhere really nice and it feels like you are in Europe or the states but you can also go out and hike and shark dive, go to Krugar national park or Botlierskop (the place I went) if you want to stay closer for a safari. I didn't get a chance to go to the botanical gardens but I heard that that was amazing. Go to cape point and see the where the two oceans meet, go to Boulders beach and go see penguins. Go shopping at V&A waterfront, eat really good food, go out to long street, go to camps bay for more amazing beaches and a cool beach walk. Drive around town, but be careful at night. Go to the several markets they have, one in particular on Sunday morning is nice. Look up more things to do before you go and then do all of it in Capetown and then go to Hermanus. It was stunning and they have so many beautiful places to stay and a great little town and whales to watch. Go to Capetown!!
Well, it may just be paradise. In the city center you are surrounded by mountains and the ocean. There are a number of things to keep you occupied for days on end and its just stunning and awesome and I don't have the energy to think of bigger/ more impressive ways of writing that besides totally freaking awesome and so pretty and stunning and cooooooool. Ugh. When we had our pre-port meeting about Capetown they told us it was one of the most dangerous cities. Crime there is apparently high but just like any big city you must be cautious. I didn't know what to expect and had no real plans but it ended up being one of the best ports so far. We had five days which is longer than we have had in any port and I think I slept less than I have in any port too.
The first day in port was off to an early start as we were called out of bed at 6am to get off the boat, go through customs, get back on the boat and then get off the boat. All part of some new system that the port had just started called being obnoxious. Amber, Sumi and I left the ship in the morning and headed to V&A Waterfront, a huge mall and area of restaurants on the bay. It was really beautiful spot, there were even some seals playing in the water. Picture perfect. We stopped at a great restaurant for sushi. You seriously start to miss some things after living on the boat, one of them being sushi! So that filled a serious hole in my heart. We also shopped around a bit and then headed to a more local market in the city. The only thing about the waterfront is that it just feels like you are back home. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a mall in the US and this one. The local market gave us a better feel for SA. They had all sorts of great crafts and things, and I definitely got some Christmas shopping done, whoop whoop! We hung out, got some drinks and saw a parade of people dress like zombies (early halloween thing?). The taxis are crazy cheap in Capetown which was was surprising. I thought it was going to be really expensive but it never really turned out to be. We walked from the market to Long street, the "place to be" for going out at night. During the day it is nothing special, almost creepy, but we stopped for early dinner at a pizza place before heading back to the ship. We got back and got ready to go out. We had a heard from a friend's friend who lived in Capetown for a semester the cool places to go, one of them being Bob's Bistro. We started there and had a great time dancing and then these two guys from Capetown we had met took us to another cool place. It was a small place upstairs and they had a DJ and I imagined that this is the type of place cool people hang out. It was kind of like that except the people weren't that cool, but it was still fun. I got to quiz the the two guys from Capetown on what race relations and politics were like now in South Africa after the Apartheid ended. He said that it was a really bad thing to be racist now, it was the worst thing to be and no one was like that. In apartheid times white people were guaranteed a job and now there are white people that don't have jobs. I think thats what he was getting at. I find that theres no racism now hard to believe. But Ill just let that one go for now.
Anyways, we got back to the ship late and woke up bright and early to go to this great beach we heard about from our cape town friends! Yay for mornings! We had a late breakfast at a nice place in the city and some delicious croissant french toast and bacon. When you get off the ship you just eat because the food on the ship has just gotten so old. We went about 45 - 60 minutes away to this beach and I can't remember the name right now but I will eventually. Just kidding I remember, its called Boulder Beach! It looks like a screen saver, it's that gorgeous! Its surrounded by these huge boulders and it creates this little protected lagoon and I just want to live there. Not to mention the PENGUINS that live right next to it!!! You walk down a ways and there are just hundreds of penguins. We hung out at the beach and had great fun looking at the penguins. Both these places were close to cape point, the southern tip where you can see the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right, and had I known this we would have gone. But I found out after so now I tell you all this so that you won't find out after you go. We stopped back at V&A Waterfront to go the grocery store and then dinner. We sat outside right in front of the performance area that kept having these interesting Indian fusion dancers. There are a lot of Indians in Capetown. Some of our friends had rented a villa in town and invited us to hang out. Amber was spending the night there but I had to be back on the ship that night because I had a trip the next day that was leaving at 3:45 in the morning or something ridiculous. We went to the villa and hung out, and I finally fixed my phone! So now I have pictures again, but I put them all up on Facebook and didn't have time to put them up here. But you are all welcome to add me on Facebook to see them! Im hoping Ill eventually put them all up here but it may or may not be in December. The villa was in Camps Bay, a really nice area of Capetown, put that on your list of things to do when you visit. I got back to the ship around 3am, and when I got through security I see the ship and it is on the other side of the canal. The opposite side. This is a bit of an issue as I wish to get back on the ship. I saw a bunch of people sitting down outside. They weren't letting anyone on the ship. I asked what was going on and apparentlyyyyy a baby humpback whale had lodged itself in between the ship and the dock. They had to call the sea rescue team and everything and move the ship so the baby whale could leave the harbor. They finally got the ship back to our side at 4 am and I was super late to meet the girls I was going with on the trip. Luckily I ran into them on the way out on the way in and told them to wait for me.
We finally make it on the road and drive for like four or five hours to Botlierskop Private Game Reserve. Botlierskop means Lion's Head in Afrikaans. My friend Laurel had set up this day trip that included riding elephants, a safari, and shark cage diving and thats where SA can get kind of expensive as I found out. So we got to the game reserve around 9:30 am and we had just missed the elephant ride. We were really pissed because our guide had stopped the car on the way there three times even though no one had to pee, and had we not stopped we would have made it. But he said we could come back later and squeeze it in before our safari. We then got back in the car and went 30 minutes to the coast where we had snacks and a safety briefing at the shark cage dive place. The safety video is really quite self explanatory.. they were like yeah just don't try and touch the shark and keep all body parts in the cage. Thanks for that captain obvious. So we head out on this surprisingly small boat for 25 people and the day is perfect, it made me so happy to just be out on the water. We drive out to seal island, and I think its the actual seal island, the one on animal planet and discovery channel and everything. They anchor and start chumming the water and they throw this huge fish head in the water on a rope. We wait for about 10 or 15 minutes before we see the first shark. It was a medium sized one ( So they said, it looked huge to me) and they got the first group in wetsuits ready to get out there. I was not in the first group. I went in the first group surfing back in Lisbon but that is the extent of my bravery when it comes to going first. Sharks were involved, it was different. So I watch as everyone gets into the cage and they start teasing the shark with the fish head. They never actually let the shark get it and I learned later that its against regulations to ever feed the sharks. I sat in the tower and took pictures while the first two groups went in the cages. Then I had to put the wetsuit on and it was the hardest damn part of the whole experience. Just imagine Ross when he tries to put his sweaty and shrunken leather pants back on in Friends.. I get in the cage and the water isn't too cold. They just give you west suits and a mask and drop you in. You put your hands on the inside bar and your feet either go in the back of the cage against the boat or on the front of the cage on a lower bar. You first see the dark shadow in front of you and then they tell you to go down. It was really hard to see the shark unless it was right in front of you, I actually thought I could see everything better with my head above water. They just drag the fish head around and when the shark goes for it they bring it super close to the cage so you can see. Its not scary when you are out of the water but once you are at the the sharks level it is terrifying. These things are huge and I forgot to mention two other, larger sharks came to the boat a bit later and they are attacking the fish and sometimes start thrashing against the cage. Its so scary. You know they can't get through the cage but just imagine 16 ft man eating sharks 2 inches away from you! It was exhilarating and just plain frightening but I really liked it and am so glad I went through with it. We get out and back to shore where we walk back to the shark diving place and eat lunch while we watch this really cheesy video of our dive. I think at this point it was around 3pm and we were in a hurry to get back to the game reserve. When we get there our guide somehow manages to talk the place into squeezing in two more elephant rides in for us before our safari. It was really interesting to ride the elephant. It was not a smooth ride at all and the skin is not even skin. Its so rough and cracked and chafes your leg the whole time haha. The elephant ride was cool but it was scary too because when you think about it you could get really hurt if it decided to throw you off or if it got upset or something. We started our safari at 5:30 and they said it would be done by 7. We ended up being done at 8 but Im not complaining at all. The safari was truly amazing. The game reserve is full of these huge hills, and being from Florida I always think hills are really interesting, like woah.. hills. What a concept! Anyways, the sun was setting and we just drove along and saw a bunch of animals. We saw zebras, rhinos, ostrich, wildebeest I think, dassie ( a little furry thing which is the closest living relative of the elephant funnily enough) and others. It was just getting dark when we got to the lion area. We drove right up the male lion. Our guide was like yeah he's really playful he may follow us as we leave. Sure enough we drive away and he leaps up and starts chasing us! This safari truck isn't protected in any way, the driver just has this long wooden stick. I thought he was insane but we made it out alive. The whole day was amazing. When our safari was finished we still had a 5 hour drive back to Capetown. We stopped for a quick dinner. Now.. our guide had this really obnoxious thing he started doing. In the morning he had played wrecking ball, and naturally the car full of 8 girls began singing along. He then would play it frequently and when he did he would blast it. I am 20 years old and I play music loudly, I can dig it, but this guy was playing it just way too loud. And only when wrecking ball came on. Hey continued to do this the whole five hours home. We would just be drifting off to sleep and then you would be wide awake because wrecking ball would be playing louder than I could scream! Wtf!!! Most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with. On top of that he still managed to stop three times on the way home. I finally realized why.. he had to stop and smoke a cigarette every hour or so..
