I Have Seen the World, What a Beautiful Place

Here it goes, my last blog entry on the MV explorer. I have literally traveled around the world and have gone through so many experiences. I don't know if I am ready to go back to the States, I have been gone for so long and have learned so many things. I am not the same person as I was before this voyage. I have grown and have become much more open. The world became that much smaller in my eyes.

How do I respond to "How was your trip?" "It was great" does not even begin to describe how my trip was. I can't just say one story, I probably won't even remember all of them at the time you ask me the question. I need to sit down and think about everything that has happened to me and how I have grown as a person. Give me some time and be patient with me because I may talk too much about my experiences but they are interesting, I promise.

Like I said before, this trip was never about the places we went, but rather the people we met. This trip was extremely successful for me. I want to work for the Global Community and help people live better lives. I learned that I can't assume what people need, rather we need to get to meet people and ask them "How can I help you live a healthy life?" We need to ask the people and help them. You will get good answers, I promise. You will not simply get an answer that "I need food, I need money" Rather, people will tell you, "We need education, we need irrigation, we need to get a supply of food." The statement holds true, "Give a man a fish and you feed them for a day, teach them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime." People want to learn, some people cannot afford education. I will never take advantage of my education. I will always be thankful that I can afford education.

I can't wait to see everyone, but I will miss everyone on the ship. I know I will see everyone again, keep in contact.

Last Few Days

Now that I am done with exams, had our alumni ball, and finished packing I have had some time to reminisce about my voyage. I quickly came to realize that this voyage has nothing to do with the places that we go, but rather it is about the people we meet at the countries. This voyage has been extremely successful when it comes to those standards. I look back at the countries I have been to and the first thing that comes to my head are not the monuments that I have been to, it is the people I have interacted with. I decided to write some of my most memorable times in each of our ports in this entry.

Hawaii

Theresa, our drive in Hilo, showed us the craziest night of our lives. She was one of the funniest characters I have met. She taught me to come out of my shell and live a little. She showed us the lava flows and the hot springs at night.

Japan

Our monk in Mt. Koya temple. He hung out with us for a long period of time and taught us that it is ok to have fun in life, as long as everything is in moderation, it is the Buddhist way. This was one of our most relaxing nights of the trip. Also, Kazu, my cousins study abroad friend, who welcomed us with her hospitality and showed us around in Kyoto and Osaka.

China

Our incredible guides from the China guide, Vincent and Linda. They were incredible guides who showed us an amazing time. Vincent even came out to the clubs with us in the night! They brought us to the Great Wall of China and we got to sleep on it, which was one of the best things I have ever done. Then we got to zip line down the wall. Absolutely amazing!

Vietnam/ Cambodia

Our guide who lost his entire family in the Cambodia genocide and made me realize how ignorant I could be of world events. He really encouraged me to do something with my life where I give back to the global society.

India

Our rickshaw driver in Cochin who just wanted to show us a good time. He taught me that not everyone in India is trying to rip you off for your money. We had a bad first impression of India with the rickshaw drivers trying to rip us off, but this rickshaw driver did not want to do that, when we asked him how much we owe him he just said told us to pay him how much we thought he deserved. Also, the Taj Mahal was incredible!

Mauritius

Our scuba master who showed us the pristine waters of Mauritius and showed us the best scuba diving I have ever done in my entire life.

South Africa

The people from Operation Hunger. They further established that I should give back to the global community. Working in the townships was one of the best experiences I have ever had! Also, Allison our cage diving master who taught us the importance of shark conservation. She also showed us Great White Sharks.

Ghana

Our driver Nathan who just wanted to hang out with us. We had some deep conversations with him about everything, to racism, politics, and life in America. He was truly an amazing guy who showed us such a great time. He has been emailing me ever since we left Ghana. He just wanted to know Americans and know about the American dream.

Brazil

Our capoeira master who gave us lessons in capoeira, the Brazilian martial arts. After our lessons, he wanted to protect us. He walked us to places only he trusted, took us to a restaurant that he trusted, and hung out with us at the bars. He would walk us everywhere and even got us a taxi of his friend and made sure the taxi would take us safely back. Apparently, Brazil was very dangerous when it came to muggings but I never felt that way with Jonatan walking us around everywhere.

