Brazil Part 1!

Here is part one of Brazil, our final international port:
We arrived in Brazil to cloudy skies and what appeared to be imminent rain. I did not and still do not own a rain jacket nor an umbrella on the ship, so I decided to pretend like it wouldn’t happen. Six of us, myself, Jay, Lindsay, Jose, Melinda, and Eric set off to check out Old Town Salvador. We found the elevador, a giant elevator that took us up the 15 stories or so to the top of the cliff which is where old town started. We started wandering with a vague idea of finding food and ended up running into a guy who seemed to think he could take us to a restaurant. We followed him for what seemed like forever until we ended up in some back alley at a restaurant that was closed. He got the owners to open it somehow and we sat down to eat. The food was a meat and bean dish that you mixed with rice and some delicious but extremely hot sauce. It was so good compared to Ghanaian and ship food. We ate for quite a while and by the time we were done, it was full out raining. We walked outside in the rain for a while before stopping at a music store to get out of it. No one bought anything and we felt uncomfortable so we left again, this time stopping at a Crepe place to grab even more food. I was still full so I didn’t bother, but they were really delicious.
At this point it was nearing noon and we wanted to head in the general direction of the elevator and perhaps shop a bit. We found that pretty much all of the shops were closed due to a federal holiday so instead we took out money from the ATM and decided as a group that a city tour would be a good idea. At this point we had already heard stories of people getting mugged in plain daylight in the exact area we were in, so we were a bit worried anyway and wanted to get safely inside of a car and out of the rain. We took the elevator down and walked back to the ship where there was a line of cabs waiting. We found one that could comfortably fit six people and agreed on about $15 US a person, which in hindsight was way too much. It turned out to be a relaxing cab ride, but it was pretty much a two hour cab ride that we paid for. We stopped at an old Catholic church, a lighthouse, a pretty famous fort I guess, and drove through old town which we had already been to at that point. Salvador is beautiful though and it was still fun to see it all from the relaxation of a car.
JulieAnne was going to go to Sao Paulo to meet up with one of Deirdre’s friends from back home, but wasn’t able to get a plane ticket. She tried at the airport that day and still couldn’t get one so she headed back to the ship and met up with us to go to dinner. We also picked up Ben, Alex, Mike, Max, Nick and set off in search of a Beef Bonanza restaurant as Ben put it. These restaurants are somewhat unique to Brazil and were fantastic. What happens is you get this little coaster thing that has a green side and a red side. If you leave it green side up, they come in waves and offer you meat. They bring it out on giant skewers cooked to perfection and cut off slices that you grab and put on your plate. It was mostly pork and beef and it was all pretty delicious. You got all you could eat so we all stuffed our faces pretty full. There was a salad buffet and dessert cart too, but none of us got much use out of it. By the time it was all said and done, our bill was about $1000 Real for the table of 13 or so, which was $600 US. Definitely the most expensive meal I had on SAS but it was fun. Afterwards we had a massive disagreement with the shuttle van who thought that we had not paid for our return trip. We thought we had and so obviously there was a bit of a conflict. The main problem in our case was that most of us literally were out of money because we spent way more on food than we thought we would. Eventually they comped our ride back because they understood that it was the first night and if they didn’t take us back they would have a hard time getting business for the next 4 days. We got back to the ship shortly and I at least went to bed in a food coma.
The next morning the plan was to hit the road fairly early and try and make it to a resort 75 km away, Costa de Sauipe. The resort had 5 hotels and a golf course, and four of us were planning on playing there. Our group was myself, Nick, Ben, Alex, and JulieAnne. We found a bus headed in roughly the right direction so we hopped on. I had a phone interview for an internship at 10:30 and realized soon after getting on the bus that I would still be on the bus when the time arrived. The ride was pretty loud and bumpy, but when the time came I went to the back away from the engine and did the interview which went as well as could be expected given the circumstances. I’m sure it didn’t hurt my chances that I was on Semester at Sea calling from Brazil, not a whole lot of people can say that. Midway through the call we had to change busses so I wandered around aimlessly while the others pretty much held my arm and dragged me in the right direction. We ended up on a much smaller, more comfortable and more importantly quieter bus and from then on it was way easier. I’m really thankful that the people I was with were understanding of my situation too, they were a big help.
