Cassie Dancing in Manaus, Brazil Jan 31 - Feb 2

Cassie-After we returned to the ship, we went with a big crowd of people out to a local club. I was really tired but I wanted the opportunity to dance with Brazilians and hopefully find a place to do samba. I found that was not the experience. We went to a Crocodiles club and when we got there, there was no cover charge and the body guards spoke English. The bar took American money and the primary music was the songs played on the radio in the US. The worst was the Brazilians that were there were standing off away from the dance floor not dancing or anything. Some of the local guys were dancing but the other SAS students for the most part ignored them. I was really saddened by my peers that were continuing the stereotype of Americans. Many had drunk way too much especially being in a foreign country.

I did get to meringue with a Brazilian which was I wanted to do, that made me happier especially because he was excited to see I knew how to dance.  I did dance and jumped around with everyone but for the most part that cultural separation that was imminent in the place impeded my enjoyment of the night. However, on the third night I ended up going to the same place because that’s where the group of people were going at the time, and there were more Brazilians there and they were dancing. One of the girls would pull each one of us to dance and I got to dance with the same guy from the first night. That guy however was following me too much when we weren’t dancing so I decided to go home since Ev hadn’t gone that night.

Everett - Manuas, Brazil Jan 31 - Feb 3

Ev-We’re just now leaving  Brazil (Feb 3), and finally I’ve scraped together a quiet moment to write for the blog.  We arrived at the bustling port of Manaus, Brazil on Jan 31, ¾ of the way down the Amazon, at late at night.  The city, home to some 2 million people, is completely cut off from the rest of Brazil, with dense rainforest surrounding it save for a sole road (and it’s more than a 10 hour drive to the nearest city on said road).  Much of our first day in Manaus was spent wandering around the city, adjusting to the crowded streets, navigating rows of nearly identical street vendors, and protecting our valuables.  

We had lunch at a small place in the back of a lingerie shop (it was very good) and it truly sunk in how serious the language barrier was.  I had simply assumed that with my 11 years of Espanol, and with Cassie as a Spanish Minor, we’d be able to communicate at least moderately effectively.  I mean how different could Portuguese be?  But as I later found out by both listening and reading along to the national anthem in a museum, many words that look etymologically similar due to their romance language origins were actually pronounced completely differently.  A simple word for thank you in Portuguese, ‘obrigado’, must have sounded completely foreign to them when I pronounced it as I would had I read it in espanol.  But regardless of the difficulty communicating, we managed to get by (with hand gestures aplenty) and had a great lunch.  The food was much less fruity than the island-fare of Dominica, but with similar emphasis on fish dishes in accordance with our location on the Amazon.  After lunch we went to a supermarket and saw dozens of fruits and juices we’d never even heard of, and I even bought a few to bring on the ship with me.  Cassie spent the remainder of the afternoon at an Orphanage.

That night we participated in a Caiman hunt. A caiman is a fresh water relative to the alligator and crocodile, although larger than the former and smaller than the latter. We got into small 10 person motor run canoes with a top and scanned the edges of the marsh with flashlights until we saw a reflection of the light in a Caiman’s eye. We even saw the light of owls’ eyes that were farther away.  Our guide was a ~14yr old native boy who grew up on the water maneuvering the boats. The village he was from, which is where we went, was built on the water. They use canoes to go to neighboring houses, the bar, the restaurant and the school. They can move their house by undocking it and dragging it to a different location. When it rains,  the water level and the houses rise as well.

Our tour guide, who was from that area, almost treated the caiman like pets. His mom would throw the remains of the dinner into the water for them and he used to catch them for fun. He told us how the older kids would maneuver the boats and spear the fish while the younger kids would sit in back to balance. It was a cycle of learning and passing on traditions. We also saw 3 boys in a canoe, one was holding a sloth and the other had a anaconda, those were their pets. These people have such a connection with nature and their environment that I really admire. The kids in the US are using and adopting the skills to succeed in our society by using tablets and the internet, but for the Manaus kids interact with the plants and animals. Their society mainly gets all of its money from tourism and doing tours.   Also, I saw a lot of children around and asked why but apparently they have a 3 month break. Their school year goes from Feb- November.  

