21 April 2010 - Day 1
There is already a very serious problem with Brazil that I notice within a few hours, if not minutes, of being off the ship. Including the fact that the leading cause of death in Brazil is homicide [as opposed to traffic / automobile accidents in every other country aside from AIDS in South Africa] and a fair percentage of Semester at Sea students got robbed / mugged / whatever, I immediately felt terrible; there was a deep set feeling in my gut that I was about to make South Africa feel useless. We docked in Salvador, had no face to face immigration but did have a brief useless diplomatic briefing. Carson, Michael, Sarah, Tolan, & I were off the ship by 10AM exploring. It was beautiful and there was graffiti everywhere and extremely contrasting buildings - old colorful buildings falling apart next to new European-style government buildings that were also extremely appealing; I felt almost like I was in Italy.
We walked around the corner and through a market [literally through it without buying anything, impressive I know] and to the elevator which was the only useful thing we had learned about at the diplomatic briefing. The elevator takes you from the lower level of the city to the upper level and costs .15 REALS, a low price to pay since apparently if you try to walk up to the top you are almost guaranteed to be mugged [something I have managed to avoid my entire life and why stop now?]. It was a 2 second ride up and we were let out, took a left, passed a fountain, got cash from an ATM if we were lucky, and continued. Today was a holiday so banks and government things were not open which didn't turn out to really matter at the end of the day except that I spent another day as Carson's sugar momma - something that is if nothing else has grown to be quite entertaining to us. We walked around between all of the churches and awesome buildings that line the streets and stumbled upon the filming of a music video commercial for Carnival in Salvador later on in the year.
We continued to walk and walk and walk some more [not far, but we walked], ran into the Abels, and ran into rain. And by rain I mean a down pour that we were told would not be occurring as the chance of rain for the day was 10% and the rest of the week was 0% [all of which was a lie except for the last day]. We took cover in a bank, then under umbrellas and ponchos which were really glorified, hooded trash bags. After Carson's rain dance we went to lunch which was 4 seconds past delicious! We ate in the bottom of a hostel and I got an empanada / crepe will chicken, bacon [in honor of the Lyons brothers], cheese, corn, and sauces - all of which was wonderful. I also had for dessert an apple cinnamon crepe with ice cream and the best hot chocolate of my life [the second cup of which was free for filling out the world's longest survey].
I had a definite food baby at that point and we walked around more and then eventually back down to the market which had closed. Before getting into the elevator to head down we saw a few SAS people who had been mugged or punched or whatever - at one point in the day we started walking down a street [that did not in any way look creepy] and a local woman looked at us, waved her hands no, and we took the advice and did an about face. The market was closed but there were a few stalls outside of it still open; one of them had a man with a scorpion tattooed on his neck who make Carson a flower and gave her an awkwardly long kiss on the hand - I opted out of my turn, which came next, and instead found the coolest hammock ever and now am trying to figure out how to hang it in my room on the ship or at school or in my car if that's what it comes down to.
I got some stamps in the terminal and Carson and I fed some Doritos to some angel fish swimming around the ship where we sat down and wasted our lives for a while. Following the fish feeding [apparently fish in the US like Doritos more than fish in Brazil] we went back onto the ship and I got dinner and did some packing for my trip that left the following morning. Collin & I watched some Dexter [really I packed and he tried to fix some dragon pipe he got in Cambodia] until I realized I had forgotten to shower which I did before passing out and wishing I had a box of double stuff Oreos.
22 April, 2010 - Day 2
Woke up at 6, got breakfast, was in the Union by 630AM and waited until 7 to leave for the airport. At the airport I finished reading Vanishing Acts and then listened to my iPod for the last half of the second flight - about 4 or 5 hours of flying total. Once we got to Iguacu it was go time and we went straight to the national park. We went through a quick museum and then to an extremely fun ropes course! There were all these different things you had to climb over and get through and walk on and it ended with a zip line to the bottom. OR SO I THOUGHT!