I get back to my room at 1 in the morning highly agitated, extremely tired and pretty dirty and salty. Just a hot mess. I shower and crash. The plan the next day was to hike table mountain. We had heard the best thing to do was hike in the morning because it was cooler. I had set my alarm for 8 but my roommate hadn't gotten back yet from the villa so I got to sleep longer. She gets back and after we catch up its already 11 and really cloudy. We make plans to meet with everyone else at three on the ship to decide if we would go to the top or not. Meanwhile we went to a different mall farther way at the suggestion of a cab driver. It was 15 minutes away and we got overcharged and we felt pretty stupid. The mall was huge and uninteresting but we got lunch and then went back to the ship by 2. We met up with everyone and decided we wouldn't hike to the top but we would just take the cable car. The top of table mountain is supposed to have the best views of capetown but we got the best views on the way up in the cable car. Once we got high enough we were in a cloud and couldn't see anything at all. Walking around up at the top was like being in a different world. It was foggy and freezing but they had a gift shop and a good coffee shop so I wasn't too disappointed. lol. My phone died so I will steal someone else's pictures from table mountain and post it for you all. The view really was amazing. That night I was determined to see a music performance because it was required for one of my classes. My teacher had recommended The Crypt for jazz so Amber, my friend Monica and Amber's professor came with me. We had a nice night and good food. Amber and Monica went to the villa and I went back to the ship. I had to be back by 12 because I had a field lab for my Marine Biology class the next day.
Our field lab included whale watching and a visit to the south african shark conservatory in Hermanus. Hermanus is only an hour and a half drive from Capetown. On the way there we passed some of the townships. Townships are areas where only black people lived during the Apartheid. People still live there today. They consisted of some government housing but there was still a scary amount of shacks. Metal pieces were just put together as shelter. It was the only time I had seen that while in Capetown. It was similar to what was described in Kaffir Boy, a book we had to read for Race and Ethnic Relations. I really recommend the book for anyone, it was great. It described the life of a boy who lived in the township of Alexandra until he moved to the states on a tennis scholarship and the horrible conditions black people lived in under apartheid. The tourist areas are really good at making you forget the nastiness of apartheid. The nice areas of capetown are really nice, but there are some really devastating areas still. SAS offered tours of some townships. This raised some questions within our community. I personally think theres and issue going around a township in a bus and taking pictures out of a window at the place and the people, it reminds me of a zoo. South Africa still seemed really separated to me.
We got to Hermanus and its just as stunning as Capetown. Mountains are right next to the ocean and the water is beautiful. We were whale watching for about 2 hours. We look out and see rocks, but the rocks were actually whales. The Southern Right Whales are in South Africa to give birth to their calves and rest in the warmer water. They didn't do anything particularly exciting until we were about to leave (naturally). They started jumping out of the water and playing around. We then when to the shark conservatory and watched them dissect a shark. We also visited a penguin colony on the way back to Capetown. We couldn't leave the ship after we got back on so my trip ended with that.
Capetown and all of South Africa is stunning. The landscape and the mountains are amazing. I would recommend this as the best place to visit out of everywhere I have been so far. It has everything. You can stay somewhere really nice and it feels like you are in Europe or the states but you can also go out and hike and shark dive, go to Krugar national park or Botlierskop (the place I went) if you want to stay closer for a safari. I didn't get a chance to go to the botanical gardens but I heard that that was amazing. Go to cape point and see the where the two oceans meet, go to Boulders beach and go see penguins. Go shopping at V&A waterfront, eat really good food, go out to long street, go to camps bay for more amazing beaches and a cool beach walk. Drive around town, but be careful at night. Go to the several markets they have, one in particular on Sunday morning is nice. Look up more things to do before you go and then do all of it in Capetown and then go to Hermanus. It was stunning and they have so many beautiful places to stay and a great little town and whales to watch. Go to Capetown!!
Waka Waka
South Africa!
Well, it may just be paradise. In the city center you are surrounded by mountains and the ocean. There are a number of things to keep you occupied for days on end and its just stunning and awesome and I don't have the energy to think of bigger/ more impressive ways of writing that besides totally freaking awesome and so pretty and stunning and cooooooool. Ugh. When we had our pre-port meeting about Capetown they told us it was one of the most dangerous cities. Crime there is apparently high but just like any big city you must be cautious. I didn't know what to expect and had no real plans but it ended up being one of the best ports so far. We had five days which is longer than we have had in any port and I think I slept less than I have in any port too.
The first day in port was off to an early start as we were called out of bed at 6am to get off the boat, go through customs, get back on the boat and then get off the boat. All part of some new system that the port had just started called being obnoxious. Amber, Sumi and I left the ship in the morning and headed to V&A Waterfront, a huge mall and area of restaurants on the bay. It was really beautiful spot, there were even some seals playing in the water. Picture perfect. We stopped at a great restaurant for sushi. You seriously start to miss some things after living on the boat, one of them being sushi! So that filled a serious hole in my heart. We also shopped around a bit and then headed to a more local market in the city. The only thing about the waterfront is that it just feels like you are back home. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a mall in the US and this one. The local market gave us a better feel for SA. They had all sorts of great crafts and things, and I definitely got some Christmas shopping done, whoop whoop! We hung out, got some drinks and saw a parade of people dress like zombies (early halloween thing?). The taxis are crazy cheap in Capetown which was was surprising. I thought it was going to be really expensive but it never really turned out to be. We walked from the market to Long street, the "place to be" for going out at night. During the day it is nothing special, almost creepy, but we stopped for early dinner at a pizza place before heading back to the ship. We got back and got ready to go out. We had a heard from a friend's friend who lived in Capetown for a semester the cool places to go, one of them being Bob's Bistro. We started there and had a great time dancing and then these two guys from Capetown we had met took us to another cool place. It was a small place upstairs and they had a DJ and I imagined that this is the type of place cool people hang out. It was kind of like that except the people weren't that cool, but it was still fun. I got to quiz the the two guys from Capetown on what race relations and politics were like now in South Africa after the Apartheid ended. He said that it was a really bad thing to be racist now, it was the worst thing to be and no one was like that. In apartheid times white people were guaranteed a job and now there are white people that don't have jobs. I think thats what he was getting at. I find that theres no racism now hard to believe. But Ill just let that one go for now.