So we road in this van for about an hour and eventually got out at the gate of Costa De Sauipe. We walked to the reception desk and found out that for the all inclusive part it would be more than $200 a person and that did not include golf (All Inclusive my rear). We found out that they had a more reasonably priced facility that was not all inclusive so we headed there to check in and had about an hour argument with the guy at the desk over what we were going to pay. They had a “3 person” room with ironically four beds, one of which was easily big enough to fit two people. We told him we would take the room and thought we shouldn’t have to pay too much more than the quoted cost of 330 real. Eventually we settled on like 550 real, 110 a person, which is like $60 US. It was more than we would have preferred, especially given that we were going to have to share rooms, but we just wanted to get going.
After that the last tee time at the golf course was approaching so we (the guys) headed off to get that settled while JulieAnne stuck behind at the pool. We got to the golf course and paid for 18 holes. It was a very poorly run course, they had no snack bar, no drinks, and the only golf balls they sold were used ones for something like $4 US a ball. We eventually got everything all set for about $120 a person and set off to play. Our first nine holes took about 3 hours, we were in no hurry, and as we were going to start the second we realized that it was getting dark and was about to rain. On the bright side there was a cool rainbow we saw. Anyway, we managed to get a rain check for the second nine and headed back to shower up and get ready for dinner. We ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant which was DELICIOUS. It might be because I hadn’t had Mexican food in forever, but they had really amazing food. We left there and walked to the beach where we hung out for a while in the dark. We then went back and watched some music for a bit and then swam in one of the pools we weren’t allowed in. Ended up calling it a night before midnight and prepared to wake up at about 8 am for breakfast.
The sun rose super early so I was wide awake far before I needed to be, but when breakfast time came everyone else was up and ready to go. The breakfast was not that great, we all pretty much had bread and juice, but that’s okay, it was included. The other guys went off to play golf, but I felt bad that JulieAnne was stuck alone the day before and I wanted to try windsurfing, so I decided to hang back. We went and tried to find windsurfing on the beach and because of the language barrier it didn’t work out. Actually I haven’t mentioned so far, but Spanish is doable in Brazil. They speak Portuguese, but Spanish is close enough that they kind of understand it. By the end of the port, my Spanish had improved 10 fold and I was doing a pretty darn good job of communicating. The one time I went to Mexico I was intimidated to try Spanish, but now I really want to go back to a Spanish speaking country and use it. It was seriously so much fun to speak a different language passably.
Okay so back on track, we are at the beach and I have no idea how to say windsurfing, so when I asked about it they were confused. They seemed to think it existed, but then suddenly it didn’t. Instead they offered us surfing, so we said okay. Surfing turned into swimming lessons, which turned into Capoeira lessons (Dance/Martial Arts), which turned into non-permanent tattoos. Realizing that it wasn’t working, we laughed it off and bailed. We headed to the tennis courts in the middle of the resort and played tennis for 30-45 minutes. It was so much fun and we would have played longer but a guy came out and was not happy about us wearing flip-flops, and then mine broke so we called it quits. We walked back in the direction of the beach and pools and one of the resort staff came and told us to come play volleyball. It ended up being JulieAnne and I playing for about an hour of 6 on 6 volleyball with a constantly rotating crowd of Brazilian men, most of which were probably 50+. Neither of us was any good, but we had a ton of fun and improved throughout the time we played. Someone eventually got hit in their groin by the ball and we used it as an excuse to leave, I think our team won.
At that point it was about 11 and we had told the others that we would meet them at noon. We decided to go pool hopping at the pools for the more expensive hotels until we got kicked out. We had clear wrist bands on, and all of the rich place people had orange and pink ones, so we kept our wrists covered with our towels and hung out by one pool for a while even talking with some of the staff guys. Water aerobics was starting and we wanted to swim, so we hopped to an even bigger and more awesome pool down the way. The pool was a series of like 9 pools, mostly connected, with palm trees between them and bridges and yeah, it was completely a stereotypical resort paradise thing. We got into the pool as quickly as we could to hide our wrists and stayed there for a little over an hour. In the process I learned how to do both front and back flips like a pro in the water from JA. Apparently I was terrible at them, probably because I never took swimming lessons, but I’m legit now. At that point it was just after noon but I was convinced that the guys would be late coming back from golfing so I made the executive decision not to hurry back. We went to the snack bar by the pool and stole the all inclusive drinks, snacks, and ice cream. They had really exceptional ice cream and cheese popper things. Feeling quite proud of ourselves and full of free food, we made our way back to our side of the resort where the others had of course been waiting since noon like they said they would. They didn’t really make it clear to us that we were meeting people back at the ship at 2:00, so we were on different pages, but regardless we had to get a cab back for $30 US a person and didn’t make it back until just before 3:00.