I have had an amazing time and I really do not want this to end. I have met amazing people and have made some really close friends, friends that I know I will keep for the rest of my life. I recommend everyone to do Semester at Sea, it will be the best decision of your life.

Brazil, our last international port

I can't believe that we just finished our last international port. It seems like almost yesterday that my cousin and I were applying for Semester at Sea and I was annoying my roommates about all I am going to do in Semester at Sea. But Brazil has been an another amazing country, and it started with one of the most interesting days I have had on this voyage.

Day 1

Our ship was docked in SalvadorWe went to a market and did some shopping. We got stuck inside the market because of rain, so we ate at a restaurant inside the market. While we ate, there was a capoeira show, which is Brazilian dance fighting. I took some pictures of them and of of the capoeira masters, Jonaten, came up to our table trying to ask for some donations and trying to sell shirts of his school. He then offered to give us lessons, so we scheduled lessons with him later in the day.

We then went to the upper part of the city and it reminded me so much of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. Travel down the streets, we came across people filming a commercial/ music video for the World Cup. So my cousin, a bunch of other Semester at Sea students, and I all jumped into the video and learned the dance. It was amazing! I am going to bring that dance back to the states. We did multiple shots and in one of the shots I am holding an Argentinian flag and I accidentally held it upside down! Apparently the person singing the song is a really famous singer in Brazil and we got a picture with him.

At night we got our capoeira lessons. Jonaten held our lessons in a night club that was going to throw a party later, so we were a little skeptical at first. The lessons ended up being allot of fun and I learned how to do some cool capoeira moves. After our lessons, Jonaten walked us around town and made sure we walked into safe areas. He really watched after us. We told him we were hungry so he pointed out a restaurant that said we could trust. We hung out there for a long time because they had some live music. Later, Jonaten and his friends met up with us to hang out and we all had a very good time. When we were all tired and ready to go home, Jonaten walked us through the safe areas again and got us a taxi that was one of his friends and that we could trust. I am really glad that we had him around because I later found out that many people on our trip got mugged in the area, but Jonaten made sure that we were safe.

Day 2

We went off to the Amazon for our Riverboat Adventure. We stayed in the riverboat overnight and got to sleep in hamocks outside. It was really interesting. We got to see the famous meeting of the waters where 2 different rivers with different colors and densities met up. It was a really cool phenomenon because the colors never really mixed, they just swirled around each other. We also saw some fresh water dolphins off in the distance. We then went into this area that had this giant lilly pads. We could also see monkeys scrambling around in the trees. There was this weird noise coming from the distance that sounded like intense wind, our guide told us that the noise was coming from howler monkeys.

At night we went on a search for alligators, or as the Brazilians called it, the cayman. We had to go at night because it was actually easier to find them at night, when you flash a light into their eyes their eyes would glow. Our guide attempted to catch some with his bare hands and failed a couple of times, but after a while he caught one! These alligators were not that big, they looked like baby alligators. We all got to hold them. The canoe next to us dropped their alligator in the boat, we could here screaming coming from their direction it was hilarious. Nothing bad happened, just allot of people got scared.

Day 3

We did a jungle walk through the rainforest. We got to see some pretty cool things. We even saw some bones of an anteater that a jaguar ate! We learned some survival skills, including what material burns slowly and where you can find it in the jungle. Apparently fire is the most important thing to have for survival because it can sanitize food and water. We then got to see a Amazon village and they surprisingly had more "high tech" things than I thought they would. Some even had flat-screen tvs! We got t hang out with the villagers and even played soccer with them, needless to say they destroyed us in soccer.

When it started getting dark we took a boat through the wetlands. It started raining so we took shelter in this house boat. Outside the boat we could see pink dolphins, which are the oddest looking dolphins I have ever seen! They looked like a cross between a hippo and a dolphin. After the rain stopped we continued going around and got to see the sunset. We then pulled into a beach and had a beach barbeque. It ended up being allot of fun!

