Braaaaazillll

Brazil. How am I going to fit all of Brazil into one post. Literally, this past week has been one of the best in my life. This post is going to be pretty long:

Day 1: The Explorer docked in Manaus at 8 AM and Moriah and I wandered off the ship with no expectations or plans. We quickly realized that literally no one in Manaus speaks English. Its not a big tourist city and they really don’t get many Americans so we couldn’t communicate with anyone. We managed to find a map (all in Portuguese) and decide to go somewhere that looked like it could be a park. We find a taxi driver and point to the park on the map. He replies instantly, “Girls. Shopping Mall!” and points to a mall. We respond, “No. Park!” and point. “Shopping Mall!” “Park!” “Shopping Mall!” “Fine!” So we head to this mall which turns out to be like half an hour away. The taxi dude drops us off and peels out. Upon entering the mall we suddenly realize that literally every store is closed. It’s a Sunday. Great. We wander around aimlessly for a while before running into another taxi driver and his friend, who thankfully speaks English and promises to take us somewhere fun. We end up at what I can only describe as some kind of Brazilian country club. There were pools, a bar, and an enormous dance floor. Moriah and I were the only English speaking people in a crowd of about 200. We met the locals, learned to samba, and generally had an amazing time. Later, we headed back to the ship because I had an alligator watching excursion at night. Cutting it pretty close, I actually made my boat and we headed off to a floating village where we got into small canoes and set out on the Amazon. It was pitch black and we were surrounded by the glowing eyes of the crocs as random fish jumped into our ship because they wanted to commit fish suicide or whatever. The guide on the boat caught a baby croc and we all got to hold him. I learned that out of the 200 eggs that an alligator lays, only 2% survive to maturity. No wonder they’re so grumpy all the time.

Day 2: Moriah and I slept late, and in the morning prepared for our upcoming overnight into the Amazon. We met a boat at 2 PM that took us on a two hour ride to the spot on the Amazon where we would be camping. When we got to the beach we had to wade through the river to get ashore and then met the soldiers who would be protecting us for the next day. The soldiers were all retired officers specializing in jungle guerrilla warfare and were totally badass. From here, we embarked on a long hike in the muggy humid beautiful amazon. Along the way we learned how to climb the trees to gather fruit, got to sample some very bizarre jungle fruits, learned how to make traps, hunt, and make a fire without matches. At about 6 PM we reached our camping spot, literally just a bunch of hammocks hanging from the trees with only some flimsy mosquito netting for protection. We made a fire, ate yummy chicken prepared by the army guys, and got to talk extensively with one soldier. He explained to us that as part of training for his special forces group the soldiers were required to live with an Amazon tribe for a year. He lived with the Yanamami, an indigenous tribe far from any other human interaction. We talked for hours about what life was like there, the people, medicine, women, legends, culture, ghost stories ect. It was a pretty fascinating hour. Like, get this, the people there have pet tapirs. Know what a tapir is? Look it up. Best pet ever. After this we harassed some of the guides to take us on a night hike into the rainforest. The jungle is silent at night. Its very eerie. Also contributing to the general sense of eeriness was the fact that I was directly behind the soldier at the front of the line and multiple times he would freeze, listen, slowly unsheathe his two foot long machete, scoop up a spider the size of my hand and flick it off into the jungle. The size of my freaking hand, guys. We reached our destination on the river and some brave people (not including me) took a dip. It looked like fun, but earlier I had seen so many water spiders that I refused to even entertain the idea. Anyways, when we got back I attempted to sleep but was very weirded out by bug noises and didn’t really doze off. We woke up at 530 to begin our trek back to the boat and arrived at the ship at 8 AM at which time I promptly fell asleep.

Day 3: After a very well needed nap, Moriah and I ventured out into the city. Again, we were coerced into visiting a mall but this time it was actually open. We were shocked to find a store selling apple big screens and laptops for literally $200. That is until we noticed the tiny “x 10” underneath the price. Who does that. After, we visited the Amazon Opera House. I had never heard of it before but apparently its world famous. It was absolutely gorgeous; huge, pink, with an enormous multicolored dome. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in Manaus, meeting locals, and having a generally awesome time.