Last Port Down

I'll do a recap blog relatively soon, but this is just to say that we have left Brazil, our last port of call and are officially on the way home. Since about India it has been clear that the end is coming, but it is all too real now knowing that the next foreign port is our own home. It has been such a fun journey and it sucks that it is coming to an end, but I will be glad to be home. 10 countries in four months has been intense and while you probably could never get me to admit it in person, it will be nice to be stable for a while. I will miss the ship a ton and will miss the friends I have made even more though. When you are on a 500 foot ship there really is little to do and you have to rely on people to get you through it. That means that there are friends on the ship who I hang out with for hours upon hours literally every day. I can't possibly explain how weird it is going to be when I get home and realize that I am in the middle of the country with friends pretty much on all of the coasts, unable to walk down the hall and say hey to them. It will be a challenge but a ton of fun to keep in touch and figure out ways to see everyone. Though I might be ready for a break now, this has made me want to travel to more places badly. Some people save money in hopes of buying a nice car, a new computer, clothes, or whatever, but I have found traveling to be so rewarding, especially with other people. I hope that when I get home and as I get older I will be able to continue to see the world with friends.

So yeah, Brazil blog is coming when I get to it, just wanted to post a quick update. Hope this finds everyone who reads this well!

Thomas

Ghana Part 2

Here starts part two J
So the next morning arrived and the plan was to eat breakfast at about 7 and then go back to the room and wait for Issac, one of the guys organizing a Habitat trip, to pick us up. 7:30, the time he said, came and went and Jay and I both thought it wasn’t going to happen. I fell asleep, as did Jay, and at 7:55 Issac ran in. Jay apparently bolted up and headed out the door, and on the way out told me to hurry. I said give me two minutes, I wanted to fill my water bottle and go to the bathroom. Less than two minutes later I was up at the meeting spot, but apparently they headed outside to catch the bus. I thought I was early so I went upstairs to blow my nose then came back down and waited for 15 minutes wandering where they were. I checked the sign out sheet finally, realized they were long gone, and had a mild panic attack pondering what to do with my newly free day. I called Jose and found him asleep, so that was my backup plan to hang out with him and Melinda if I couldn’t find anyone leaving earlier. I ended up going to breakfast again to see who was around and found Lindsay and JulieAnne eating there. Lindsay’s parents knew a priest who was from Ghana, and Lindsay had made plans to meet up with him that day and let him show her around. They had an extra seat in the car and I asked to tag along. We met up with Father John at 9:30 and he turned out to be the nicest man ever. He was very hospitable and extremely friendly, I was so glad to have met him. We got about an hour down the road in his car when I believe Lindsay asked what we were doing. He told us we were going to go to a national park first and then to Cape Coast. Knowing full well what we were doing, JulieAnne and I laughed a little at the irony. He eventually asked us what we did the day before and we had to admit that we had done the exact same thing, but we insisted that it was a ton of fun and we were happy to go again. Lindsay had wanted to go with us the day before but couldn’t because of a field trip, so we were both happy that she was going to get the chance.
So we were off on our three hour drive again, but this time it was so much more fun. Father John gave us so much information and was extremely nice the entire day. We stopped periodically to grab snacks or to see things that he wanted us too and it was just a more relaxed atmosphere. We did the canopy walk again and enjoyed it even more the second time. It was funny to see Lindsay, Father John and his niece do it because they were all afraid of heights. Everyone finished it in good spirits though and we set off for Cape Coast. On the way we grabbed a bite to eat. We let John order for us and we all got palm oil soup with Fufu. Fufu is a dough ball like substance that is a mixture of yams and cassava. The palm oil soup was quite spicy and not great at all. We all ate as much as we could to be polite, but no one enjoyed the meal. Fortunately it was spicy enough that we could use that as an excuse to not eat anymore. We finished dinner, still hungry but certainly not about to admit it, and got back in the car. We made it to Cape Coast where the castle was again closed unfortunately, so we wandered around similarly to the day before. This time we only stuck around for about 10 minutes, John was quite helpful in getting the hawkers to leave us alone. We went up the road to grab a drink and see the sunset, then we set off back to Accra. We got lost about 7 times on the way back and the drive took a long time. We stopped at a “resort” which was basically a restaurant by the sea and grabbed a late bite to eat. I had french fries which were great, a huge improvement over the Ghanaian food, and an hour later we set off in the general direction of the port. We stopped and got ice cream on the way, and eventually made it back just before midnight. Father John drove us right up to the ship and it was so cool to see the look on his face when he saw our home. It was the first cruise ship he had seen and he stood there in awe for a few minutes just admiring it. At that moment I felt so lucky to be able to be on Semester at Sea. Well not like I haven’t always felt lucky, it just hit home there more than other moments.