Day 4

We did another jungle walk and learned some more survival skills. We learned how to tell the difference between edible and non edible fruit. We learned how to find some grubs that you could eat, and we learned how to locate water vines and how to cut them so you could drink water out of them. We also got to see some army ants, the biggest ants in the world! They were huge! We then went piranha fishing. Our boat ended up catching 8 piranhas, unfortunately I caught none. My cousin caught two of them though. When she caught one, she lifted it too fast and it smacked one of the girls on our boat in the back. The piranha fell to the bottom of the boat and people scrabbled and fell out of their seats because they were scared it would bite them. It was a funny sight. We then got to eat the piranha that we caught, it din't taste that bad.

We then headed back to the city that is on the Amazon, called Manaus. We met up with all of the other riverboats with Semester at Sea students and watched a Amazonian dance show and relaxed by a pool. We then proceeded to the airport because we all had red eye flights (that means an overnight flight for people that don't know).

This flight was the worst flight experience of my life. Everyone on our trip, except for 4 lucky people, got sick. I won't go into details, but it was not a pretty sight. I was up all night and completely exhausted from my illness. It was not fun at all.

Day 5

Because I got so sick, along with most people on our trip, I did not spend the last day walking around port. Instead, I went to the doctor to get some medication and I ended up being put in isolation so I wouldn't get other people sick on the ship. It was not a fun experience, but I feel so much better now. The doctor thinks we all got food poisoning from the Amazon. It isn't just a coincidence that most people in our trip got sick.

Brazil has been an amazing country. Even though this is my second time in Brazil, there are still surprises stored in every corner. Besides that last day of being sick, I had an overall good time in Brazil. I can't wait to watch that Brazilian World Cup Commercial.

I will be home in a couple of days. It is sad that the trip is coming to an end, but at the same time I cannot wait to see everyone again. I have been doing allot of thinking on this trip about the people I have met and the amazing experiences I have had, and it is just so much to process. I can't believe I accomplished doing so much in a span of 4 months. I will probably write another blog entry, but this is my last about an international port.

Akwaaba Ghana

Ghana was a very interesting port, there was a lack of organized tourism making it difficult to see many of the things Ghana had to offer, but this did not stop Ghana from being a very fun port! One thing about Ghana is its people, they are the nicest and chillest people I have ever met! Besides South Africa, Ghana is the most stable government in Africa. It has so many natural resources like gold, diamonds, oil, and cocoa. In fact, any chocolate you eat probably has a small portion of Ghanian chocolate in it.

Day 1

We decided to take it a little easy this day, so we went to a beach resort and relaxed all day by the pool whit some amazing Ghanian chocolate. We ate at the resort restaurant that offered live music and some really good, and spicy, Ghanian food.

Day 2

We hired a driver to take us to a few of the Ghanian sites. Everything in Ghana is far, so we ended up driving a total of 6 hours that day. First we went to a national park and did a canopy walk. It was beautiful and you could see very far. Our driver then took us to the dungeon where slaves were exported out of. It was very interesting to learn the slave trade history and to learn about it from the perspective of the Ghanians. It was a very sad story. A total of 60 million blacks were captured for slavery, and only 20 million survived to make it to America. The 40 million died in the dungeons or in transit to the Americas. It was an extremely sad story, but I am glad I was able to see it for myself.

Day 3

I went to the Wli waterfalls. Like everything in Ghana, it was very far. We got to swim in the water and actually go under the waterfall! It was so amazing! There were so many bats at the waterfall. The waterfall was very tall as well. I honestly could have stayed there all day because it was so relaxing. We then visited a village where there was a monkey sanctuary. We got to feed the monkeys bananas. The village was also very interesting, there were goats and chickens everywhere and people were drumming. Again, we got to witness the famous Ghana hospitality.

Day 4

We got into a taxi and went around a little bit. Our driver ended up being the coolest and nicest person I have met. He took us to the markets and would get us good prices, he yelled at the seller that he was trying to sell us things for way too much! We ate at a very good restaurant, and I tried fu-fu which was one of the best things I have ever tried. We talked for such a long time about pretty much everything! He was very curious about America and asked many question. He really wanted to go to America, he told us that a poor man in America is a rich man in Ghana. He also asked about racism in America, I told him that America has made great strides and that most racism does not exist and that I do not view someone as white or black, I only look at a persons personality to see if I like them or not. We gave him our contact information so we could keep in touch.

