Mauritius

Today was Mauritius. We got into port sometime before eight and the immigration officers were coming on board just as I was walking by the gangway, which was on deck two. I figured I'd get ahead of everyone and wait at the faculty and staff lounge in order to get cleared for immigration. When I got there, I ran into Mike and his friend and we went out on the seventh deck to get some pictures. Luckily, only people whose ID’s were 600-999 had to go through a face-to-face clearance for immigration, so because I was on an SAS trip that left early, we got to leave the boat first.On the way to the dock, I saw Katie and met Jamie from Alaska and Carol, who signs for the deaf girl on the ship. We talked on the way to the dock, which was about a 45-minute ride.

The island was beautiful, super natural almost. Mountains everywhere and plenty of sugar cane fields. Once we got to the port, all of us got onto the catamaran, which was about 50 feet long. There were only about twenty of us so it was not that crammed. After we sailed for a while, we got to the place where we tied up and then we went snorkeling for half an hour. The snorkeling looked very similar to Dominica. Now I have to write 1500 words on exactly what I saw in Dominica. Not sure how I’m going to pull that off just yet, but I have class tomorrow so I’ll ask my professor then. But anyway, after snorkeling, we sailed just off the coast to a beach and then were tendered in by a large dink to the shoreline. A group of us walked along the coastline for a while until we decided to go in the water, which was only about two feet deep. The whole atmosphere was like a giant bathtub. Carol, her girl, and Jamie all made friends and had a few drinks, so when they came back to the dink an hour later, they were kind of drunk.

When we got back to the Catamaran, we started to head back to the port. I felt that the day flew by and since we only had from around 8:30 in the morning until 6 at night, there really wasn’t too much else we could do here. Once we pulled up to the dock in our bus, I noticed that someone was being taken out of the ship in a wheelchair. When they got closer to us, I realized that it was Dylan. He was not responding to anything the crew and medical staff were doing and he looked quite pale. He got carried into a car and then the car drove off. It was really scary.

After I talked to people, I heard that he had been drinking all day on the beach and then when he realized he had an hour left before they needed to go, he went to the bar and started drinking as much as he could, not exactly the smartest thing to do. I was also told that on the way back, he was throwing up in the shuttle and that before he was wheeled out, he collapsed on the ship. Its 7:32 and we still haven’t been given notice about an extended stay, and we haven’t heard anything about Dylan’s condition. I hope everything turns out ok.

Port Louis

Catamaran in Mauritius.

South Africa

South Africa was amazing. Even though we arrived a day late, it was still so much fun. Some of the trips that were through SAS were canceled, including two safaris. I’m not sure if those people are going to get refunded either. We arrived in port at about 10:45 on Friday. Immigration had to do a face-to-face clearance of everyone before anyone could get off the ship. Luckily, my tour was able to get another flight and I didn’t have to leave the ship until 2:30 so I relaxed until then.

Cape Town airport was very much like any American airport, which surprised me. The city itself was like home. Our flight was at 5:00pm, so Brett, Jack and I decided to walk around the airport until our flight. The flight was about 2 hours to Durban. After the flight, we had a three-hour van ride to the lodge where we stayed.

The accommodations were very modern too. We had to walk down a dirt road in order get to our place. There were seven small houses, each with 2 separate areas and 2 beds. My roommate’s name was Andrew and he was a cool guy. After we dropped our stuff off, we wandered further down the dirt road to check out the bar and lounge. Everyone was there relaxing. I ended up going to sleep at around 1:30 in the morning.

The next morning came way too soon. We had to meet in the front of the lodge at 5:30 in the morning. It really wasn’t all too bad, but it was still a little rough getting up. The reserve was about twenty minutes away from where we stayed. Our guide’s name was Tom, an older man but a funny guy.

Throughout the day, we saw zebra, giraffe, water buffalo, elephants, antelope, and rhinos. We didn’t get to see any lions or leopard though, I was sad. We were fortunate enough to see about 80 elephants crossing a river, it was an incredible sight to see. We also got the experience almost being attacked by one. Right before we stopped for lunch, we came across a bull elephant in “must”, which basically means that it’s horny and can’t do anything about it. But apparently the males get very moody when they’re in this state. Of course, he was leaning against a tree about two feet off the road that we had to drive on. So we started slowly inching closer and he started making growling sounds until we got close enough to him that he actually swung his trunk at us and nearly hit the jeep. I almost shit my pants to be honest, but he didn’t follow us after that. We headed back to the lodge at about four in the afternoon. I decided to take nap until dinner at six. We had some sort of stew that was very good. I decided to go to bed early that night so I wouldn’t be tired tomorrow.