The next morning I had the option of either hopping on a Habitat trip, hopping on a children’s village trip with Tolan, Sarah, Jose, Melinda, JulieAnne, and Deirdre, or hanging out with Jay. Tolan had told me that Habitat wasn’t worth the travel time, he did it the day before, so I ruled that out. I figured that most of the group on the children’s village trip had seen enough of me so I ruled that out, leaving plan A, hang out with Jay. We set off early in search of internet and ended up in central Accra. Jay had hung out the night before with some Ghanaians and we ran into them shortly after getting off the bus. I felt so bad for Jay and so disgusted with the people who he had met. Instead of treating him like a friend who had spent time with them the day before, they tried to sell him stuff. No one acknowledged that he was anything more than a walking dollar sign and it was pretty disgraceful. They started to crowd us fighting over who got to sell us their junk and because we had our laptops in our bags, neither of us felt very safe. We quickly bailed and headed down the street where I bought myself an awesome soccer jersey. Realizing that we were going the wrong way we grabbed a cab and just had him take us to an internet place. We stayed there for 2 hours and unfortunately it was too slow to properly manage my pictures. Mom says one got up on facebook though so that is good.
We left the internet café and Jay wanted postcards and stamps so we followed a guy on a 20 minute walk to the post office. We bought stuff there and had no plans after, so I told Jay that if he would keep me company for the next couple of hours, I would pay for all transportation back to the ship (he was out of money and wanted to wait for the free shuttle). So of course we headed back to the casino where I was determined to win back what I had lost the first night. Jay grabbed lunch at the restaurant and apparently spent way too much money accidentally, so when he finally made it down to watch me play blackjack he was in less than good spirits. I actually had to have them start a table and find a dealer for me which should have been a sign to run the heck away, but I decided to stick it out. I played for an hour or so, started with $100 and walked out with $105. I was up to as much as $140 I think and down to as low as about $60, so I never was in a dire circumstance. I had to rally a bit at the end to get back to even, but was happy that I got an hour of entertainment totally free. We got in a cab and headed back to the ship. On the way back Jay traded three shirts and a hat for a CD from our driver which was hilarious. They all like to trade in Ghana, which I was not a fan of but Jay really got into. They wanted my “Live with no regrets” bracelet really badly but I held onto it. I still feel a little bad because it is a Christian bracelet and maybe the right thing to do would be to give it away, but none of them even took the time to read it. They wanted it just because I was American and it was mine, and it means a lot to me so I held on. Who knows if it was the right choice?
We got back to the port where a guy started hounding me for the rest of my Ghanaian money. I told him that I had none left and to go away but he persisted. I buried my hands in my pockets, protecting my camera and wallet, and he decided that I was hiding money instead. I explained to him that he was making me angry and that unless he wanted my last image of Ghana to be a poor one he should leave. He told me that I had money and that I needed to give it to him. I said no I don’t and that if he kept telling me that I did that he was calling me a liar and that was uncalled for. Needless to say he persisted and I almost snapped, but I was outnumbered so it would have been dumb. Jay told me later he saw some guys pointing at my pockets in the background ready to rob me, so I feel lucky to have gotten out safe. I walked across the street closer to the port security guards who had machine guns and the guy finally left me alone.
At that point I was so frustrated with the people in Ghana. While some, such as Father John, were truly great human beings, most came off to me as extremely desperate and rude. I realize that they live in poverty and have totally different lives than I will ever know, but we have been to other countries with the same level of income that enjoyed life more. I understand that to them we represent the good life, but we are just people too, and I don’t get why they can’t see and speak to us like humans. If Bill Gates walked up to me in the US, I would ask him about Microsoft and probably try and pick his brain about what it took him to be successful. I would not ask him for money, the thought wouldn’t even cross my head. He has every material good that I could ever need, want, or hope for, but to me he represents success not wealth. How come to these people we are different? Why can’t we represent a goal they have instead of money that they believe they deserve. I am a student, I am not wealthy, and I do not handle being begged from well.
My last comment about Ghana is that I have no idea why Semester at Sea chose to stop there. I can see that there are some real beautiful parts to the country. The canopy walk was stunning and I hear that the Wli Waterfalls and Mt. Afojado (Sp) are both well worth the trip, but they were 4-5 hours away from the ship respectively. The port, Tema, had literally nothing to do and was the most industrial thing I have ever seen. In fact we were heavily discouraged from even walking in our own port because of safety reasons. Accra was an hour away and had very little to do inside of it as well. So we had a bad port that was far away from an uneventful city and SAS’ response is to give us a shuttle bus that didn’t even run on schedule. I can see merit to studying in Ghana if you are going to spend enough time there to immerse yourself in the culture because they speak English well and if you have the time to truly travel there are great things to see, but to stop there for 4 days was a waste in my opinion. Other voyages have stopped in Morocco or Namibia, both of which I believe would have been better, but my guess is that SAS gets a really good deal on the port fees in Ghana and the bottom line is their number one concerned. My friend Jon spent a semester in Ghana and I can’t wait to get back and speak with him about it. Being African American, his experience was quite possibly entirely opposite of mine and it will be interesting to compare.
We are now well on our way to Brazil, we will be there in 3 days. My plans right now are very tentative, but I know golfing is something I want to do. I have done a lot of cultural immersion in the other countries that we have been to and have spent a lot of time out of my comfort zone, I think it will be fun in Brazil to relax a little bit so hopefully I have the chance to but we will see!
This means that my voyage is now one step closer to finished and these blogs are coming to an end. Thanks for reading and keep in touch, I will be home soon!