Day 4: On Wednesday the local fish market was open so I wandered there with some friends. Weirdly, I didn’t see many fish but tons of fruits, veggies, handicrafts and the like. We met some little kids who were out selling candy and got to learn a little about the city from them. In the early afternoon we headed back to the ship to get ready for our night out. We got all dressed up and headed to a local club where we ran into hoards of other SAS kids. It was really fun getting to see all the crew and teachers out having a good time though and we got to practice our samba. Also, I got to taste the local drink called Kai Perenia (probably not spelled correctly) which is essentially sugar cane liquor with limes. It was super sweet and super good. Ballin.

Day 5: On Thursday the on ship time was 3 PM which basically means that if you arrive on the ship after that, you have dock time. Dock time means that when we arrive in the next port you are not allowed to disembark the ship for a certain amount of time. For every 15 minutes you are late to the ship, you are delayed 3 hours in the next port. So it’s a pretty big deal. Anyways, since my room doesn’t have a window its really impossible to wake up because it is pitch black. Long story short, due to the late night, we slept until like 1 PM and then realized we needed to head back into town to change back some money we still had in Brazilian currency. We rushed off the ship and, after some confusion, were able to change back our money. We (me and Moriah) still had some time left so we got some lunch and ice cream with our remaining money and mosied back to the ship. Literally just as we arrived so did like 6 groups who had been on overnights and so had tons of bags that needed to be checked. We were sweating a bit at the end of a massive line at 245. But, we got on the ship just in time and escaped dock time J

Well, that was pretty much my week. So much more crazy and amazing stuff happened and I know as soon as I post this I’m going to remember a million other things I want to talk about. But I guess for now just to sum everything up: Manaus is an amazing city filled with awesome friendly people. The jungle is more mysterious and beautiful than I thought possible. Spiders can grow to incredible sizes. I’m very excited about our next port, Ghana, which we will reach in about 10 days. Cheers guys. 

Empowering Nepali Girls

So, I’ve decided to dedicate a few blog posts to talking about some really great non-profit organizations I’ve been learning about here. If you are not interested in donating or learning about this stuff then just ignore these posts guyz. But, I know that a lot of you reading this do donate money to charities and sometimes you wonder if your money is actually doing any good or what exactly it is funding. The charities I mention here are special in that I have been able to meet the founders and creators and know for a fact that the money they recieve goes to a great cause.

Okay, so the cause I’m gonna chat about today is a foundation created by Professor Kottler here on the ship called Empowering Nepali Girls. It all started when Kottler was wandering around Nepal and visited a Nepali school. The principal of the school explained to Kottler that some of the girls, as young as 8 years old, would need to be sold into sex slavery because they could not afford school anymore. He pulled aside one 12-year-old girl and explained to Kottler that this girl’s father had died from AIDs and that she would now need to be sold. Kottler was aghast. He asked how much it would cost to keep the girl in school until she was 18. The principal laughed and said that she would need books, uniforms, tuition, food, shelter, ect. He said it would cost over 4,000 Rupee. Only 50 US dollars. From then on Kottler dedicated his life to going back to Nepal yearly and establishing schools and giving scholarships to girls who would otherwise be sold into the sex industry.

One of the reasons so many donations to charities are lost is because the governments of the countries demand to be cut in on the money. Kottler’s program is kept secretly under the radar of the government. Also, the employees from his organization all work for free. Kottler and all of his volunteers arrange their own travel expenses. All donations go directly to the girls. If you find yourself in a charitable mood this year, I would definitely recommend this organization. Kottler even takes groups to Nepal yearly to see how far their money is going and to meet the girls that their small donations support.

Dominica!!

Dominica was incredible. We left yesterday and I feel like there were hundreds of other things I would have loved to have the time to do. I had no idea what to expect when I walked off the gangplank Sunday morning. First of all, I had never even heard of Dominica before. I had just been assuming that it was a port in the Dominican Republic. But no. They are not associated at all. In fact, it is pronounced differently too. I’m trying to figure out how to type it phonetically, but its not working. Anyways, the island is a small independent nation in the Caribbean between Guadalupe and Martinique. It was a former slave island but is still inhabited by its indigenous natives, the Caribe Indians. The climate is tropical. We docked in the capital, Rousseau, which is home to about 70,000 locals. The Caribe Indians live in their own territory and there are about 1,500 pure blood natives left.