Also, by chance we met a Ghanian senators wife. She owned a clothing store and we ended up talking to her for a very long time too. She told us how much she loved to travel and told us about all her stories about the textiles that she sells. She helps in the production of the military clothing for the United States. It was interesting because she was telling us that some of the fabrics that go into the military clothing come from Iran, that almost seems ironic. We had no idea who she was until our driver told us and pointed out how many cops were in the area. We met many interesting people that day!

Now we left Ghana and Brazil is soon to come. I can't believe we only have one more country left! I am now back in the Western Hemisphere!

South Africa!

South Africa is by far my most favorite country! I will try and return to this country first! I have done so many incredible things in South Africa and yet, I still have so much more that I need to do! The days coming up to South Africa were really inspiring, we learned about apartheid, Nelson Mandela, and even watched Invictus. I am always surprised with how little I know about the world, just like how I had no idea about the Cambodian genocides I had no idea the seriousness of apartheid in South Africa. We also learned the story of Amy Biehl and how she was a white college student trying to stop apartheid, but ended up getting killed by people thinking she was an oppressor. We learned the story of her parents who forgave the killers and supported the truth and reconciliation process headed by Desmund Tutu (who by the way is sailing the ENTIRE Fall 2010 voyage, so jealous!). Amy Biehl's parents started a foundation to help get children off the streets in the townships, and they even hired 2 of Amy Biehl's killers to help out. We also learned how South Africa is the Rainbow Nation and how they are trying to make blacks and whites equal

Day 1

We FINALLY got our first famous speaker to come in. We usually get these consulate people just tell us about the country, even though we already learned about the safety precautions we need to take in the countries and all about the culture in something we have called logistical and cultural pre-port lectures. It was a breath of fresh air to have something different. Who was this famous person? Linda Biehl, Amy Biehl's mother! She told us her story and how she felt as a mother. It was a very inspiring story! I stayed after her lecture to talk to her personally a little, and she even gave me a hug when I left. It was completely amazing seeing and listening to her.

The location of our port is the best we have had so far, it was right on the waterfront which is pretty much a big shopping area.We were close to everything, unlike our ports in India. We could even see Table Mountain from our ship! We then hired a driver to take us around to see South Africa. He took us to many places, including the Cape of Good Hope which is the southern most tip of Africa. We had a miscommunication with our driver there because we wanted to climb the Cape of Good Hope to take a picture, but he thought we meant that we wanted to hike to Cape Point. So when we came back down, our driver wasn't there, we then did a pretty long hike to Cape Point, which is where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was some amazing views from these points. We saw plenty of wildlife here, including baboons and ostriches. Our driver then took us to Boulder Beach, which is a beach covered in penguins. I wished I had a tuxedo shirt like, Taylor does from back in Gainesville, so I could take a picture with the penguins with it on. We also saw the World Cup stadium and attempted to go up Table Mountain, but the winds were too strong. At night I ate some ostrich steak, it was soooo good!

Day 2

We did a community service project with an organization called Operation Hunger. We went to a township called Los Angeles and were able to see how the people lived. We were with the poorest of the poor and the living conditions were just terrible. There were live wires running along the ground so that each shack could have electricity. The people, however, were the nicest people I have ever met. We were there to see if the children were malnourished and then to feed them. We had to weigh each and every child of the township and find out their age to determine how many of the children were malnourished. We weighed the children in the dirt roads. At one point, someone was trying to roll start their car, the car started but then turned off and started rolling down the hill, right where we were weighing the children. I noticed the car and yelled for people to get out of the road, only some of the children heard because their english isn't the best. My cousin was weighing a child at a time and grabbed him and ran out of the way, I pushed another kid out of the way and jumped in front of the car to stop it before it could hit any of the children. It was a pretty scary moment, but luckily no one was injured.

Weighing the children did not take that long, so we got to hang out with them and play with them for a while. They were completely fascinated with our cameras. They would take the cameras and take so many pictures, and they were good pictures too! They took over 300 pictures with my camera! I also played some soccer with them, even though I am not that good. I also do not know what it was about me, but the children would always try to see how many of them I could carry. It started with them feeling how strong my arms were, and then they latched on to my arm because they wanted me to lift them. Whenever I would try to walk anywhere, I would have 2 children latched on to each arm, one child on each leg, one sitting on my shoulders, one I am holding in my arms, and another trying to get a piggy back ride. It was exhausting! At one point I was trying to get a break and listen to the guy talk a little more about Operation Hunger and what we could do to help. The children picked me out of the crowd and tried to dog pile on top of me and they would try to keep me on the ground! We also got to help distribute food to the children and watched some of them dance, it was a program to keep the children off the streets. It was so exhausting and I was so sore afterwards, but it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my entire life.