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you feel comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.

-Clifton Fadiman

Ghana Part 1

This is my Ghana blog. It will be two parts, the following is part one!
So the original plan in Ghana was to do a Habitat for Humanity build the second day and figure something out for the other three we had there. My group in communications class had somewhat planned the trip out and I was excited for it. The plan was to do a canopy walk the first day with a group of about 7 and then come back to the ship and wake up for Habitat. Well the day before Ghana the group decided that there wasn’t enough time the first day, and the canopy walk was moved to day two. I was now faced with the moral dilemma of either missing the canopy walk with my friends or missing Habitat, so I sold my Habitat ticket and made plans to go the third day instead.
The first day arrived and we were cleared to leave the ship sometime just after 10 am if I recall correctly. We headed into Accra, the capital, which was an hour away from our port, Tema. We went to the Golden Tulip, a hotel that four of our friends were staying in and ate lunch there while we planned out the day. We finished up lunch at about two and split into two groups. One went to the mall, the other went to the market. I am not about to go to an overpriced mall in Ghana, so I went with Lindsay, Deirdre and JulieAnne and hit up the market instead. This market was huge and overwhelming. It was called the Wood Market by our cab driver and had a bunch of craft stuff as well as clothing and other apparel. The people there were relentless trying to get you to buy. They were far more persistent than other countries and without fail tried to guilt you into giving them money. If you bought from someone else they would accuse you of not supporting them and it really got heavy at times. We spent somewhere between 3 and 4 hours there and I left having spent probably way too much money. I got some good stuff though and some gifts for home. After touching base with the other group who was now back at the hotel we headed that way.
We met up at their hotel room where another 5 or so SASers had shown up to join us and hung out there until 7:30 when we headed down to dinner. I wasn’t particularly hungry but I ordered soup and sat there and talked with people. Trevor and Jose left for a while to hit up the casino connected to the hotel and both walked in proclaiming that they were up well over $200 US each on slot machines. We wrapped up dinner and I went to try my luck as well. I was playing blackjack with Graham, a friend who had arrived late and we could not lose. I played for over an hour and busted a grand total of once. I started with $30 US, played 5 dollars a hand, and walked out with $155. I was quite ecstatic. We went back to the room and met up with the others who didn’t go gamble and talked about what to do. The group who had come late wanted to go out, but our group was a little overwhelmed by the amount of people so we let them head out. I told JulieAnne I would attempt to teach her blackjack so we headed back down to the casino to try our luck again (worst idea ever). We were playing with my winnings and not doing too bad. We were about even for an hour or two and even up as much as another 50 bucks. Things took a gradual turn for the worst though and it ended up with me losing pretty much all of my winnings when everyone else at the table left. We ended up sitting there for honestly like 3 hours though and I had such a good time. My mom has taught me well that if you gamble you only go with money that you have already planned to lose and I did just that. I have no regrets about it, we had fun. The four of us who went to the market headed back to the ship because we didn’t want to spend the money on the hotel, and made plans to return early the next day for our canopy tour.
JulieAnne and I met up with Lori, another girl who wanted to join us that day and we headed out on the 8 am shuttle back to Accra. Unfortunately the shuttle which we paid for didn’t feel like leaving till 8:45 so that was frustrating, but we eventually got going. We were fortunate enough to have a good driver who let us off the bus right by the hotel so we didn’t have to get a cab from the city center so that was appreciated. We met up with the four who stayed the night there and the seven of us headed off to Kakum National Park for a canopy walk! The park was supposed to be two hours away and turned out to be closer to four, but we eventually made it. We paid our entrance fee and set off on a hike up to the rope bridges in the jungle. It was incredibly hot and we were all dripping with sweat within 30 seconds of starting to walk. Despite that though it was so cool to be in the rainforest. I wanted to go to the Amazon in Brazil really badly but couldn’t splurge on the $1500 SAS wanted to go, so this $30 excursion substituted okay in my book. The canopy walk was AWESOME. It was a series of 7 rope bridges that stretched almost a half of a mile I believe. They crossed between trees over rainforest and the drop was well over 100 feet in some places. We had all kinds of fun, finished up there, ate lunch, and hopped in the car to head to Cape Coast.
Cape Coast was the site of the Elmina Slave Castle, one of the places where they gathered slaves from Africa to hold captive and send to Brazil and America. We made it there at about 5:30 but found out that it was closed, so we were only able to look on the outside. Instead we enjoyed some live music at a restaurant nearby and played with the kids who were there selling stuff. The people there were even more relentless in their pursuits to take our money than the market folks from the day before and it really started to frustrate me. No one wanted to just talk to you as another human being and everyone was offended if you didn’t buy anything from them. I kind of wandered around with a frown on my face and didn’t buy a thing. We eventually left an hour later or so and made our way back to Tema to meet the ship. Some people wanted to grab a bite to eat at the pool bar then go out but I was pretty beat so I just crashed. Before going to bed I ran into Jay though and confirmed plans to go to Habitat the next morning.