Start of Amazon River to Manaus, Brazil Saturday Jan 28th

Entering the Amazon River

We have entered the Amazon River around 3:00 Saturday Jan 28^th while I was in class.   However, because it is so wide, we will not see land until 8:00 tonight (2000 military time). The water is brown; it is so awesome to actually be here. I have learned about the Amazon so many times and right now I am actually looking at it. However when you see rivers, you expect for there to be land on the sides….

The ship has been calmer the last couple days but on the way to Dominica, the ship would rock back and forth.  Walking down the hallways makes you walk zigzag and you have to avoid other people. Running on the treadmill is also very difficult because you rock back and forth. The benefit is that when you go to sleep, it rocks you back and forth and you pass out instantly. I have been sleeping so well on the ship. Food is buffet style and is only served at certain times during the day. Breakfast is 7:30, Lunch is 12 and dinner is 5:30. It was hard to adjust to eating at those times. Luckily for me, there is pasta served at every meal. Now those meals are complimentary, however, there is a bar on the 7^th deck with burgers, salads, fries, smoothies and such. The food smells so good! I haven’t gotten a burger yet, but I will cave in soon. Everett got one and I have never seen him eat so fast. We also both got smoothies.

It feels like a month has past but it has barely been over a week! I have gotten a chance to meet a lot of different friends. It feels like Sacred Heart again, being able to recognize people and say hi anywhere. I miss the intimacy of being in a small institution. There is so little space that it is very easy to get to know everyone. Everyone is very social which makes it hard to allocate any time for work and play.  The work is not a lot but I know it would be easy to fall behind with all the other options of things to do! Also, I met 2 other ballroom dancers and last night we danced for 2 hours just sharing the moves we knew and talking about the dances. I taught a couple other people that came by. Dancing on a moving ship is really difficult- It is hard to maintain balance and manage to do the proper footwork. Luckily we are only doing it for fun. I am going out to a Samba club with the guy and the girl in Brazil! I’m really excited for the chance to dance in another country.  

 I got accepted to the Global Ambassador program and will be getting an opportunity to mingle with diplomats and dignitaries of other countries as well as students from different ports.  I am also starting to relax about what I want to accomplish from the voyage.  I found from other people that is just a time to explore and let that change me. I don’t need to achieve any great insight but to enjoy my travels.

Ambassador’s Visit SAS on the Amazon-The MV Explorer welcomes international guests on every voyage, and we'll be making a quick stop in Macapá early Sunday morning to welcome three delegates from the US Embassy in Brazil. The officers will sail with the students up the Amazon River to Manaus, leading discussions, attending classes, and engaging with students along the way. 12 members of the Ambassadors Club get the extra-special privilege of guiding our guests throughout the ship during their visit. The Ambassadors are a 45-student corps of shipboard tour guides, representing the best that Semester at Sea has to offer.

Everett and I will be in Manaus, Brazil on Tuesday Jan 31st. That night, we will be embark on a night jungle exploration and will be spotting alligators and on Wednesday Feb 1^st, we will be going on a river boat cruise to fish for piranha and see where the brown and black water of the two Amazonian rivers meet! I am ecstatic to go in to the rainforest and see the animals and all the species of wildlife. I am missing everyone back home. I will make time to visit an internet café to Skype people.

DOMINICA - 01/23 & 1/24/12

We pulled into Dominica at 7 and we ate breakfast on the deck looking out on to the island. Dominica was created by a volcanic eruption and has 7 or 10 active volcanoes. The entire island is mountainous and hilly. Actually it was not used by the European colonies because there was not enough land to plant sugar cane in large amounts. Luckily it escaped that devastation. It is a tropical rainforest with I believe over 2000 types of plants. They are absolutely beautiful and exotic.

We had found a group to go on a hike with and we found Jerome who was our taxi driver and drove us around all day. He stopped for pictures and pointed different things out in town. He told us a lot of different information about the fruit and planting. He pointed out coconuts, breadfruits and mangoes.  He himself is a banana farmer and showed us how he cultivates the fruit and pointed out where it was growing in different places. Interestingly, they still export all their bananas to the UK. Later on in the day he stopped and bought us all bananas so that we could try them. They are nothing like the ones at home. The total hike was around 45 minutes.