Some interesting facts on malnourishment in the townships. Boys are more malnourished than the girls and the girls actually tend to be over nourished. This is because the girls in these townships are taught to stay in the house and cook and clean, which they eat when they cook. The boys are always outside playing. Also, the children tend to be malnourished when the parents do not have jobs. This is because when a parent has a job they are never home to feed their children. I am definitely coming back to this township with Operation Hunger again to help out.

Day 3

We went on a day safari in the Aquila game drive. My group asked the funniest questions to our jeep driver, but we all had a good time and laugh out of it. I got to see "the big 5" in the safari, which includes the elephant, the lion, the leopard, the water buffalo, and the rhino. The leopard and the lion that we saw were in cages, so it wasn't a true safari out in the true wild, but it was still awesome because we also got to see hippos, ostriches, and zebras. Next time I am in South Africa, I want to do a several day safari in Kruger or another park.

At night we ate at a place called Mama Africa with amazing live music. I order the Game Mix Grill, which included Springbok, Kudu, Crocodile, and Ostrich, it was delicious! For desert, I had something called a banana flam, which was allot like a banana foster and just as good.

Day 4

CAGE DIVING WITH GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!!!!! It was so awesome! We went to Gansbaii, which has the highest density of Great White Sharks in the world, and you could definitely tell because we saw 7 different white sharks on our trip, and boy were they massive! I was so excited and asked so many good questions that our guide thought I was a marine biologist and said she would recommend me for an internship with their conservation and research efforts. The water was cold, but it was hard to tell because of the adrenaline and the wet suits that we wore. I had a shark ram the cage right in front of me and I could see all of its teeth! This is by far the coolest thing I have ever done and I am seriously thinking of coming back as a volunteer (not an intern since I am an engineer and not a biologist) for two weeks, because I could cage dive every day.

This was also our last night in Cape Town so we hit up the clubs on Long Street and had an amazing time. We went to one local bar for a little bit, met some really cool locals who taught us an African Cheer, and we got their information and they said next time we come to South Africa that I could stay with her and her family. The people of South Africa are so nice!

Day 5

We woke up early to try and hike table mountain. The winds were way too intense and the guides begged us not to hike the mountain. So then we attempted to go to the wine lands and go wine tasting but then found out that it was way too far. Then we tried to go scuba diving at the aquarium, but as soon as we got there the lady was on the phone booking the last reservation for the day! So instead we went to a market, got a picture of us riding a dolphin and getting chased by a shark (oh yea, this happened). Then we went to a restaurant on Long Street and pretty much hung out there for 3 hours. I had probably the most unhealthy food called a Banobacon, it was a banana wrapped in bacon, deep fried and drizzled with maple syrup. It was still very good, even though I felt like I was about to get a heart attack. We then did some shopping at the mall, even though I am not a fan of shopping. We returned to the ship and got ready to depart. Only, the winds and seas were too rough and they closed the port! So our ship could not depart until late into the next day but we weren't allowed of the ship! We even had classes while in port, it was so cruel to have my most favorite port right outside the window and we were stuck in class not allowed off the ship!

I can't believe we only have 2 more ports left! This voyage has gone by so fast! Ghana is next!

In Mauritius, chilling with lions and scuba diving, no big deal

It should be a crime that Semester at Sea only let us in Mauritius for one day, we only got a taste of the so many things that you can do in Mauritius. The sad thing is that Mauritius is probably our most inaccessible port so I really don't think I will be returning as much as I really want to. The flights there are extremely expensive and you probably have to do over 2 days of flying just to get there. Mauritius is a popular vacation spot for Europeans. To be honest, I never even heard of Mauritius until I applied for Semester at Sea and now I am glad I know about it. If you don't know where Mauritius is look at a map at it is located east of Madagascar. Mauritius is such a beautiful island, it reminded me allot of Puerto Rico except it was very economically stable and much more quiet. Quiet was such a good change of pace from all the extremely loud countries we went to.