If you wanted to there was this really tall pole that you could climb to the top off and then jump off, and who doesn't like climbing things and jumping off of them? I hooked myself to the rope being held by [who I am still sure was, in my eyes] the most beautiful man in Brazil, who I contemplated marrying but never got around to asking, and began to climb. I made it to the top fairly quickly for someone with such short legs, jumped, grabbed the swinging bar, and hung on it for a second until we told me to let go - so I did and he dropped me MUCH faster than anyone else who had climbed before me, just to drop me a few inches above the ground right in front of his face which smiled at me then put me on the ground. I unhooked myself, said thanks, and then watched the rest of the people climb who did - notably the Hofferts who are wonderful and Carson is in love with [literally].
After the balancing and climbing [some of which was done in the rain] we took all of our gear off and took the trail through to the falls. I left the ropes course without a husband, but only because I had no way of giving him my email address, right? Anyways, on the trail we passed Coatimundis! For those of you who do not know, I have wanted a Coati since 10th grade because they are adorable amongst other things, but I decided to not bring them with me since they seemed happy weaving between our feet and digging in the mud. The falls were to my right the entire time we were walking on the trail and it was awesome and they were huge and loud and misty and wonderful. By the time we got to the end of the trail it was sunset - obviously awesome. We went to the hotel, checked in, ate dinner [which consisted of 5 strawberry tarts, amongst other things because I REALLY miss strawberries - it was the first time I had had any since Japan], showered, and passed out hard.
23 April, 2010 - Day 3
After a night of the wake up - sleep - wake up game we got a 6AM wakeup call, went to breakfast which was also delicious, and then ended up in Argentina! I was super excited because I didn't realize we were going to Argentina and I had never been there before. After going quickly through customs, bus style, we were in and the falls were just as awesome from a different country. We got out of the bus, it began to rain, we got in a 4x4 jeep and rode through the jungle to a place where we got out and hiked down to the water. Once we got to the water we put on life jackets, took off our shoes and put as much as we could in the dry bags they gave us [which still managed to get water inside of them] and were off. We sped towards the place where a mountain splits and there were falls on both sides, so we rode around to take pictures of both sides then were told to put our cameras into the dry bags. We went right underneath both falls, got beyond soaked, and did some crazy boating turns and things until we were about to drown, then were dropped off for another hike.
By this point it had stopped raining, but who cared? Everyone was drenched and there was no way around that, but it had been so awesome to be underneath all that water. We hiked more and saw new falls as well as old falls from new views. Eventually we stopped for a snack then kept on with the walking. Lunch came about eventually and it was a good buffet - something I am ready to live without for a while - then more hikes. We took a group picture and then got on a train towards devil's throat. Once the train let us off we walked for a while until we got to what looked like an unimpressive place where some water met. And from that far away it was boring, but once you got to be on top of it you could tell that a lot of falls met here and caused huge mist balls to attack people on the bridge. It was very cool [literally] and after marveling for a while we took the train back to the main part of the park.
After a 10 minute gift shop stop and a run in with my Child Development teacher [who was not travelling with our group] we hopped back on the bus to keep on with our day. We made it to an extremely overpriced gift shop that sold everything in the world I would have bought under less expensive situations - instead I stood in the parking lot by the road and took pictures of the sunset which everyone else missed while they paid $40 for t-shirts. From there, we got cleaned up in the hotel and headed to dinner and a "cultural" show. Dinner was deliciously amazing and dessert included [but was not limited to] cake that tasted like smores and 3 different flavours of ice cream / sorbet. The show was about the different South American countries and was ok, but I spent my time making cranes and doing graffiti for Thiago [our tour guide] who had already seen the show 300 times and told me all I needed to know.
24 April, 2010 - Day 4
From there I did some more sleep before my 6AM wakeup call that I was more receptive to after a relatively uninterrupted night of sleep. My roommate, Jill, and I checked out at 620AM before the crowd and then went to breakfast where I ate a large amount of frosted flakes and various breads in order to indulge in strawberry jelly. We were out of the hotel at 705 amazingly enough and went towards our next spot, the Itaipu Binacional Dam. The dam supplies 20% of Brazil's power and 90% of Paraguay's through hydroelectricity. We got to see the spill gates open because of all the rain that was apparently unusual to get in their winters that our group had been graced with. The dam is in Brazil and Paraguay so I have also technically been to Paraguay although it is not stamped in my passport, but it still counts, right?