Anyways, we got back to the ship late and woke up bright and early to go to this great beach we heard about from our cape town friends! Yay for mornings! We had a late breakfast at a nice place in the city and some delicious croissant french toast and bacon. When you get off the ship you just eat because the food on the ship has just gotten so old. We went about 45 - 60 minutes away to this beach and I can't remember the name right now but I will eventually. Just kidding I remember, its called Boulder Beach! It looks like a screen saver, it's that gorgeous! Its surrounded by these huge boulders and it creates this little protected lagoon and I just want to live there. Not to mention the PENGUINS that live right next to it!!! You walk down a ways and there are just hundreds of penguins. We hung out at the beach and had great fun looking at the penguins. Both these places were close to cape point, the southern tip where you can see the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right, and had I known this we would have gone. But I found out after so now I tell you all this so that you won't find out after you go. We stopped back at V&A Waterfront to go the grocery store and then dinner. We sat outside right in front of the performance area that kept having these interesting Indian fusion dancers. There are a lot of Indians in Capetown. Some of our friends had rented a villa in town and invited us to hang out. Amber was spending the night there but I had to be back on the ship that night because I had a trip the next day that was leaving at 3:45 in the morning or something ridiculous. We went to the villa and hung out, and I finally fixed my phone! So now I have pictures again, but I put them all up on Facebook and didn't have time to put them up here. But you are all welcome to add me on Facebook to see them! Im hoping Ill eventually put them all up here but it may or may not be in December. The villa was in Camps Bay, a really nice area of Capetown, put that on your list of things to do when you visit. I got back to the ship around 3am, and when I got through security I see the ship and it is on the other side of the canal. The opposite side. This is a bit of an issue as I wish to get back on the ship. I saw a bunch of people sitting down outside. They weren't letting anyone on the ship. I asked what was going on and apparentlyyyyy a baby humpback whale had lodged itself in between the ship and the dock. They had to call the sea rescue team and everything and move the ship so the baby whale could leave the harbor. They finally got the ship back to our side at 4 am and I was super late to meet the girls I was going with on the trip. Luckily I ran into them on the way out on the way in and told them to wait for me.
We finally make it on the road and drive for like four or five hours to Botlierskop Private Game Reserve. Botlierskop means Lion's Head in Afrikaans. My friend Laurel had set up this day trip that included riding elephants, a safari, and shark cage diving and thats where SA can get kind of expensive as I found out. So we got to the game reserve around 9:30 am and we had just missed the elephant ride. We were really pissed because our guide had stopped the car on the way there three times even though no one had to pee, and had we not stopped we would have made it. But he said we could come back later and squeeze it in before our safari. We then got back in the car and went 30 minutes to the coast where we had snacks and a safety briefing at the shark cage dive place. The safety video is really quite self explanatory.. they were like yeah just don't try and touch the shark and keep all body parts in the cage. Thanks for that captain obvious. So we head out on this surprisingly small boat for 25 people and the day is perfect, it made me so happy to just be out on the water. We drive out to seal island, and I think its the actual seal island, the one on animal planet and discovery channel and everything. They anchor and start chumming the water and they throw this huge fish head in the water on a rope. We wait for about 10 or 15 minutes before we see the first shark. It was a medium sized one ( So they said, it looked huge to me) and they got the first group in wetsuits ready to get out there. I was not in the first group. I went in the first group surfing back in Lisbon but that is the extent of my bravery when it comes to going first. Sharks were involved, it was different. So I watch as everyone gets into the cage and they start teasing the shark with the fish head. They never actually let the shark get it and I learned later that its against regulations to ever feed the sharks. I sat in the tower and took pictures while the first two groups went in the cages. Then I had to put the wetsuit on and it was the hardest damn part of the whole experience. Just imagine Ross when he tries to put his sweaty and shrunken leather pants back on in Friends.. I get in the cage and the water isn't too cold. They just give you west suits and a mask and drop you in. You put your hands on the inside bar and your feet either go in the back of the cage against the boat or on the front of the cage on a lower bar. You first see the dark shadow in front of you and then they tell you to go down. It was really hard to see the shark unless it was right in front of you, I actually thought I could see everything better with my head above water. They just drag the fish head around and when the shark goes for it they bring it super close to the cage so you can see. Its not scary when you are out of the water but once you are at the the sharks level it is terrifying. These things are huge and I forgot to mention two other, larger sharks came to the boat a bit later and they are attacking the fish and sometimes start thrashing against the cage. Its so scary. You know they can't get through the cage but just imagine 16 ft man eating sharks 2 inches away from you! It was exhilarating and just plain frightening but I really liked it and am so glad I went through with it. We get out and back to shore where we walk back to the shark diving place and eat lunch while we watch this really cheesy video of our dive. I think at this point it was around 3pm and we were in a hurry to get back to the game reserve. When we get there our guide somehow manages to talk the place into squeezing in two more elephant rides in for us before our safari. It was really interesting to ride the elephant. It was not a smooth ride at all and the skin is not even skin. Its so rough and cracked and chafes your leg the whole time haha. The elephant ride was cool but it was scary too because when you think about it you could get really hurt if it decided to throw you off or if it got upset or something. We started our safari at 5:30 and they said it would be done by 7. We ended up being done at 8 but Im not complaining at all. The safari was truly amazing. The game reserve is full of these huge hills, and being from Florida I always think hills are really interesting, like woah.. hills. What a concept! Anyways, the sun was setting and we just drove along and saw a bunch of animals. We saw zebras, rhinos, ostrich, wildebeest I think, dassie ( a little furry thing which is the closest living relative of the elephant funnily enough) and others. It was just getting dark when we got to the lion area. We drove right up the male lion. Our guide was like yeah he's really playful he may follow us as we leave. Sure enough we drive away and he leaps up and starts chasing us! This safari truck isn't protected in any way, the driver just has this long wooden stick. I thought he was insane but we made it out alive. The whole day was amazing. When our safari was finished we still had a 5 hour drive back to Capetown. We stopped for a quick dinner. Now.. our guide had this really obnoxious thing he started doing. In the morning he had played wrecking ball, and naturally the car full of 8 girls began singing along. He then would play it frequently and when he did he would blast it. I am 20 years old and I play music loudly, I can dig it, but this guy was playing it just way too loud. And only when wrecking ball came on. Hey continued to do this the whole five hours home. We would just be drifting off to sleep and then you would be wide awake because wrecking ball would be playing louder than I could scream! Wtf!!! Most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with. On top of that he still managed to stop three times on the way home. I finally realized why.. he had to stop and smoke a cigarette every hour or so..
I get back to my room at 1 in the morning highly agitated, extremely tired and pretty dirty and salty. Just a hot mess. I shower and crash. The plan the next day was to hike table mountain. We had heard the best thing to do was hike in the morning because it was cooler. I had set my alarm for 8 but my roommate hadn't gotten back yet from the villa so I got to sleep longer. She gets back and after we catch up its already 11 and really cloudy. We make plans to meet with everyone else at three on the ship to decide if we would go to the top or not. Meanwhile we went to a different mall farther way at the suggestion of a cab driver. It was 15 minutes away and we got overcharged and we felt pretty stupid. The mall was huge and uninteresting but we got lunch and then went back to the ship by 2. We met up with everyone and decided we wouldn't hike to the top but we would just take the cable car. The top of table mountain is supposed to have the best views of capetown but we got the best views on the way up in the cable car. Once we got high enough we were in a cloud and couldn't see anything at all. Walking around up at the top was like being in a different world. It was foggy and freezing but they had a gift shop and a good coffee shop so I wasn't too disappointed. lol. My phone died so I will steal someone else's pictures from table mountain and post it for you all. The view really was amazing. That night I was determined to see a music performance because it was required for one of my classes. My teacher had recommended The Crypt for jazz so Amber, my friend Monica and Amber's professor came with me. We had a nice night and good food. Amber and Monica went to the villa and I went back to the ship. I had to be back by 12 because I had a field lab for my Marine Biology class the next day.