Birthdays

Okay I apologize for not having my Ghana blog done. I've been pretty busy with school and friends and such and time has got away from me. I promise it is high on my priority list for tomorrow.

The reason I post this though is for future voyagers because I have very good advice for you.

When you get on the ship you are going to have the opportunity to meet 600 or so students. Now of those there are probably well over 100 who you can and will get along with, so how do you choose which ones to spend your time with? Well I'll tell you. You choose the ones with birthdays on your voyage.

For the last 3 weeks, there have been like 19 birthdays a day, and everyone who has one gets a giant cake that makes the rest of us jealous. The food gets really old fast, and a nice whopping ice cream cake is a great way to break up the monotony. HOWEVER, to reap the benefits of said ice cream cake, you must have friends who are having birthdays, which I unfortunately do NOT.

So while I sit at dinner every night drooling over about 5 ice cream cakes walking by me a day, you future voyager don't have to suffer the same fate. Make friends with the people with birthdays and you have won yourself a new friend and a hookup for dessert which you will value more than you will ever know.

Well that's it for now. Enjoy your days!

South Africa Part 3 - Final

This is the final part of my South Africa blog. It actually turned out shorter than I expected which surprises me because it was my favorite port. I’m sure no one will be writing me to complain though J
The next morning we decided to go wine tasting. We met a driver who someone had used the first day and the lady took us around the winelands to a few different places. We went to one vineyard that was a ritzy place and made me think I was in Spain or Italy. Not that I would know what Spain or Italy looks like, but this matched my mental image PERFECTLY. We tasted about 8 wines there and 3 chocolates. I do not really like wine so I was out of my element. Afterwards I can safely say I still don’t like wine. We left from there to a place where we could pet cheetahs. The most endangered cat on the planet, I got to pet one. It cost like 13 dollars of course, but I got pictures and forever will remember touching a cheetah. Good luck doing that in the US, it can’t be easy J
After that we went to another vineyard which was far more busy and more fun. This place had wine and cheese, so you get your wine and then go to this line that had like a dozen cheeses to try with it. I’m sure I did it wrong by eating way more cheese than I should, but like I said before, I don’t like wine. We had to leave after that, so we hopped back into the car and headed back to Cape Town. The driver dropped us off at a market where I got suckered into buying a painting like I usually do. They had an awesome T-Shirt there that I didn’t buy because it was 8 bucks. In hindsight I am a giant idiot. While 8 bucks is ridiculous for a shirt anywhere on our itinerary, now I don’t have a shirt from South Africa because of like 3 dollars. Oh well, you live you learn. We headed back to the ship and dropped off our stuff. The plan was to meet at 7:00 to head out that night. JulieAnne and I set off on a quest for internet which proved fruitless. The mall had hotspots that we couldn’t get to work, and the one that did work did so for all of 10 minutes. There was a restaurant nearby where people said the internet worked great, so we tried there too and it didn’t work for either of us. Oh well, at this rate no more pictures are going up until I get back to the US, but I keep trying!
We ate at a pizza place that was pretty good but there was a sad story. A guy was standing there watching us eat and he beckoned to my pizza asking for it. Unsure of what to do I said no, but realizing that I wasn’t going to eat it I left it there as we left, knowing full well he would take it. Sure enough, not 10 seconds after we got up, he was there eating it. It was sad because he was dressed fairly nicely, but was obviously living in hunger. It was extremely awkward though to have someone stare at you eating for 20 minutes. We headed back to the ship to meet up with everyone and set off for the casino!
The casino looked a lot like Vegas, it reminded me of Caesar’s Palace inside. We ate dinner, well I didn’t because I had pizza earlier, but I watched them eat. It took forever and finally at like 9:30 we went out to gamble. First I played slots with Lindsay and JulieAnne. I was betting the minimum on 5 lines whatever that means and the guy next to me kept telling me I wouldn’t win anything because I wasn’t betting enough. Not 3 minutes later I hit some triple jackpot thing and turned my 5 cents into more than 20 bucks. Feeling ambitious I started betting the maximum and lost pretty much all of it again but it was all in good fun. Afterwards JulieAnne went and passed out in the lounge area of exhaustion and Lindsay and I went to play blackjack. Rather I played and Lindsay watched. It was awesome though, I had 200 rand (26 bucks) to start out with, playing 50 rand a hand. I NEVER got below 200 rand. I won the first hand and from there won more than I lost. I walked away up something like 40 dollars. Not too bad. I’m now 2/2 leaving foreign casinos ahead.
We headed home at about midnight, or tried to at least. It took an hour to get a cab there. But regardless we made it home at 1 or so and I went straight to bed.
The next morning, our last in Cape Town, started fairly early. We went to Desmond Tutu’s church for the Easter service first thing in the morning. It was fundamentally a Catholic service and as such was definitely not up my alley. I’m glad I went though, the church was beautiful and even if Tutu wasn’t there, we were at his church while in South Africa on Easter. After church we met a couple friends from the ship and our driver from the wine tasting day with the goal of seeing Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We set off south, stopping at a few places to take pictures of the awesome coast line, before making it to Boulder Park. At Boulder Park there are hundreds of African Penguins that roam around and it was really cool to see. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like penguins, myself included, so I was quite excited to see them waddling around. We left there and got lunch nearby at a place that had the most delicious ice coffee in the world, and then set off to finish our drive to the Cape.
We got to the Cape, paid our entrance fees, and drove up to the top of Cape Point where we had about 45 minutes to hike up and down. There is a lighthouse at the top that overlooks the ocean at the southwestern most point of the African continent. The cliffs, ocean, and overall scenery were beautiful and I’m extremely glad we went. Afterwards we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, which was in the same area, and took a picture next to the sign there. Time was starting to slip away so we jumped back in the car and told Ursula the driver to head straight back to the ship. The only eventful part of the ride back was seeing a baboon on the side of the road, other than that I pretty much dozed off. When we arrived at around 4, Lindsay, JulieAnne and I went to the Pick and Pay, a grocery store, to get snacks. I had 350 rand to spend, the equivalent of 40 some dollars, and definitely spent every dime of it on snacks. It was the Casino’s money anyways, I wasn’t meant to have it J We got back on the ship, grabbed dinner, and everyone was out by probably 9 pm at the latest.
The next morning we woke up surprised to see that we were still parked in Cape Town. Apparently the waves were too rocky and so we had to sit there until almost 5 the next day to leave. It really irritated me actually that we weren’t allowed to get off the night before for example. It is no fun to go to class with a port sitting there out your window and it would have been just terrific if they would have taken advantage of the situation. Oh well though, we are now on our way, the seas are fine and we are making good time on the way to Ghana. I don’t really have plans in Ghana other than to do Habitat for Humanity and I think visit an orphanage the last day. We will see what happens the other days.
Overall, South Africa was definitely my favorite port. The people were extremely friendly, it had adventure everywhere, and I had a lot of fun at every stop. Part of the reason I probably liked it so much is that it had all of the good parts of western living as well as all of the excitement of traveling. The areas we were in were definitely the most wealthy parts of South Africa and probably the whole continent, and I’m sure they aren’t representative of how the people of Africa really live. Ghana should be quite a shock in contrast. Everyone else I’ve talked to has said South Africa was their favorite port as well, I’m really glad everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
The voyage is coming to an end and life on the ship is getting more and more boring. It is sad too to think that very shortly all of the good friends I have made here will be off in their corners of America while I will be at home in the center as far from them as I could possibly be. This has been such a great adventure and I don’t want it to end but I can feel it coming. Only two ports left, Ghana in 2 days. Even if it is coming to an end though I still love getting emails so hit me up!
Thomas

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

-Aldous Huxley

South Africa Part 2 - Safari!

Here is South Africa Part 2:

Our bus to Aquila Game Reserve left at 10 am the next morning. There were 8 of us who went on it. 5 of them were a group of friends including the girl who planned it, and Eric, JulieAnne and I kind of hopped on. The bus ride down was fun, everyone pretty much stayed awake talking to each other, and two hours later we arrived at Aquila. My first thought was that it looked like a hybrid between Colorado and New Mexico, certainly more dry and mountainous than I expected. You know when you picture the stereotypical African safari you imagine vast savannah with watering holes, tall wide trees, etc. Here there was far more sand and dirt, bushes, and mountains. Not that I was concerned, I just wanted to see animals. The facilities turned out to be GREAT. When it was described to us, we didn’t expect much. As it would turn out, it was a 4 star resort that had just undergone a bunch of renovations to prepare for the world cup in the summer. There was a brand new, huge buffet restaurant, and a large pool that looked out onto the reserve. It was about 12:30 and our first game drive wasn’t until 5 so we had time to kill. We ate a delicious lunch, checked into our rooms after, and then hung out. I lounged by the pool with two others while the rest took naps I think. Eric observed the architecture of the building, refusing to come to the pool with us. His loss!