On Sunday, we had to be at breakfast at 8:30. Breakfast for me consisted of toast and croissants, which were excellent. We left the lodge at around 10 and got to the airport at 1:15. Our flight was at 2:30 so we didn’t have to wait too long at all. I decided to take the night easy after we got back to the ship, so I found a wifi spot and talked to some people from home.

On Monday, I slept in until around 11:30 because I had my animal whispers tour at 1:15. Lindsay, who also goes to QU, and I stuck together for the duration of the tour. It was about half an hour outside of the city to get to the place. Once we got there, we saw cheetahs in their enclosures. I immediately felt bad for them. After we saw a video on basic information about cheetahs, we were allowed to pet one. Once we walked outside, one was sitting on a table purring his head off. His name was Chobey and he was a 21 month old male and weighed about 60 kilos, which was slightly larger than average. He felt like pure muscle, there wasn’t a single ounce of fat that I felt on him. His spots were also a finer hair than the rest of what he had on his body, which gave them a three dimensional texture.

After the cheetah encounter, we were shown some other smaller cats like servals and black backed jackals, but we didn’t get to pet them. Then, we went to the birds of prey part of the center. We were all given gloves to hold the birds. The first bird brought out was a kite, which looked very similar to an eagle, but was smaller. The next two birds brought out were owls; one was a barn owl and the other was a spotted horned owl. The barn owl had piercing yellow eyes. The third bird brought out was an eagle named Sky. We didn’t get to hold him because he was too big of a bird. Apparently, he was an ambitious hunter as well. The trainer said that Sky, weighing only 1-kilo, was going after 25-kilo antelope.

The next birds brought out were vultures, and they were huge. Their wingspan was 2.3 meters. They were so big, they needed a running start in order fly. After the bird encounters, we walked about five minutes away to a winery to taste some wine. We all got to try 2 red wines and a white wine. All of them were good.

A little later, Ashley, Katie, Taylor, Lindsay, Caitlyn, and I all decided to go out to this place called Quay Four to get something to eat. They offered the same stuff an Applebee’s has. After we all ate, we went this club called Mercury, where we saw a lot of SAS students. After we spent about an hour and a half there, we went back to the ship. Right as we got to the ship gate, Ashley realized that she lost her wallet, which had her credit card, debit card, license, and ship ID. She had paid the cab driver from her wallet so we knew it was in a taxi. So the two of us ended up spending 2 hours looking from taxi to taxi trying to find it. Luckily, someone from SAS picked it up and brought it back to the ship. It was about 4:15 when we finally got back to the harbor for the night.

The next morning was quite difficult to handle. I got up at 8:15 in order to go to Table Mountain with Katie and Taylor. When we got up to the cable car place, we found out that they were closed because the wind was too strong. So after waiting about 15 minutes to see if they would open, we decided to just go back to the harbor and shop around a little. We ate a place called Mitchell’s, which had one of the best chicken fajitas I’ve ever had. Because I was so tired from last night, I decided to head back to the ship at around 2:30 and I took a nap until 5:00. We were lucky enough to leave port when the sun was setting. I think I took around 150 pictures within a 30 minutes time span. The sunset was a beautiful backdrop for the harbor as we left.

Table Mountain from the back of the boat.

Cape Town Int. Airport

MV Explorer route waiting to get into Cape Town Harbor

Harbor with boat in the background

Cape Town South Africa

The ship was scheduled to arrive on Thursday Feb 17th at 8 am. Due to high winds we were not able to dock until noon on Friday Feb 18th.

Ghana

On Sunday, we made port in Takoradi. It was hot and humid and there was a very distinct smell in the air. Sometimes the wind blew and it smelled like shit, but I couldn’t be sure. We got into the Mercedes bus that had very upright seats. They weren’t the most comfortable thing in the world for sure.

On the way to Winneba, there were brush fires along the side of the road. One was only a few hundred feet from a gas station. People were carrying stuff on their heads too, very much like pictures and movies. There were people who had nothing but shacks. When we stopped to pass certain boarders, people would try to sell us bagged food and water from outside of the bus.