Our field lab included whale watching and a visit to the south african shark conservatory in Hermanus. Hermanus is only an hour and a half drive from Capetown. On the way there we passed some of the townships. Townships are areas where only black people lived during the Apartheid. People still live there today. They consisted of some government housing but there was still a scary amount of shacks. Metal pieces were just put together as shelter. It was the only time I had seen that while in Capetown. It was similar to what was described in Kaffir Boy, a book we had to read for Race and Ethnic Relations. I really recommend the book for anyone, it was great. It described the life of a boy who lived in the township of Alexandra until he moved to the states on a tennis scholarship and the horrible conditions black people lived in under apartheid. The tourist areas are really good at making you forget the nastiness of apartheid. The nice areas of capetown are really nice, but there are some really devastating areas still. SAS offered tours of some townships. This raised some questions within our community. I personally think theres and issue going around a township in a bus and taking pictures out of a window at the place and the people, it reminds me of a zoo. South Africa still seemed really separated to me.
We got to Hermanus and its just as stunning as Capetown. Mountains are right next to the ocean and the water is beautiful. We were whale watching for about 2 hours. We look out and see rocks, but the rocks were actually whales. The Southern Right Whales are in South Africa to give birth to their calves and rest in the warmer water. They didn't do anything particularly exciting until we were about to leave (naturally). They started jumping out of the water and playing around. We then when to the shark conservatory and watched them dissect a shark. We also visited a penguin colony on the way back to Capetown. We couldn't leave the ship after we got back on so my trip ended with that.
Capetown and all of South Africa is stunning. The landscape and the mountains are amazing. I would recommend this as the best place to visit out of everywhere I have been so far. It has everything. You can stay somewhere really nice and it feels like you are in Europe or the states but you can also go out and hike and shark dive, go to Krugar national park or Botlierskop (the place I went) if you want to stay closer for a safari. I didn't get a chance to go to the botanical gardens but I heard that that was amazing. Go to cape point and see the where the two oceans meet, go to Boulders beach and go see penguins. Go shopping at V&A waterfront, eat really good food, go out to long street, go to camps bay for more amazing beaches and a cool beach walk. Drive around town, but be careful at night. Go to the several markets they have, one in particular on Sunday morning is nice. Look up more things to do before you go and then do all of it in Capetown and then go to Hermanus. It was stunning and they have so many beautiful places to stay and a great little town and whales to watch. Go to Capetown!!
Well, it may just be paradise. In the city center you are surrounded by mountains and the ocean. There are a number of things to keep you occupied for days on end and its just stunning and awesome and I don't have the energy to think of bigger/ more impressive ways of writing that besides totally freaking awesome and so pretty and stunning and cooooooool. Ugh. When we had our pre-port meeting about Capetown they told us it was one of the most dangerous cities. Crime there is apparently high but just like any big city you must be cautious. I didn't know what to expect and had no real plans but it ended up being one of the best ports so far. We had five days which is longer than we have had in any port and I think I slept less than I have in any port too.
The first day in port was off to an early start as we were called out of bed at 6am to get off the boat, go through customs, get back on the boat and then get off the boat. All part of some new system that the port had just started called being obnoxious. Amber, Sumi and I left the ship in the morning and headed to V&A Waterfront, a huge mall and area of restaurants on the bay. It was really beautiful spot, there were even some seals playing in the water. Picture perfect. We stopped at a great restaurant for sushi. You seriously start to miss some things after living on the boat, one of them being sushi! So that filled a serious hole in my heart. We also shopped around a bit and then headed to a more local market in the city. The only thing about the waterfront is that it just feels like you are back home. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a mall in the US and this one. The local market gave us a better feel for SA. They had all sorts of great crafts and things, and I definitely got some Christmas shopping done, whoop whoop! We hung out, got some drinks and saw a parade of people dress like zombies (early halloween thing?). The taxis are crazy cheap in Capetown which was was surprising. I thought it was going to be really expensive but it never really turned out to be. We walked from the market to Long street, the "place to be" for going out at night. During the day it is nothing special, almost creepy, but we stopped for early dinner at a pizza place before heading back to the ship. We got back and got ready to go out. We had a heard from a friend's friend who lived in Capetown for a semester the cool places to go, one of them being Bob's Bistro. We started there and had a great time dancing and then these two guys from Capetown we had met took us to another cool place. It was a small place upstairs and they had a DJ and I imagined that this is the type of place cool people hang out. It was kind of like that except the people weren't that cool, but it was still fun. I got to quiz the the two guys from Capetown on what race relations and politics were like now in South Africa after the Apartheid ended. He said that it was a really bad thing to be racist now, it was the worst thing to be and no one was like that. In apartheid times white people were guaranteed a job and now there are white people that don't have jobs. I think thats what he was getting at. I find that theres no racism now hard to believe. But Ill just let that one go for now.
Anyways, we got back to the ship late and woke up bright and early to go to this great beach we heard about from our cape town friends! Yay for mornings! We had a late breakfast at a nice place in the city and some delicious croissant french toast and bacon. When you get off the ship you just eat because the food on the ship has just gotten so old. We went about 45 - 60 minutes away to this beach and I can't remember the name right now but I will eventually. Just kidding I remember, its called Boulder Beach! It looks like a screen saver, it's that gorgeous! Its surrounded by these huge boulders and it creates this little protected lagoon and I just want to live there. Not to mention the PENGUINS that live right next to it!!! You walk down a ways and there are just hundreds of penguins. We hung out at the beach and had great fun looking at the penguins. Both these places were close to cape point, the southern tip where you can see the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right, and had I known this we would have gone. But I found out after so now I tell you all this so that you won't find out after you go. We stopped back at V&A Waterfront to go the grocery store and then dinner. We sat outside right in front of the performance area that kept having these interesting Indian fusion dancers. There are a lot of Indians in Capetown. Some of our friends had rented a villa in town and invited us to hang out. Amber was spending the night there but I had to be back on the ship that night because I had a trip the next day that was leaving at 3:45 in the morning or something ridiculous. We went to the villa and hung out, and I finally fixed my phone! So now I have pictures again, but I put them all up on Facebook and didn't have time to put them up here. But you are all welcome to add me on Facebook to see them! Im hoping Ill eventually put them all up here but it may or may not be in December. The villa was in Camps Bay, a really nice area of Capetown, put that on your list of things to do when you visit. I got back to the ship around 3am, and when I got through security I see the ship and it is on the other side of the canal. The opposite side. This is a bit of an issue as I wish to get back on the ship. I saw a bunch of people sitting down outside. They weren't letting anyone on the ship. I asked what was going on and apparentlyyyyy a baby humpback whale had lodged itself in between the ship and the dock. They had to call the sea rescue team and everything and move the ship so the baby whale could leave the harbor. They finally got the ship back to our side at 4 am and I was super late to meet the girls I was going with on the trip. Luckily I ran into them on the way out on the way in and told them to wait for me.