Bananas on a tree-dark green center -hard to see

The majority of the roots from the trees were above ground and apparently that is how they get their nutrients because the soil is really tough.    There is also a tree that they use as a canoe that has a gummy substance that is flammable. I really admire their ability to live off the land and nature. It is how humans were meant to live, in unity with the plants and animals around them. I will explain how they use different plants from their yard later on as remedies. But I found that to be an overall theme that I admired.

The trail was mostly steps and was not tremendously strenuous. The above ground roots were difficult but also a lot of the area was moist and made the rocks slippery. We also got to swing from a vine like Tarzan! Also, the canopy effect kept the majority of the sun off of us. We would forget how bearing the sun was until we reached a clearing.

At the end the falls were I think 200 feet tall and there was a small cave next to it. The water was cold but it felt really refreshing in the humidity and after the hike.  We managed to climb up into the cave and then jumped into the water right next to the waterfall. It was the most exhilarating experience, still having trouble processing it. The weird thing for me personally was that I did not second guess my decision to do it. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and when they come flying at you like that you have to take it. Everett of course dived in and did a flip.

A lot of people arrived right after us so it got a little crowded, and we then returned back to the van in almost half the time. We ate at a vender that our taxi driver pointed out that a small bench area where we crammed into. You just order the meat you want and it comes with rice, beans, veggies, bread fruit, plantain, and banana and some root. The whole plate was 5 dollars. We also had Carib beer which was made on the island.  They also had this really good fried dough bread for 50 cents and it was actually the highlight of the trip. They were so good! We almost cleaned them out. I tried everything on my plate, it was all very tasty. It is hard to describe what it tasted like because we are not used to it but it wasn’t particularly spicy. I wish I socialized with the local people more they are all so friendly and social and open to telling us about their lives and their culture. Where we ate is where many of the workmen grab lunch.

Later we went to Champagne Reef to snorkel but there was a big group of our kids so they didn’t have enough equipment. However we swam in the Caribbean Sea and found a pair of goggles and got to see some sea life that way. Everett spotted some scary sea urchins. The water was perfectly clear and warm.  The sand there is black because it is a volcanic island and it is mostly big stone rocks. I lay out there in the sun on the rocks for awhile enjoying the scenery of the trees, plants and fruits around us. Interestingly, the four of the other girls I was with were all Jewish and I talked to them awhile about their religion and how everyone just needs to be accepting of other’s beliefs.

For the entire day we paid Jerome 15 each. And apparently the other taxi drivers were like him, from talking to other people. They just drive you around tell you about their world. Stop where they know people, give you free fruit. They are like tour guides too. So very different from our cab drivers at home.  Ev and I spent the night roaming the town. We sat in a local bar with some kids and had some of the Rum Punch which is what a lot of the people drink. It tastes like cough syrup because it has real sugar cane in it. Also the Coca Cola has no preservatives and it apparently is especially sweet because of the sugar cane used to make it. Diet coke is also really rare because it has to be imported. Everyone is so friendly and trusting and we were just hanging by the sea wall admiring the sky when a man came up and asked if we were okay and told us about himself.

Day 2 of Dominica:   So the night before we had heard about another trip to a scenic gorge leaving at about 7:45AM, and since we had nothing better to do until our required field program at 11:30, we jumped at it.  The trip turned out to be amazing… Our driver and guide, known only to us as “ninja man” brought us to the mouth of a small river nestled between two smooth cliff walls.  The creek was about 6 feet wide, and was surrounded on both sides by slick stone cliffs that went about 20ft upwards to meet the rainforest floor.  Ninja Man then proceeded to toss us off the Cliffside into the water (at the only point deep enough for such a dive), and we all began to swim up the stream into the dark crevasse.  The water was brisk, and the cave dark, but the air was balmy and humid from the tropics, and we were all too busy admiring the gorge to care about the temperature.  Inside the cave were two small waterfalls and pools, and we were able to jump into the latter from the tops of the former.  We’ve got some pictures, but not on our camera since it wasn’t waterproof. 