After the dam we went to a really cool bird park and got about 2 hours there. I walked around and took a whole bunch of pictures that ended up being kind of blurry because it was still raining, but also got a few slightly amazing ones as well. There were a zillion toucans all over the place and I wanted froot loops really bad as I result. There were also macaws all over and I got to hold a blue one which reminded me of Sassy, Dot's bird she used to have when we still lived in Florida. There was also this bird that, not joking, looked like a mixture between an ostrich, a dinosaur, and a turkey - it was definitely new to me. There was also a butterfly garden; it had two butterflies but tons of hummingbirds that could easily have fit in my mouth, though I had no desire to put them there.
After some ice cream and a look through the less expensive though still overpriced gift shop we made our way back to the bus, back to the airport, and back to security. I love airport security in Brazil - it is very effective but allows you to do crazy things you cannot do in the US, like bring hand sanitizer onto the plane without a Ziploc bag! It was a rush of excitement to be sure. While waiting for the flight, which left at 115PM, I played Uno and got hot chocolate and a muffin [which took 15 minutes to prepare for some reason]. Once on the flight I started reading American Psycho because I had run out of books after Vanishing Acts and borrow this from Renae before leaving the ship. The first flight was as thrilling as flights can be, and the second one was equally amazing. While landing the sun set, on the other side of the plane of course, so instead of marveling at the clouds I counted the number of times I could see the red and blue lights of police cars; once that got old I started counting soccer stadiums. At home I normally count baseball fields but they were far less prevalent on this flight and were therefore ignored.
The drive between the ship and airport is my favorite drive I have taken while on this trip - aside from safari game drives. We go by so much graffiti and wall art that I cannot even explain all of it and how much I loved looking at it. I wanted to go back the next morning and take pictures of as much as I could but that would have resulted in muggings for sure, and I didn't want to ruin my streak. Once back onto the ship, after running into Mrs. Abel, I grabbed some dinner then unpacked, showered, and passed out.
25 April, 2010 - Day 5
I woke up at 630 unable to go back to sleep, so after investigating my email situation I went to see if I had any packages at the purser's desk; I had one from Peggy. From there I ate breakfast with the Abels and the Whites [the academic dean and his wife] which consisted of delicious French toast and two boxes of froot loops to make up for the toucan situation the day before. From there Michael, Mike, and I went into the city to find dress clothes for Michael who didn't have time to get a suit made in Viet Nam and needs dress clothes for the ambassador's ball so Carson doesn't kill him. Nothing was open on the upper level of the city so we went back to the market in the lower part by the ship.
I helped Michael pick out a two-month-a-versarry gift for Carson [a really awesome green hammock she had liked the day before but ended up leaving without] and got some things for Collin to give to his friends at home since he couldn't get off the ship in Brazil except for a trip that left no time for shopping a few days earlier. I finally got some gifts for myself to give and then we watched some Capoiera [I am not sure how to spell that but it is a type of Brazillian dance fighting that I am sure the Meat could spell - I take that back, but he probably knows what it is] and then headed back to the ship.
From the ship I ate lunch, and went back to my room to face the music. It was the last day of the last port of my semester at sea - meaning it was time to pack. Granted I have about a week until I have to be done packing but I figured I would start now since it seemed like quite a task. I surprised myself and actually have an empty duffel bag and 2 empty backpacks of varying sizes [though they will fill up after I get back my laundry and I put away the things I need for the rest of the trip. Either way, I can promise you Delta will not be happy with me when I tell that I have about 300 pounds of baggage to check. Not my problem. After packing Collin and I went to the top deck to wait for dinner which was a BBQ that I was excited to shove into my face.
We were about 15 minutes early, but really just on time because the line was beginning to form and we were only a few people back from the front of it. I got a burger, hotdog sans bun, 2 corns on the cobs, an apple, a banana, and 2 small pieces of carrot cake that didn't taste like carrot cake but was good anyways. This actually filled me up just perfectly - which is not amazing considering how starving I was. Right at 5 it began to rain [again], a sign that Brazil was sad to see us go and that we should not have to go back to the other America. So, now in preparation for returning home I am typing my blog, being generally depressed, dreading finals, and listening to Vanilla Ice [not because I am depressed, and this is not causing my depression, but because I feel like it for some reason reminds me of "home"].
Simone L. Provence 3138 - Semester at Sea College of Charleston, SC