We finally make it on the road and drive for like four or five hours to Botlierskop Private Game Reserve. Botlierskop means Lion's Head in Afrikaans. My friend Laurel had set up this day trip that included riding elephants, a safari, and shark cage diving and thats where SA can get kind of expensive as I found out. So we got to the game reserve around 9:30 am and we had just missed the elephant ride. We were really pissed because our guide had stopped the car on the way there three times even though no one had to pee, and had we not stopped we would have made it. But he said we could come back later and squeeze it in before our safari. We then got back in the car and went 30 minutes to the coast where we had snacks and a safety briefing at the shark cage dive place. The safety video is really quite self explanatory.. they were like yeah just don't try and touch the shark and keep all body parts in the cage. Thanks for that captain obvious. So we head out on this surprisingly small boat for 25 people and the day is perfect, it made me so happy to just be out on the water. We drive out to seal island, and I think its the actual seal island, the one on animal planet and discovery channel and everything. They anchor and start chumming the water and they throw this huge fish head in the water on a rope. We wait for about 10 or 15 minutes before we see the first shark. It was a medium sized one ( So they said, it looked huge to me) and they got the first group in wetsuits ready to get out there. I was not in the first group. I went in the first group surfing back in Lisbon but that is the extent of my bravery when it comes to going first. Sharks were involved, it was different. So I watch as everyone gets into the cage and they start teasing the shark with the fish head. They never actually let the shark get it and I learned later that its against regulations to ever feed the sharks. I sat in the tower and took pictures while the first two groups went in the cages. Then I had to put the wetsuit on and it was the hardest damn part of the whole experience. Just imagine Ross when he tries to put his sweaty and shrunken leather pants back on in Friends.. I get in the cage and the water isn't too cold. They just give you west suits and a mask and drop you in. You put your hands on the inside bar and your feet either go in the back of the cage against the boat or on the front of the cage on a lower bar. You first see the dark shadow in front of you and then they tell you to go down. It was really hard to see the shark unless it was right in front of you, I actually thought I could see everything better with my head above water. They just drag the fish head around and when the shark goes for it they bring it super close to the cage so you can see. Its not scary when you are out of the water but once you are at the the sharks level it is terrifying. These things are huge and I forgot to mention two other, larger sharks came to the boat a bit later and they are attacking the fish and sometimes start thrashing against the cage. Its so scary. You know they can't get through the cage but just imagine 16 ft man eating sharks 2 inches away from you! It was exhilarating and just plain frightening but I really liked it and am so glad I went through with it. We get out and back to shore where we walk back to the shark diving place and eat lunch while we watch this really cheesy video of our dive. I think at this point it was around 3pm and we were in a hurry to get back to the game reserve. When we get there our guide somehow manages to talk the place into squeezing in two more elephant rides in for us before our safari. It was really interesting to ride the elephant. It was not a smooth ride at all and the skin is not even skin. Its so rough and cracked and chafes your leg the whole time haha. The elephant ride was cool but it was scary too because when you think about it you could get really hurt if it decided to throw you off or if it got upset or something. We started our safari at 5:30 and they said it would be done by 7. We ended up being done at 8 but Im not complaining at all. The safari was truly amazing. The game reserve is full of these huge hills, and being from Florida I always think hills are really interesting, like woah.. hills. What a concept! Anyways, the sun was setting and we just drove along and saw a bunch of animals. We saw zebras, rhinos, ostrich, wildebeest I think, dassie ( a little furry thing which is the closest living relative of the elephant funnily enough) and others. It was just getting dark when we got to the lion area. We drove right up the male lion. Our guide was like yeah he's really playful he may follow us as we leave. Sure enough we drive away and he leaps up and starts chasing us! This safari truck isn't protected in any way, the driver just has this long wooden stick. I thought he was insane but we made it out alive. The whole day was amazing. When our safari was finished we still had a 5 hour drive back to Capetown. We stopped for a quick dinner. Now.. our guide had this really obnoxious thing he started doing. In the morning he had played wrecking ball, and naturally the car full of 8 girls began singing along. He then would play it frequently and when he did he would blast it. I am 20 years old and I play music loudly, I can dig it, but this guy was playing it just way too loud. And only when wrecking ball came on. Hey continued to do this the whole five hours home. We would just be drifting off to sleep and then you would be wide awake because wrecking ball would be playing louder than I could scream! Wtf!!! Most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with. On top of that he still managed to stop three times on the way home. I finally realized why.. he had to stop and smoke a cigarette every hour or so..
I get back to my room at 1 in the morning highly agitated, extremely tired and pretty dirty and salty. Just a hot mess. I shower and crash. The plan the next day was to hike table mountain. We had heard the best thing to do was hike in the morning because it was cooler. I had set my alarm for 8 but my roommate hadn't gotten back yet from the villa so I got to sleep longer. She gets back and after we catch up its already 11 and really cloudy. We make plans to meet with everyone else at three on the ship to decide if we would go to the top or not. Meanwhile we went to a different mall farther way at the suggestion of a cab driver. It was 15 minutes away and we got overcharged and we felt pretty stupid. The mall was huge and uninteresting but we got lunch and then went back to the ship by 2. We met up with everyone and decided we wouldn't hike to the top but we would just take the cable car. The top of table mountain is supposed to have the best views of capetown but we got the best views on the way up in the cable car. Once we got high enough we were in a cloud and couldn't see anything at all. Walking around up at the top was like being in a different world. It was foggy and freezing but they had a gift shop and a good coffee shop so I wasn't too disappointed. lol. My phone died so I will steal someone else's pictures from table mountain and post it for you all. The view really was amazing. That night I was determined to see a music performance because it was required for one of my classes. My teacher had recommended The Crypt for jazz so Amber, my friend Monica and Amber's professor came with me. We had a nice night and good food. Amber and Monica went to the villa and I went back to the ship. I had to be back by 12 because I had a field lab for my Marine Biology class the next day.
Our field lab included whale watching and a visit to the south african shark conservatory in Hermanus. Hermanus is only an hour and a half drive from Capetown. On the way there we passed some of the townships. Townships are areas where only black people lived during the Apartheid. People still live there today. They consisted of some government housing but there was still a scary amount of shacks. Metal pieces were just put together as shelter. It was the only time I had seen that while in Capetown. It was similar to what was described in Kaffir Boy, a book we had to read for Race and Ethnic Relations. I really recommend the book for anyone, it was great. It described the life of a boy who lived in the township of Alexandra until he moved to the states on a tennis scholarship and the horrible conditions black people lived in under apartheid. The tourist areas are really good at making you forget the nastiness of apartheid. The nice areas of capetown are really nice, but there are some really devastating areas still. SAS offered tours of some townships. This raised some questions within our community. I personally think theres and issue going around a township in a bus and taking pictures out of a window at the place and the people, it reminds me of a zoo. South Africa still seemed really separated to me.
We got to Hermanus and its just as stunning as Capetown. Mountains are right next to the ocean and the water is beautiful. We were whale watching for about 2 hours. We look out and see rocks, but the rocks were actually whales. The Southern Right Whales are in South Africa to give birth to their calves and rest in the warmer water. They didn't do anything particularly exciting until we were about to leave (naturally). They started jumping out of the water and playing around. We then when to the shark conservatory and watched them dissect a shark. We also visited a penguin colony on the way back to Capetown. We couldn't leave the ship after we got back on so my trip ended with that.