After heading back to the port, still wet and exhilarated, we got onto another bus headed for the Kalinago Amerindians.   “Kalinago,” the original name for the tribe, was only recently recovered when the Kalinagos brought to court their desire to have their official name switched from “Carib”.  Dubbed as such by Christopher Columbus on his only voyage near the island in 1493, the word “Carib” meant “Cannibal”, due to a misinterpretation of their practice of taking their dead ancestor’s bones into their homes out of reverence.  In fact, Columbus never even set foot on the island, and when asked about it’s geography simply crumpled a piece of paper and put it on the table (its ~10 volcanoes and sharp buttes and mountains are quite forbidding to the foreign traveler). 

The Kalinagos we met at the village were friendly, if simultaneously very shy.  We discussed their methods of farming, cooking, hut building, and the medicinal properties of about a hundred different herbs with their former clan chief before being treated to a plate of the local dishes.  To be honest, this trip is what I liked least about our stay in Dominica, because it was with so many people and so touristy… But it was indeed informative and therefore not a total loss. 

SUNDAY JANUARY 22 -SECOND DAY OF CLASSES

So today is the end of the second day of classes, I had a pretty full day. After my global studies course that gives background information on all the places we have visited, Everett and I got haircuts. The salon women were from South Africa and have been on many different cruises cutting hair. She gave me a lot of tips about keeping my hair from frizzing and such. After that I spent my time doing some homework on the top deck while getting a tan. The Caribbean waters are such a beautiful color of blue and we know we saw birds diving into the water to fish. The birds are a sign we are close to land. We also passed Puerto Rico!! In addition, I auditioned for the Global Ambassadors program for a chance to meet international dignitaries.

I just wanted to take a moment to mention all the different people that we have gotten a chance to talk to on the ship.  Basically everyone is friendly and conversations can be struck at any moment. I have had meals with a different group of people every time and that is probably my favorite part of this voyage at this point. In addition, because the professors live on the ship there are no office hours; you just have to find them during meals or free time. I have met many people that have spent months in Africa working at orphanages, a girl who has been in a wheel chair for 4 years because of a stroke, a girl who was Mickey and Minnie characters in Disney and somebody who wants to go to marines and be non combat and use sign language to communicate.

We are heading to Dominica tomorrow; Everett will type up some of the information about Dominica and its culture soon hopefully. We have had 2 pre port meetings to go over the culture of Dominica and other important tips to keep in mind while traveling there.

JANUARY 20 - STILL IN NASSAU!

Friday we left port at noon during the orientation and returned at 5:30 to pick up the people that had issues with their passports. We had run out of dock time which is why we had to leave and come back. Most of the day was spent lounging on the deck chatting with different people trying to remember as many names as possible. The ship really rocks when it is moving so you see people walking zig zag and bumping into people. I haven't felt sick yet. I went on the treadmill and had to hold on to the railings because I kept losing my balance and running from side to side.

JANUARY 19-NASSAU-BOARDING DAY

We boarded the ship today! It was a long day of talking to different people that you had already met, just met. It is very hard to keep track of people because there are no cell phones and it is a huge ship. Luckily, there is a service to call room to room.

Everett and I are on 3^rd Deck starboard (starting to figure out ship lingo) but he is at the back and I am at the front (didn’t get that far with it).

My roommate’s name is Katie she is from Colorado and really nice! I'm glad she doesn’t mind me being messy.

There were no planned activities but everyone would just walk up to other people and start talking. Our ship was delayed a day to wait for people with passport issues. At the end of the day we met the staff and the captain. The ship is fantastic and it is absolutely surreal to actually be on it. I feel a sense of longing to be home in the comfortable and familiar but this new setting and new people will be such a great chance for me to grow up and change to be able to handle more situations. I have a desire to stick with one group but it is important to try and meet as many different people here as possible.

There are a few people from international places. I also am close with a girl that did an internship in Disney and was Mickey and Minnie.  This voyage will be adjusting a lot about the way I think and the way I live. We only get meals during the hour they are served which requires getting up early to catch breakfast.

My goal for this trip is to open up more, and make fewer assumptions of people. I want to push myself to be friends with many different people even if they are not the people at first I thought I would like. I want to push myself to get out of my comfort zone and talk to the international students to hear about their experiences. The stress of these situations will be tough but overall more enlightening and add substantially more to my experience.  I can sometimes be judgmental- but this trip isn’t for judging. It’s time to learn about people. I want to be open to making friends throughout the voyage.