The first game drive was a lot of fun. We hopped into our hummer/jeep thing and took off. Within 5 minutes we were up next to zebras and rhinos, both of which roamed across the road in front of us. The rhinos were one of the “Big 5” so we could check them off the list. We continued on and saw elephants (big 5 number 2), which got aggressive and started briskly walking toward our vehicle, giraffes, wildebeasts, springboks and maybe something else. We went to the lion cage to look at them next. It wasn’t so much a cage as it was a fenced off reserve within a reserve. The heard in the main reserve wasn’t big enough yet to have lions killing them off, so they have to keep them caged for now. Anyway we pulled into the enclosure and saw the lions on a cliff high above (big 5 #3).We watched them up there for a bit, including seeing them mate, and then drove out. On the way back we saw hippos which made some pretty crazy noises as the sun was going down, and saw water buffalo pretty close to our hotel room actually (#4). We ate dinner, hung out for a bit, and as the rest were going to continue to sit there and chat, I called it a night at about 11.

The next morning we were supposed to be woken up at 5:30 for our 6:15 game drive. Well we did not. I guess they came and lightly rapped on the door, which didn’t wake me nor JulieAnne up. So at about 6:18 one of the girls in the group came and knocked on our door which successfully woke us up. We rushed to get ready and were good to go by like 6:25. We got into the car and headed off to check out the lions again, hoping to get a better view. When we got there we saw most of the lions walking up to the mountain again, but the head female was still down by the road. She eyed down our car and walked around it, within 5 feet literally. It was JulieAnne, another girl and I in the back seat and we probably could have touched it if we reached out. It was cool to be next to such a dangerous and well known animal like that without the safety of a glass wall or cage between us. We saw more animals on the safari that we had seen the day before, got to see rhinos waking up and locking horns, and hippos again. There was a baby hippo that was apparently 3 days old and he would surface about once every 30 seconds. Extremely cute. Finally we went across the street to a caged area where they had cheetahs, alligators, warthogs, a couple more lions, and the leopard. Leopards are the 5th of the big 5 and are extremely elusive. Our guide said he hadn’t seen one in 5 years working there. The only evidence they have that there are still wild ones is that they find dead carcasses occasionally, they don’t even know how many there are. So we were going to see the caged one and at least say we saw the big 5, but they fed it the night before and it didn’t feel like coming out of its cave. We heard it though, so we saw 4 and a half in my opinion.

After that we had breakfast and the horseback safari on the agenda. The reserve only had 4 horses, so our group of 8 had to split up. The three of us who came together along with another guy, Bruck, decided to take the later drive and enjoy the morning by the pool. Well, two of us hung out at the pool, no idea where the other guys went, but it was very relaxing. As we were sitting there Semester at Sea rolled in with about 100 students on a bunch of busses to do their safari. They paid $282 for one game drive, their itinerary was as follows.

Bus: 8:00 am - 10:30

Safari: 10:30 - 1:00

Lunch: 1:00 - 2:00

Bus: 2:00 - 4:30

We on the other hand paid like $120 more and got two additional safaris, probably 5 hours at the pool, stayed overnight, and had 4 meals instead of one. That right there is the summary of why you never do a SAS trip if independent is even remotely possible.

So after saying hi to all of our friends on the SAS trip, we hopped on our horse safari. My horse was named Starlight, was a beautiful mahogany color, and was not remotely cooperative. Starlight apparently is the lazy one and as such was relegated to the back of the line. The other horses would stay in a pack, not Starlight. He was a legitimate 30 feet behind the group at all times and often tried to take different routes that he considered easier. The only time I could get him to speed up was going up or down small hills, so I took full advantage. There was one hill that went down and crossed like a foot wide ditch. Seeing this, I willed Starlight ahead and actually made him jump over the gap, a proud moment for me and him alike. Later we were by the hippos and he freaks out, charging toward the water while the rest of the group watches and laughs. I loved it though, mine was the only horse who went faster than a walk at all. I think by the end Starlight hated me from digging my heels into his stomach trying to make him speed up, but that’s ok. I also started to steer him for fun, even though they were trained to stay in line. For example if the whole group walked to the right around a bush, I made Starlight walk left. It’s all about having fun J . The ride was fun but we didn’t really see any new animals. We got pretty close to rhinos, zebras, and springbok which was cool, and I got to ride horses which is always fun. Our safari days over, we headed to the lodge, took quick showers, and headed back to the ship.

While waiting at the lodge we asked a ranger about what to do in Cape Town that night and he suggested Hout Bay. We followed his advice and that night headed there. We got two shady drivers who said they were giving us a deal, but ended up taking us further than we wanted to go, tried to get us to buy their dinner, and wanted to go clubbing with us. We finally just told them to go away. So there we are in an expensive restaurant probably 30 minutes from the ship with not much else to do in the area. We ate a pretty good meal, I had fish and chips, then had the manager call us a couple of cabs to take us back to Cape Town. We ended up at Long Street, the nightlife area of Cape Town I guess, specifically at a place that was advertising deals and free entry for SAS folks. We went in to check it out, no one liked it at all, and we all said we would leave in 10 minutes. Four hours later we left and t was a really fun night actually, I really like the group we were with. Plus Eric was irritated the whole time and it made for some good laughs.