Capetown and all of South Africa is stunning. The landscape and the mountains are amazing. I would recommend this as the best place to visit out of everywhere I have been so far. It has everything. You can stay somewhere really nice and it feels like you are in Europe or the states but you can also go out and hike and shark dive, go to Krugar national park or Botlierskop (the place I went) if you want to stay closer for a safari. I didn't get a chance to go to the botanical gardens but I heard that that was amazing. Go to cape point and see the where the two oceans meet, go to Boulders beach and go see penguins. Go shopping at V&A waterfront, eat really good food, go out to long street, go to camps bay for more amazing beaches and a cool beach walk. Drive around town, but be careful at night. Go to the several markets they have, one in particular on Sunday morning is nice. Look up more things to do before you go and then do all of it in Capetown and then go to Hermanus. It was stunning and they have so many beautiful places to stay and a great little town and whales to watch. Go to Capetown!!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Ghana
I am finally getting to Ghana! This is the last blog post before I am officially caught up, woohooooo. I still don't have pictures up from Spain, Morocco or Ghana but I will do that as soon as I get to South Africa. I get to SA on the 26th and leave on the 30th, its our longest stay in port. There is so much to do it is crazy! So far I am planning a hike up Table Mountain, elephant riding, a big 5 safari, and I have a field lab where I visit a penguin colony and go whale watching! I also want to squeeze in just a general exploring of Capetown, maybe the botanical gardens and I need to see a music performance for a class. If anyone has any suggestions for where I can go to see a great show or anything in particular in Capetown let me know.
So, Ghana was interesting. It was different than Arusha, where I was in Tanzania, because it was more urban. Accra was at least. But an African city is nothing like a regular one. The ship was in Takoradi for the first two days and in Accra for the second. On the first day I had a field program and I went to Kakum National Park which is a preserved rainforest and did a really cool canopy walk above and through the trees. The views were stunning. We also did a little hike but barely went into the actual rainforest. We saw some cool lizards and butterflies but the actual animals are deeper in the rainforest. They told us about a week long hike you can do to the northern part of the forest where you can track the elephants they have. We left the park for lunch at a hotel nearby.This being our first experience with the food in Africa we were all cautious. Several trips in Morocco got horribly sick, 50 students had to be quarantined or something crazy. No one wanted a repeat of that so we all knew what to eat and what to avoid. Fruits and salad that have been washed with local water is a no go. Anything cooked was OK. Lunch was good and then we had a walking tour of Elmina, a city on the coast. The bus left the ship around 9:30 am and we got back at 6pm but most of the day was spent traveling. Kakum National Park and Elmina aren't particularly close to Takoradi. Elmina was HOT. The poverty in Africa is astounding. Its crazy still to me that people live like that. No shoes, they take baths with one bucket of water and a rag, 5 people live in a two bedroom apartment. And there is a constant fishy odor. People are really against you taking their picture, but they call out to you and try and get you to buy something from them. They sell everything on the street from fish to toilet seats. The views were amazing, we had to climb a hill to this fortress and at the top you get a really nice panoramic view of Elmina. Our tour guide wasn't great, he just spewed loads of historical information. I tried to absorb it all but he just went to quickly for me to keep up. I did manage to get that Elmina is a fishing town, only the men go out and fish and then the women are in charge of marketing the goods. Refrigerators don't exist so they have to dry, smoke or salt all the fish. They keep it for days and sometimes weeks. Probably another reason we were warned about food. The method works for them but for Americans or others who have never been exposed to the water or type of food that Ghanaians eat every day just can't handle it and get sick. After our tour we went back to the ship. They expected lots of traffic but no one was on the streets because a huge soccer game was on; Ghana was playing Egypt in a qualifier game for the World Cup next year. We then got back to the ship earlier than expected and I just stayed there and didn't do anything that night. I didn't feel quite comfortable drinking and going out at night in Africa. Nothing really bad happened to the people that did go out, some got their things stolen, but I just wasn't up for it.
On the second day I hung out with my friend Alka. She had met a local girl the day before, her name was Linda and she was 15. We went really early in the morning to her house and met her family and the other family that lived in the same house. Her dad came out in boxer shorts and it was weird. But they were all very friendly. They had two little boys and a little girl, Coby, Rey and Maria. They were precious. They lived in a house that was separated into three two-room apartments. It didn't have air conditioning, just fans. They washed clothes by hand and hung them to dry. Cleaning plates consisted of splashing them with water. We went to the market to buy stuff to make lunch with. $15 was enough to buy enough food for seven people. The market was also smelly and so. freaking. hot!! We got back to her house and her "aunt" started to cook. I don't know if they were actually related. They have this traditional dish called fufu that she made. You boiled cassava which is like yucca and also plantains for 30 minutes and then you pound them with a huge wooden stick and wood bowl, adding little bits of water until it is a doughy consistency. Fufu is a staple dish in Ghana. That takes about thirty to forty five minutes. She made a fish stew that was spicy spicy ( the regular spicy) and it had some chicken in it as well. Then you throw this big lump of fufu in it. So she had boiled the cassava and plantains, I had helped to cut them up and I kept dropping all the pieces in the dirt on accident, no one washed their hands before making it I just kept thinking oh goodness please don't get sick. The soup was boiled, the fish and chicken were cooked, but I was worried because she put water in the fufu. I thought it was going to be more like bread but it was slimy! Linda said you aren't supposed to chew it, you just swallow it like a pill. I didn't really get the point of eating if you don't even taste it. It shows you the difference in attitude toward food. To them its just sustenance, we are so concerned with how it tastes plus we eat in such excess its almost gross at times. I forgot who I was talking to about this but they said Americans have a food fetish. I didn't really like the fufu at all but the fish was really good, which was shocking. We drank water from a pouch, which is how drinking water is packaged in Ghana. You just rip a hole in the corner and suck. I was kind of nervous I would get sick from the whole experience but I didn't at all! A boy selling Fan Ice went by the house and I bought everyone some to say thank you for lunch. Fan Ice is ice cream that comes in a plastic pouch, we were told it was safe to have by the people on the ship, they have chocolate and vanilla and it was delicious. Best ice cream ever. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was dying of heat and my mouth was still burning from how spicy the fish was. We went to the beach afterward because it was walking distance from her house and we all jumped in in our clothes. We saw other SASers down the beach and we hung out with them. I got a horrible sunburn in the shape of my tank top and bra straps and it looks awful!! lol other than that it was a really good day. I bought some cool stuff at the market area they set up right by the ship. We then sailed that night to Accra.
The first day in Accra I Didn't know what to do, Sumi and Amber had been on an overnight trip the past two nights and still weren't back. I missed the bus at 11 and the next one was at 1 so I worked out and relaxed until then. I needed internet to check on classes and registering for Miami and also to try and fix my phone which has conveniently locked me out. So I went by myself into Accra. We are actually docked at the city Tema and the shuttle ride to Accra was a little over an hour! I got off though and got a cab to an internet cafe and I spent the next 7 hours there haha I just had good food for lunch and some lattes and dinner and caught up on facebook. I made friends with the people that worked there, I watched Chopped on the TV for a while and I talked to a group of older white people. I was glancing at them and couldn't figure out why they were dressed the same. One of them asked me what I was doing in Ghana and we started chatting. I started to ask them what they were doing in Ghana when I saw it. On his white short sleeved button down was a name tag. It read "Elder William". Holy shit, actual Mormons. He answered that they were missionaries of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. I was wondering if I was about to get lectured but they were really very nice. I asked them if they picked to come to Ghana and they were like, uh, no. The encounter was so funny. I asked them where they were from and they said Utah.. I was like oh duh. haha. Obama was on the TV because of the whole government shutdown thing and they were like oh we liked Romney. I told them I voted for him and I could tell I got major Mormon brownie points. They asked at one point if I knew about Mormons and, god knows why, I was like yeah I saw the book of Mormon on Broadway this year. The looks on their faces was unreadable. One asked if I liked it and I said " yeah it was funny". Why did that come out of my mouth? They looked exactly like the people in the play though!! The fact that I saw them in Ghana was just so funny. I wanted to ask how many people they have converted so far but I thought that would really be an ass-like thing to say. I was there until dark and I was a little worries about getting back to the place where the shuttle was. The cab driver that took me there was supposed to take me back at 4:30 but he never came back. The owner of the place though was so so nice and helped me get a cab back and I made the last shuttle no problem. I didn't go out that night either. Accra was apparently a fun place to go out, the shuttle drop off place was in an area called Osu which had good night life but at that point I was just ready to go to bed. Good day overall.