Once we got to Winneba, we gathered at the welcome center where we had a greeting party of people. Included were members of the local government and a chief that did not speak English. A libation in twi was made in our honor to make sure we had a safe time in Winneba.

The hotel that we checked into was a lot better than the surrounding dwellings of people. There was only one bed and there were 2 of us to a room. The voltage of the outlets was 220v so we had to use a converter. Dinner consisted of spicy rice, chicken, French fries, and chewy salad.

After dinner, we went to the south campus of the University of Education at Winneba. Once there, we were greeted by the mayor of Winneba and a choir that sang for us. The lecture hall had what looked like seats from movie theaters. Throughout the whole time there, students sang and danced for us. Then, a group of older men in what looked like green togas played for us and people from the school began dancing. After that performance, students played what they call highlife music, which every student from SAS got up and danced to. Music is very much a part of their culture and entertainment.

When we left the lecture hall, we got to talk to the students that went to the school. There was a small barrier of communication because their English was not the best, but I understood that the guy’s name was Kofe and he seemed pretty cool. After we got back to the hotel, people were looking for a place to watch the super bowl. A guy at the hotel said that there was a bar down the road which turned out to be really awesome. We got a bus ride there, and the bar had a 30 foot projection screen which was unbelievable to find in Ghana. Their porch was outside and the weather was impeccable.

The next morning, we had breakfast across the street from the hotel. They had crepes and omelets which weren’t bad at all. After eating, we were taken to a different campus of the College of Education at Winneba. This part specialized in arts and theater, again, the students there performed for us and danced. I was grabbed by the hand to dance with a girl who later gave me her email address and phone number. After that, the group of us went to the market which was about two minutes walk away from the campus. I saw a group of people trying to get a picture with someone’s small girl, and they loved it. After that, we all walked back to the bus and it took us back to Takoradi. It was a tiring couple of days.

The past two days were pretty fun. Yesterday, Mike and a group of his friends decided to go to the market, so I tagged along. On the way out of the port, we were followed by people trying to make and sell us things. One pair of guys followed us for a solid 10 minutes before I said my name was Wilbert and he could make a bracelet for me. It was scorching hot outside that day. I was sweating pretty badly. When we finally got into town, we all wandered through the market. People seemed to be selling the same thing at every other stand. Beans, fruits, nuts, peppers, everything. I had one lady call me over because she saw my camera and then she asked me for money. I only said I had my camera, and she asked me to give her that. She started laughing after that of course, but I still felt bad for her.

After leaving that, we were a bit confused trying to find the way back to where we came from. We must have passed the same people at least three times. Many of them were friendly, waving, and asking if we were from America. I think there was a general assumption that all of us were rich because we were white and from America. We went to a grocery store where I could finally get water because I was dying of thirst. After that, we all tried to go to an internet café, but the taxi we got took us to the wrong place. So after getting a van, we were taken to the Vodafone main café where it was air conditioned and very nicely set up with about 30 computers. When we were there, this little girl tried to pull a chair up next to me when I was video chatting with sister. It was really funny; sister wasn’t sure if she was a girl a guy and kept calling her he and him. Of course Mike took plenty of pictures.

As for today, it was a really good time. My friend Scott was wiped from last night though. I got on the bus and saw him in the back laying down and I could tell he had a rough night. This bus was at least air conditioned, unlike the bus to Winneba.

Once we got to the community center, people were already drumming. We got there and 7 people were drumming while one girl was dancing. After they stopped, we clapped and because it was drizzling, everyone moved under a sheltered area. We were then shown 5 traditional African dances. One of which required the men to dress up and dance like girls. It was really funny, but apparently they do it help girls become beautiful when they reach puberty. Another dance was a simple rain dance, but it was still pretty amazing. During one dance, a guy came out walking on his hands and he did some pretty amazing things. He could do a split and walk around on his hands with his legs open, and he could easily stick his leg behind is head when he was standing. After they were done performing, we learned how to dance and sing they way they did.

Locals were watching us from outside of the gate and some were dancing with us while others were smiling. We learned two songs, one incantation was jelly-goobera-san-wan-man-na, that was the one I liked the most. After learning and practicing, the drummers did one more song and I was once again pulled to dance by some girl, except we were the only two dancing for awhile. It was a lot of fun, but it was exercise.