South Africa Day One

This is the first part of South Africa, I imagine it will be 3 or 4, not sure yet.
I woke up nice and early for the sunrise over South Africa and was not disappointed. It was probably the most colorful one yet and table mountain looked great in the distance. I had a SAS trip to a township planned for the afternoon which left a little bit of time in the morning to do whatever assuming the ship was cleared in good time. We decided that if we were off anytime before about 10:30 that we would try and do table mountain that morning and fortunately the ship was good to go at 9:30. It was the first port where we had to do absolutely nothing with immigration and had no consulate visit. Our group of 5, Eric, Lindsay, JulieAnne, Laurie, and myself were I think literally the first ones off of the ship. We hopped in a cab and got to table mountain in no time where we were greeted by a huge line just to get tickets to take the cable car up. A lot of people hike it, but since we were on a time crunch that wasn’t an option. We waited in line for about 45 minutes, bought our tickets, waited another 45 minutes to get on the cable car and we were off. The ride up was pretty awesome, the car spins 360 degrees during the ride and it gives a great view of Cape Town. Once up top we walked around a bit and took pictures up there from both sides. The view was stunning and well worth the trip. To anyone who goes to Cape Town in the future, table mountain is a must do in my opinion. Plus it is hard to get up there when it is windy or cloudy, so if you have the chance, do it. We ate at the restaurant up top which was actually reasonably priced. I had a meat pizza, which tasted like pizza crust with sloppy joe mix on top of it. Given that I like sloppy joes though, that was fine by me. We realized that we only had about 45 minutes until our trip left from the ship, so we hopped on the cable car back down, got in a cab, and motored off.
After changing clothes and grabbing my ticket, I hopped on the bus to go to the township. We were visiting the Kyaletsha township (I butchered the daylights out of that spelling), which is one of the bigger ones in Cape Town. Something like 2 million people live there in houses that are little more than cardboard and tin slapped together. The lucky ones set up shop or house in old shipping containers. Many had electricity, albeit illegally since they would just climb power lines, strip the wire, and tap into it. We would later find out that the government actually builds cinderblock houses free for all of these people, the waiting list is just so long that they have to live temporarily in the townships. Many have been waiting more than a decade for their turn to come. We first stopped at a market type thing where they had jewelry and some other crafty things that we could buy. I got a painting and had a picture taken with the artist. He was very thankful for the business and I was glad to help. I have all kinds of artwork now from the countries I’ve visited that I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with, but it is a good problem to have. There was also an awesome band that was playing drums and xylophone there for us and children outside that we had a chance to play with. The children in the township LOVED having their pictures taken. They would make all kinds of funny poses, you take their picture, and then they push and shove to see it on the screen. Most of them don’t have mirrors and I imagine it is a rare occasion to be able to see their own face like that.
Our next stop was to a small building where women were employed weaving and printing. They take recycled t-shirts, cut them into strips, and weave these beautiful rugs and wall hangings out of them. We also saw a kindergarten classroom next door and got to play with some more kids who again loved to have their pictures taken. From there we left and headed to Vicki’s Bed and Breakfast, perhaps one of the more famous businesses in Cape Town. Vicki was a middle aged woman who in the late 90’s decided to open a B&B to attract visitors to the township and teach them a bit about life there. Since then she has expanded to like 6 rooms and has one of the nicer homes in the township. She has hosted visitors from all over the world and in doing so hopes they will go back to their home countries and talk about the townships, getting help for them. Many visitors go there just to see poverty and don’t respect the people living, and Vicki’s goal is to change that. She spoke to us for about 10 minutes and let us look around. I have a lot of respect for her and had heard about her from blogs of previous voyagers. I took down her address and hope to send her school supplies from the states. She collects them for the children of the township and distributes them so that they can have a proper education. One of her points was that giving them money does no good, it only encourages them to beg, but by giving them tools to gain an education, you are doing them a bigger favor than you can imagine. We took more pictures with kids outside of Vicki’s then piled into the bus to head to another B&B for snacks.
The second one was Konanong Guest House, which literally means meeting place. Meho and Ehope Leakau were the two ladies who ran it, the elder of which was quite the entrepreneur. She actually had a degree in urban planning I believe and had many years of work with non profit organizations and some time studying in Pittsburgh on a fellowship. Despite having the education and resources to probably get out of Africa to greener pastures, she chose to come back and start businesses to help out the local economy. She had a B&B which was a similar size to Vicki’s and also owned her own taxi company. She contracted local women to bake goods for her guests and create crafts for sale at her guest house and at local markets. She also hosts meetings with others interested in starting B&Bs and through her and Vicki’s model, something like 18 have now opened in that township alone. She said it all started when she started to see visitors coming through after apartheid ended in the early 90’s. They would come on busses, cameras in hand, but would never get off. She said it was very disrespectful to the people and that they loved visitors but wanted them to actually visit a township, not treat it like a zoo. Through her efforts now pretty much all visits to the townships come with walking tours and home visits to see what life is actually like. The goal is education not tourism.
We left her B&B, did a walk around the block observing the people and the living conditions. It was amazing to me how the people here were probably poorer than even India and yet were all full of smiles. Here they were living in homes that most of us could probably have purchased for less than the cash we had in our wallets, and they were extremely happy. I think there is a lot to be learned from them honestly. We got back on the bus and headed to the ship. No one was very hungry so we grabbed dinner on the ship to save money. I honestly can’t remember what I did to kill the next two hours, probably wandered around the mall outside the ship, but we met up with some people at about 8:30 to go grab a late dinner in some cases and just hang out in ours. We ended up playing pool for a couple of hours at this one place which was tons of fun. The balls were smaller than in the US for some reason, but we managed. After that we headed to a bar which was flooded with SAS people and I wasn’t a huge fan, so before long I bailed back to the ship to get some sleep before our safari the next morning.