Today is Neptune Day. Normally this is celebrated the day we become shellbacks (cross the equator), but since the crew is a big part of the celebration, we needed to wait for the celebration to fit into their schedule. I got to be a fish holder. I had an awful costume to wear that made me look like a giant toothpaste tube. The crew goes around in marching band style to wake everyone up at 7:15am. They beat drums, blow whistles, and knock on doors. Those of ...

Posted by Amanda My mom asked in the comment section what dock time is. This spurred me on to write a bit about ship life and my job onboard. The days at sea are pretty routine. The students have class almost every day with either an A day or a B day. The day determines which set of classes they go to. A and B days don't mean much for me because a class day is a class day. I wake up and grab a quick breakfast. Generally, I'm not a breakfast person because...

Posted by Amanda Barra was suggested to us by people who stayed in Salvador the entire time so we got a cab and headed there. At Barra there is a lovely lighthouse along a busy beach. The beach area had many umbrellas and chairs for hire. There were a lot of rocks in the water that created lagoons and tide pools for people to play in. The water was so warm it was hard to believe it is the same Atlantic I froze in in Maryland. For breakfast we got some agu...

Posted by Amanda We checked out of the hotel this morning. The student who was so great at dinner last night took it upon herself to make sure everyone was up at breakfast so no one would be late. I love that she took this initiative to help her community. Especially since no one did it yesterday and she earned dock time. Our first stop was Itaipu Dam. Currently it is the largest dam in the world, but will be replaced by the Three Gorges Dam in China when...

Posted by Amanda Iguacu Falls are AMAZING! They look CGI because there are so many of them. We started on the Argentina side where you get the close up views of the falls. Our first stop was the Devil's Throat (which Noah and I agree should be the name of the first Jungle Cruise movie--Jungle Cruise: The Devil's Throat). We took a path of bridges over to the Devil's Throat. This alone was stunning. There was such a thick flow of water. The mist made it a bit dif...