After dancing, we went to lunch at a hotel nearby. I had rice and chicken, which didn’t seem like a typical meal in Takoradi, but I didn’t complain. When we went back to the community center, we learned another song and how to drum to it. Kids ended up coming in from outside and singing with us. It looked like a scene from an SAS video. One that you never think would happen, but it did. They were very welcoming and let us take pictures of them. In the end, we got to dance and sing for them. After that, we got loaded on the bus and headed back to the ship. It was a lot of fun and even though I was required to do it, I had a really great time.

Kevin using Skype at the internet cafe

13 year old Susananh helping Kevin.

Internet Cafe in Ghana

Ghana marketplace

Sea Olympics

        Today was the day of the Sea Olympics. I’m on the second deck so that makes me part of the Aegean Sea. There are ten seas all together; Aegean, Red, Yellow, Baltic, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Arabian, Bering, Luna (faculty and dependants), and Sea Salts(lifelong learners). Last night we had the opening ceremonies, where each sea displayed their banner and showed off the cheer/chant. These were the first two events that would be judged. We had practiced our cheer as a sea for around half an hour before we were called up to the union, so we were feeling confident. Since the Aegean Sea is located between Turkey and Greece, our mascot was the turkey greaser. Our motto was Boom, because our chant went along with some Nelly song that said boom a lot. Anyway, we ended up getting 3rd place with our banner and 3rd place for our cheer.
        Today was nuts. At around 930 in the morning, the voice came on and said that there was a reschedule for events because it had rained all of last night and the deck was wet. So instead of dodge ball, it was musical chairs. Instead of volleyball, it was balloon volleyball, and most events had changes in time.
I woke up at around 1130, ate lunch with Kyle and Mike, who are both in the Baltic Sea. Of course we poked and prodded each other about who was the better sea. They both had signed up for Trivia, which was based on the voyager’s handbook, SAS information, and general random trivia. As we were eating, an announcement was made that dodge ball was going to be played on the court. So apparently the courts were dry enough to play on, which was good news for me because I did not want to play balloon volleyball. So after lunch, Kyle and Mike went to study for trivia, and I went to check out the synchronized swimming.
The event started at 1 and when I got there around 1255, the pool was mobbed. Our team was very dedicated because they were up the past two mornings at 6 in order to practice. I barely got to see the yellow sea do their routine which was first. After not being able to see the sea salts, which was second, I decided to go support dodge ball. When I got there, we were playing the purple team, which was the Bering Sea. We ended up beating them, but then losing in the following round to the Yellow Sea. I decided to stay and watch the other teams play it out before heading back to the synchronized swimming. I just barely missed my team’s event, but we ended up placing second so im guessing that everyone’s dedication paid off. I decided to go back to the basketball court to watch SAS basketball, which was like horse, but instead of H-O-R-S-E it was S-A-S, original right? Aegean ended up taking second in that too. Then volleyball was the next event. Aegean vs. Mediterranean was the last game in the preliminaries. Some of the teams were really good. I was convinced people played for their college, which made me feel pretty bad. When it was Aegean Sea’s turn, my partner Steph and I ended up losing 11-4 once it was over. I was pretty embarrassed but my teammates picked me up.
By this time, it was around 4 in the afternoon. After the game, the Aegean Sea people at the court decided to go to the main dining hall where dress your LLC was taking place. Oh, the LLC is basically our RA for our sea, or hallway. In this event, each LLC takes a slip of paper from a hat and each slip has an identity and they have to be dressed like what the slip says. One slip had Michael Jackson, one was Lady Gaga, one was an American tourist, and there were other funny ones. We had to dress Dustin, our LLC as a pirate. After the identity was drawn, people from each sea had to run back to their cabin to grab appropriate clothes to dress their LLC. I lent Dustin my white dress shirt. He ended up wearing eye shadow, a peg leg, hook, a parrot on his shoulder, tattoos, sharpied out teeth, a box of captain crunch dangling from his belt, a wig, and a bandana. I have no idea how someone had a wooden parrot, but it came in handy. Needless to say, we got first place in that event.
After all was said and done, Baltic placed third, Aegean placed second, and Red placed first. That means that red gets off in San Diego first, Aegean gets off second, and Baltic gets off third. I’m not sure how SAS sorts the order for the other seas. Today was a very full day, my throat is raspy and I’m exhausted and it’s only 945 at night. I’d say playing Olympic Games on a boat traveling around the world is a pretty memorable day in my book. Definitely won’t forget this one. We’ll be making landfall in 3 days, then no class for 5 days! But for now, I have to go to sleep so I can get up tomorrow and study for my world religions test.