The next day I had a field program at an orphanage, we left early in the morning and came back around 4pm. We helped with random tasks around the orphanage, I mainly helped some kids write thank you notes to their sponsors who pay for their schooling. I had a nice time and then got back to the ship and just stayed on until we left. Ghana has the best economy in Africa I think, the cedi is only half of a dollar as opposed to a Russian ruble which is a thirtieth of a dollar. But the people are still so poor. School is mandatory through high school for kids and then they can choose to specialize after that if they want to. Lots of artisanal fishing. I had a good time though. The rest of the kids on the ship mostly chose to go to beaches and get drunk. So I am glad that I at least made an effort to get something more out of it. For me Ghana, and Tanzania are good places to go and work or volunteer. I don't know about being a tourist in these places. They have some nice resorts but its not really a vacation-y type of trip. I would much rather do something useful. My time in Ghana was sweaty and hot, but I am glad I met some locals and got a chance to help at the orphanage.
So, Ghana was interesting. It was different than Arusha, where I was in Tanzania, because it was more urban. Accra was at least. But an African city is nothing like a regular one. The ship was in Takoradi for the first two days and in Accra for the second. On the first day I had a field program and I went to Kakum National Park which is a preserved rainforest and did a really cool canopy walk above and through the trees. The views were stunning. We also did a little hike but barely went into the actual rainforest. We saw some cool lizards and butterflies but the actual animals are deeper in the rainforest. They told us about a week long hike you can do to the northern part of the forest where you can track the elephants they have. We left the park for lunch at a hotel nearby.This being our first experience with the food in Africa we were all cautious. Several trips in Morocco got horribly sick, 50 students had to be quarantined or something crazy. No one wanted a repeat of that so we all knew what to eat and what to avoid. Fruits and salad that have been washed with local water is a no go. Anything cooked was OK. Lunch was good and then we had a walking tour of Elmina, a city on the coast. The bus left the ship around 9:30 am and we got back at 6pm but most of the day was spent traveling. Kakum National Park and Elmina aren't particularly close to Takoradi. Elmina was HOT. The poverty in Africa is astounding. Its crazy still to me that people live like that. No shoes, they take baths with one bucket of water and a rag, 5 people live in a two bedroom apartment. And there is a constant fishy odor. People are really against you taking their picture, but they call out to you and try and get you to buy something from them. They sell everything on the street from fish to toilet seats. The views were amazing, we had to climb a hill to this fortress and at the top you get a really nice panoramic view of Elmina. Our tour guide wasn't great, he just spewed loads of historical information. I tried to absorb it all but he just went to quickly for me to keep up. I did manage to get that Elmina is a fishing town, only the men go out and fish and then the women are in charge of marketing the goods. Refrigerators don't exist so they have to dry, smoke or salt all the fish. They keep it for days and sometimes weeks. Probably another reason we were warned about food. The method works for them but for Americans or others who have never been exposed to the water or type of food that Ghanaians eat every day just can't handle it and get sick. After our tour we went back to the ship. They expected lots of traffic but no one was on the streets because a huge soccer game was on; Ghana was playing Egypt in a qualifier game for the World Cup next year. We then got back to the ship earlier than expected and I just stayed there and didn't do anything that night. I didn't feel quite comfortable drinking and going out at night in Africa. Nothing really bad happened to the people that did go out, some got their things stolen, but I just wasn't up for it.
On the second day I hung out with my friend Alka. She had met a local girl the day before, her name was Linda and she was 15. We went really early in the morning to her house and met her family and the other family that lived in the same house. Her dad came out in boxer shorts and it was weird. But they were all very friendly. They had two little boys and a little girl, Coby, Rey and Maria. They were precious. They lived in a house that was separated into three two-room apartments. It didn't have air conditioning, just fans. They washed clothes by hand and hung them to dry. Cleaning plates consisted of splashing them with water. We went to the market to buy stuff to make lunch with. $15 was enough to buy enough food for seven people. The market was also smelly and so. freaking. hot!! We got back to her house and her "aunt" started to cook. I don't know if they were actually related. They have this traditional dish called fufu that she made. You boiled cassava which is like yucca and also plantains for 30 minutes and then you pound them with a huge wooden stick and wood bowl, adding little bits of water until it is a doughy consistency. Fufu is a staple dish in Ghana. That takes about thirty to forty five minutes. She made a fish stew that was spicy spicy ( the regular spicy) and it had some chicken in it as well. Then you throw this big lump of fufu in it. So she had boiled the cassava and plantains, I had helped to cut them up and I kept dropping all the pieces in the dirt on accident, no one washed their hands before making it I just kept thinking oh goodness please don't get sick. The soup was boiled, the fish and chicken were cooked, but I was worried because she put water in the fufu. I thought it was going to be more like bread but it was slimy! Linda said you aren't supposed to chew it, you just swallow it like a pill. I didn't really get the point of eating if you don't even taste it. It shows you the difference in attitude toward food. To them its just sustenance, we are so concerned with how it tastes plus we eat in such excess its almost gross at times. I forgot who I was talking to about this but they said Americans have a food fetish. I didn't really like the fufu at all but the fish was really good, which was shocking. We drank water from a pouch, which is how drinking water is packaged in Ghana. You just rip a hole in the corner and suck. I was kind of nervous I would get sick from the whole experience but I didn't at all! A boy selling Fan Ice went by the house and I bought everyone some to say thank you for lunch. Fan Ice is ice cream that comes in a plastic pouch, we were told it was safe to have by the people on the ship, they have chocolate and vanilla and it was delicious. Best ice cream ever. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was dying of heat and my mouth was still burning from how spicy the fish was. We went to the beach afterward because it was walking distance from her house and we all jumped in in our clothes. We saw other SASers down the beach and we hung out with them. I got a horrible sunburn in the shape of my tank top and bra straps and it looks awful!! lol other than that it was a really good day. I bought some cool stuff at the market area they set up right by the ship. We then sailed that night to Accra.
The first day in Accra I Didn't know what to do, Sumi and Amber had been on an overnight trip the past two nights and still weren't back. I missed the bus at 11 and the next one was at 1 so I worked out and relaxed until then. I needed internet to check on classes and registering for Miami and also to try and fix my phone which has conveniently locked me out. So I went by myself into Accra. We are actually docked at the city Tema and the shuttle ride to Accra was a little over an hour! I got off though and got a cab to an internet cafe and I spent the next 7 hours there haha I just had good food for lunch and some lattes and dinner and caught up on facebook. I made friends with the people that worked there, I watched Chopped on the TV for a while and I talked to a group of older white people. I was glancing at them and couldn't figure out why they were dressed the same. One of them asked me what I was doing in Ghana and we started chatting. I started to ask them what they were doing in Ghana when I saw it. On his white short sleeved button down was a name tag. It read "Elder William". Holy shit, actual Mormons. He answered that they were missionaries of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. I was wondering if I was about to get lectured but they were really very nice. I asked them if they picked to come to Ghana and they were like, uh, no. The encounter was so funny. I asked them where they were from and they said Utah.. I was like oh duh. haha. Obama was on the TV because of the whole government shutdown thing and they were like oh we liked Romney. I told them I voted for him and I could tell I got major Mormon brownie points. They asked at one point if I knew about Mormons and, god knows why, I was like yeah I saw the book of Mormon on Broadway this year. The looks on their faces was unreadable. One asked if I liked it and I said " yeah it was funny". Why did that come out of my mouth? They looked exactly like the people in the play though!! The fact that I saw them in Ghana was just so funny. I wanted to ask how many people they have converted so far but I thought that would really be an ass-like thing to say. I was there until dark and I was a little worries about getting back to the place where the shuttle was. The cab driver that took me there was supposed to take me back at 4:30 but he never came back. The owner of the place though was so so nice and helped me get a cab back and I made the last shuttle no problem. I didn't go out that night either. Accra was apparently a fun place to go out, the shuttle drop off place was in an area called Osu which had good night life but at that point I was just ready to go to bed. Good day overall.