On Sunday morning I disembarked the ship early and walked down the dock to board a large catamaran. We took it out a few miles off the coast and whale watched. Although there was no guarantee we would see whales, we actually saw about 15 of them in a pod with their calves (baby whales). We watched them feed which is really cool. The whales form a circle with the baby whales in the center and the adult whale’s tails facing outward. In this way, if a predator approaches the whales just smack them with their tails (which weigh about one ton). I also learned that full-grown sperm whales eat about one ton of giant squid every day. The whales catch the squid by emitting a sound that temporarily paralysis them and then the whales drag the squid to the surface. Because giant squid live so deep in the sea they cannot adjust to the pressure of being dragged up so quickly. Once they reach the surface the squid actually explode and the whale pod snacks on the bits and pieces of the exploded squid. Okay, enough whale facts.

The rest of that day was spent exploring Rousseau, which is full of marketplaces, shops, restaurants, ect, of literally every kind. On Monday morning Moriah and I wandered around the French Quarter and in the afternoon I jumped in an open air jeep and went off-roading through the jungle. First, we stopped at some sulfur hot springs which are all over the island. The locals call these springs their “life savers” because these vents allow the core heat of the island to be let out without causing their volcanoes to erupt. The water in the hot springs reaches over 150 degrees Fahrenheit.  From there we drove through the jungle for a few hours, it honestly looked like paradise. I wish I could upload some pics to show you; this place actually looks fake. We made our way to an underground river that we all swam through. The water was like ice but it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We swam to an underground waterfall and through caves and caverns. Suckily, I could not take any pics of the underground river because since the current was quite strong I needed both arms for swimming, However, if you want to see it, parts of Pirates of the Caribbean II are filmed on the island. Like, you know that scene when the crew is hanging in balls off the side of a cliff in a deep gorge? Yeah, that’s there. Also, all of the fictional inhabitants of the island who were worshiping Johnny Depp were all played by pure blood Caribe Indians. All in all, it was one of the most amazing tours I’ve ever been on in my life.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find time for an internet café and the internet here is still way too slow to post pictures. I hope I can find some time in Brazil, which is where I will be in about 4 days. Miss all of you! Hope all is well back in the states!!

Ships n Chips

Nah, I’m not really eating many chips. Moriah is, she can tell you all about it. Anyways, I am officially onboard the MV Explorer (or the Salty Siren as my close pirate friends SeaWeed and Barni-coolz have named her). The ship is gorgeous, just like a smaller version of a cruise ship. The food is decent, and the people are great. The first thing that Captain Jeremy said to us was, “Do you know the question I get the most from being a sea captain on this ship? People always ask me if I’m allowed to sleep with the passengers. And I always say, No my wife wont let me.” He seems like a cool guy as you can all see.  My cabin is very cozy, the bathrooms remind me of the ones we had in the T, Lauren (because I know you’re the only one who really reads this.) I had my first day of classes yesterday and my professors all rock. Almost as much as the ship does! Badoom Tish! Ah boat humor. Anywho. Tomorrow we dock in Dominica, which is a small tropical island off the coast of South America. On the first day I’m doing a whale and dolphin watching thing and then the next day I’m going on an ATV ride through the jungle and will be swimming in some waterfalls.  Missing you all and hope to post again soon!

Pics to come soon, the internet in my room is sooo slow so I'm gonna go to an internet cafe in Dominica

Boarding Tomorrow Morning!

Well, my time in the Bahamas is now over. It was a ton of fun. I actually got to spend some time with the family, which is nice. The highlight of the trip was definitely a boat tour we took. First, we went to an island overrun by iguanas. While my mother was fascinated with them, I found them to be truly foul and disgusting and spent my time avoiding looking at their creepy little bodies. Then, we went to a private island where we were able to snorkel and swim with sting rays and sharks. That was pretty sweet.

 creepy igaunas!

Now, I am planning on heading back to my room after an hour of trying (unsuccessfully) to load some pictures on this slow hotel internet. Tomorrow, I have to be on the ship at 945 am and we are supposed to leave the Bahama's Harbor at 5 pm. Our first stop is Dominica!

Bahamas!

So, this is my blog! I know the whole blog thing is pretty lame, try and bear with me. I feel like this is a good way to keep everyone in touch and up to date with what I'm doing. Besides Facebook. So, just to run you through it (grandma) you can see the tabs on the top of this block of text entitled "Map" and "Itinerary". Those give you a map of where I will be and also an itinerary. Also, the link called "Staying in Touch" brings you to a page of time zones and addresses of the ports we will be in on certain dates so you can send mail if need be or call the ship.

I am currently in the Bahamas taking a relaxing vacation before boarding the ship. We embark on Wednesday. Already meeting people from the program, which is nice. Well, I guess I'll post again when more interesting stuff happens. Goodbye FOREVER.