Day 1

We heard of this place that you could play with lion cubs and cheetah cubs, so we took a taxi there. When we got there, we quickly realized that they did not have cubs to interact with, just full grown lions. We decided to do it anyways! The people gave us stick to defend ourselves incase the lions attacked and told us to not scream or run (I was traveling with a group of mostly girls and they did not like that rule at all). There was nothing between us and the lions, we could approach them and pet them. The entire time in the back of my head I was thinking that any second this animal can turn around and maul me in a second, and all I had to defend myself was a stick. You just have to respect the sheer size and strength of the lions when you are petting them. I was completely surrounded by them as well. Luckily, lions sleep 20 hours in a day and only eat at one time, which was not the time that we were there. I have to say, I didn't wake up thinking to myself that I was going to be chilling with full grown lions.

After that, we ate some typical Mauritian food, which is a mix of French and Indian food. It was really tasty, although it was funny that we were back to eating Indian food after leaving India. We then went to the beach and relaxed there for the rest of the time period. We met an interesting Mauritian at the beach who was trying his hardest to flirt with the girls in our group, he kept coming back asking us about the address to KFC university because he wanted to be a cook, I don't even know the address to my University! He asked the girls"what is the password for American women?" I thought that was funny how he put that. He tried hard, but he did not succeed with any of them.

We then went back to the ship to meet up with people and then went out to eat. We tried the local Mauritian beer, which is world renowned. We then went to a casino. I went in with 200 rupees, and left with 200 rupees. I played black jack and won 300 rupees, then I cashed the 100 rupees I won playing blackjack so we could play slots. I gave everyone in our group 3 coins so they could play slots as well, and one girl in our group turned that 3 rupees into 147 rupees! I was not so lucky when it came to slots. At least I did not lose any money at the casino! We didn't stay out too late because we had to wake up extremely early to go scuba diving, and it was well worth going to bed early!

Day 2

We literally spent the whole day scuba diving, and Mauritius is probably some of the best scuba diving I have ever done in my life! We woke up very early to get some breakfast, then headed of to Tamarin to do some scuba diving! We did a total of 3 dives, and each had something unique about it

The first dive we did was called cathedral, and for a very good reason too. There were caves that we got to go up into, and at the top there was this gigantic puffer fish. We went into another cave with an opening angle slight upward. The sun just gleamed inside and it was absolutely spectacular, it really seemed like we were in a cathedral!

The second dive we did was teeming with sea life. Before we went in, a boat approached us with scuba divers telling us that they saw a bull shark and to be out on the lookout. We were all very excited because we all really wanted to see a shark We saw this huge ray, lion fish were everywhere! There were a few barracuda following us as well. We were all antsy looking for the shark, unfortunately we did not see it. There is no doubt in my mind the shark knew we were there. We went pretty deep in this dive, probably around 100 feet.

The last dive had the worst visibility, but it did not change how amazing the dive was. Before we got in the water, there was squid everywhere on the surface! We saw the most amazing coral that we were all mesmerized by, it was called bubble coral. Some of it was glowing, there were eels living inside of it. I can't really use words to describe it, you just have to see the pictures that we took. That coral was just amazing and I have never seen anything like it!

After the last dive, we had to quickly get to the ship! There is something called dock time, which means if you are late to the ship you have to stay on the ship for a small period of time at the next port. Every 15 minutes you are late, you get 3 hours of dock time. Tamarin is an hour drive from Port Louis, plus there was traffic. We really did not want to get dock time in South Africa. Our driver ended up taking us to the wrong port! He didn't understand that the port was not our port, and we only had about 30 minutes to spare! When he figured out where we had to go, we ran into traffic! We finally arrived at the ship with about 10-15 minutes to spare, but then there was a huge line of people trying to get into the ship. Allot of the taxi drivers did not know where the ship was located! So we finally checked back into the ship with about 2 minutes to spare, we are not getting dock time in South Africa!

No matter how much sunscreen or hats I put on my head, it still gets burnt. Next week I will be doing safaris and cage diving with great white sharks in South Africa!

Taj Mahal Picture

Taj Mahal Picture
Originally uploaded by vic41234

Here is a picture of me at the Taj. I'll put a bald one of me up soon.