The next day I had a field program at an orphanage, we left early in the morning and came back around 4pm. We helped with random tasks around the orphanage, I mainly helped some kids write thank you notes to their sponsors who pay for their schooling. I had a nice time and then got back to the ship and just stayed on until we left. Ghana has the best economy in Africa I think, the cedi is only half of a dollar as opposed to a Russian ruble which is a thirtieth of a dollar. But the people are still so poor. School is mandatory through high school for kids and then they can choose to specialize after that if they want to. Lots of artisanal fishing. I had a good time though. The rest of the kids on the ship mostly chose to go to beaches and get drunk. So I am glad that I at least made an effort to get something more out of it. For me Ghana, and Tanzania are good places to go and work or volunteer. I don't know about being a tourist in these places. They have some nice resorts but its not really a vacation-y type of trip. I would much rather do something useful. My time in Ghana was sweaty and hot, but I am glad I met some locals and got a chance to help at the orphanage.
Ship life: Neptune Day and the Halloween Dance
Yes, big things have been happening on the ship! We have had a few big events and we also have the Sea Olympics coming up. The first thing was Neptune Day. What is Neptune Day? It is a day of celebration when we cross the equator! We go from Pollywags to Shellbacks and are initiated by having fish guts poured on us, jumping in the pool, kissing a fish, and getting our heads shaved! Needless to say, all of this was optional, and all of it was bullshit. If theres one way to get me not to participate in something its so wake me up with obnoxious noises. Which is exactly what they did at six am sharp. The crew went around with pots and pans and banged on everyones doors. We were then summoned to deck 7 at 8:30 for the the event. I didn't get up, but my roommate said that I didn't have to get in my swimsuit, but I should at least go see it. Well. This shit was crazy. I walk outside and music is blasting, everyone and their mothers are running around in swimsuits, kissing fish, jumping in the pool, and right next to me GIRLS are getting their heads SHAVED. I hate bald people. There is nothing scarier. Why. Why would you do that? Your head is white, lumpy, and meant to have hair on it. Are you Bruce Willis? No? Then don't shave your head. I watched for three minutes and took cover back inside. If you ask me that is way too much to be going on before 12. The one cool thing though is that we passed through 0,0. That is the point where the equator and prime meridian cross. I celebrated by going back to sleep.
Just last night we also had our Halloween Dance! On October 22. Why? I don't know. We have a study day on the 31 so I don't see why we couldn't have it then like everyone else. I was feeling very skeptical about this dance. There would be music and costumes and it all sounded very seventh grade. Who goes to dances sober anymore? I'm kidding. Kind of. Usually we have beverage service, but last night there was none, so literally everyone was stone cold sober. I heard that some people had their two glasses of wine with dinner and then snorted dramamine ( I hear that works?) and went to the dance. lol. I wasnt going to go, but my friends persuaded me to at least go for a bit. When I was packing I thought ahead and brought bunny ears, so I was an adorable bunny for halloween. Aw. I pulled together an outfit for my roommate (minnie mouse) met my other friends (a minion and Sully from Monsters Inc) and we headed upstairs. The costumes that were pulled together for this dance were shocking. Some planning must have been involved through the ports or some serious creativity, probably a bit of both, but these costumes were good! My bunny was put to shame. There were three guys who did the Blue Man Group, there were Moroccans riding camels, people in animal onesies, an avatar, security guards, that red headed guy from Workaholics (a girl), belly dancers (dudes), drug dealers, mermaids. The costumes were on point.. the rest of the dance though was stunningly seventh grade and it was great and we danced the night awayyyyyyy. No slow dances though, that was the only thing missing. There also was no chocolate.. pft. A Halloween event and no chocolate? Whatever, it was fun, I revisited my youth with (hopefully) better dance moves.
We also have the sea olympics coming up, its like field day but with "seas" which are groups we are divided up into according to where we live on the ship. I signed up for limbo and spades.. both things I am not good at so we will see how that goes!
Intramural volleyball has started and our first game is today! I am excited to kick some butt. We are docked in Nairobi right now to fuel so we will be staying still. From Ghana we have had pretty consistent seven foot swells. Fun! Not…
Here are some things its funny to imagine me doing in seven foot seas and a violently rocking ship
- run on a treadmill
- do yoga
- shave my legs (ow)
- walk down a hallway
- carry a bowl of soup
- carry a cup of coffee
- carry anything that can spill
- try and go to sleep
- avoid being within 5 feet of a bald person
- take notes
- drink water
- put on make up
- that last one was a joke, make up? hahahahahhaa
Other than these exciting events, I sleep, email people, go to class, do homework, go to breakfast lunch and dinner, watch sex and the city with my friends, workout, and play volleyball. Riveting. Thats all on ship life for now. I will go back to being frightened by the masses of bald people on this ship and doing nothing. XOXO
Just last night we also had our Halloween Dance! On October 22. Why? I don't know. We have a study day on the 31 so I don't see why we couldn't have it then like everyone else. I was feeling very skeptical about this dance. There would be music and costumes and it all sounded very seventh grade. Who goes to dances sober anymore? I'm kidding. Kind of. Usually we have beverage service, but last night there was none, so literally everyone was stone cold sober. I heard that some people had their two glasses of wine with dinner and then snorted dramamine ( I hear that works?) and went to the dance. lol. I wasnt going to go, but my friends persuaded me to at least go for a bit. When I was packing I thought ahead and brought bunny ears, so I was an adorable bunny for halloween. Aw. I pulled together an outfit for my roommate (minnie mouse) met my other friends (a minion and Sully from Monsters Inc) and we headed upstairs. The costumes that were pulled together for this dance were shocking. Some planning must have been involved through the ports or some serious creativity, probably a bit of both, but these costumes were good! My bunny was put to shame. There were three guys who did the Blue Man Group, there were Moroccans riding camels, people in animal onesies, an avatar, security guards, that red headed guy from Workaholics (a girl), belly dancers (dudes), drug dealers, mermaids. The costumes were on point.. the rest of the dance though was stunningly seventh grade and it was great and we danced the night awayyyyyyy. No slow dances though, that was the only thing missing. There also was no chocolate.. pft. A Halloween event and no chocolate? Whatever, it was fun, I revisited my youth with (hopefully) better dance moves.
We also have the sea olympics coming up, its like field day but with "seas" which are groups we are divided up into according to where we live on the ship. I signed up for limbo and spades.. both things I am not good at so we will see how that goes!
Intramural volleyball has started and our first game is today! I am excited to kick some butt. We are docked in Nairobi right now to fuel so we will be staying still. From Ghana we have had pretty consistent seven foot swells. Fun! Not…
Here are some things its funny to imagine me doing in seven foot seas and a violently rocking ship
- run on a treadmill
- do yoga
- shave my legs (ow)
- walk down a hallway
- carry a bowl of soup
- carry a cup of coffee
- carry anything that can spill
- try and go to sleep
- avoid being within 5 feet of a bald person
- take notes
- drink water
- put on make up
- that last one was a joke, make up? hahahahahhaa
Other than these exciting events, I sleep, email people, go to class, do homework, go to breakfast lunch and dinner, watch sex and the city with my friends, workout, and play volleyball. Riveting. Thats all on ship life for now. I will go back to being frightened by the masses of bald people on this ship and doing nothing. XOXO
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