after 3 months

10 countires

29000 nautical miles

 

im finally home.

Salvador, Brasil

 

There's no combination no words I could put on the back of a postcard

 

I’m skipping Ghana’s blog. I’ll do it later. Brasil is fresher on the mind. And it was amazing.

 

As I sit here in my cabin writing this blog, I’m listening to my iPod because Mackenzie just put her newish playlist onto it. Its called “this is it”. She does one for every country, and this one is the finale. Some of the songs are awesome and bring a smile while others are sad and draw a tear. They make me reflect on what I’ve just done. I keep looking up at the giant world map next to my bed and I cannot believe I’ve almost been all the way around. Almost there. Wow.

Brasil-

 

So we docked in Salvador. It was obviously our last foreign port so I was definitely getting up for the sunrise. And I did indeed. But it was cloudy. It was still pretty though and the majority of my friends were up there so it was awesome to watch the lack of sunrise with them.

All 8 of us decided to hang out together that day because it was our last full day in port together cause others had trips and stuff with SAS. So it was Lis, Lauren, Liz, Kerry, Kelcie, Mackenzie, Steph, and me. We all walked to the elevator which was like a 5minute walk from the port.

Let me explain- in Salvador there is an upper and lower city. The lower city, but in actuality the entire city, is very dangerous so we were told to get the elevator to get up to the upper city. We all got there and it was a holiday and all the banks were closed so we had no money (we also can’t use ATM’s in the city because most are scams). Luckily the lady running the giant elevator was nice enough to let us 8 girls sneak in.

So this elevator is giant. It looks like a sky scrapper. But it takes you up to the upper city and once you get off you are taken back by this gorgeous view of the water and the city below and the lush greenery falling down the steep hills below. It’s so gorgeous. After a few photos there and a nice group shot our friend came up to us who had already been around a little bit and warned us not to go a certain way down the street because we would be mugged/robbed/hurt etc. great. Already? What had we been there like 15 minutes?

So we avoided that area and walked where we saw other SAS kids. This area seriously made me feel like I was in Rome. It was beautiful. The buildings are all different colors but it’s not like Bahamas ish its like Europe with a twist. So we walked around a little and decided we were hungry so we stopped at this restaurant to eat. We also met up with about 10 other girls as well and we all kind of hung out together and ate and had a good time. After our meal we went shopping and looking around a little. There are all these narrow alleyways with shops everywhere and bars and places to eat. It’s amazing. We found this bar there and they were playing live music in the street and a ton of us SAS kids were dancing and shopping and just taking our last port and having a great time. It was like something out of a movie.

So after we hung out there for a while we headed back to the ship to get ready for the night. We had dinner on the ship and had heard about a ton of people getting mugged, knifes pulled on them, chased down and so on. And this was during the middle of the day.

We still got ready for the night. We got all dressed up ‘cause it was our last night all together in port. We met up with the other girls again, who most of them live right by me in my hall, and we all headed out together. There were seriously 25 girls and 2 guys…welcome to SAS life.

So we decided to get our own cab with Lis, Liz, Kelcie, Kerry, Mackenzie, Steph, and me. I don’t know if you know, but most people in Brasil don’t speak English, at least in Salvador. So were in this cab trying to tell him to go to this bar everyone is going to but he has no idea what were saying and he’s just driving around and everyone is getting frustrated and mad and so on. So, finally Kerry, Mackenzie, and Liz decided to get out and find whatever bar they were looking for. This sounded like a really bad idea to me—walking around, all girls, at night, in one of the most dangerous places in the world, yeah wasn’t happening. So we had the guy take us back to the ship. We all collectively decided to stay in that night and just relax.

The next morning we all got up and this was the day that Lis, Kerry, Lauren, Jimbo, Mackenzie and me were traveling to a town about an hour away called Praia do Forte (Google it, it’s beautiful). All 6 of us managed to squeeze into this Brasilian man’s cab. With the backpacks and Mackenzie in the trunk (don’t worry, it was a hatch back) we were ready to go.

With one pit stop to get gas at an amazing gas station with the best snacks ever we had finally arrived.

Sidenote: there were magazines in the gas station that had some American celebrities in them and it was so strange to see celebrities like that. The magazine was in Portuguese but the pictures were nice.

Once we arrived we walked down a long stretch of road (which by the way is cobblestone) and literally it’s like an outdoor mall/town with shops, restaurants, and bars. It was so beautiful. If you walked about 10 minutes straight back on the same road, you ran directly into the beautiful Brazilian beach. The water temperature is perfect and the sand is so gorgeous and the water is as well.

We had our cab drivers friend walk us through the town and find us a hotel. As usual people find out were American and automatically think we want to stay in the Ritz Carlton penthouse suite. So we declined and conveniently pulled out Mackenzie’s lonely planet travel book and pointed to this cheap but nice place called Tia Helena’s. We made our way to the place and were shown two rooms that would accommodate all 6 of us.

After we settled in we were hungry and decided we would head out and get a drink before dinner. So we went to this gorgeous outdoor bar/restaurant and enjoyed a drink. It started to pour mid-drink but we were covered by the wood roof. Plus the rain stopped after like 15 minutes. Mind you this did bring 1000 mosquitoes, who I’m pretty sure were out to get me. So after our drink we made our way to the first Mexican restaurant we have spotted the entire trip. We were craving Mexican for like 3 countries now (uh yeah, we keep time by intervals of country—not a bad life eh?). So anyway, we made our way to the Mexican place and I enjoyed a delicious cheese enchilada and we devoured our chips with salsa and queso. That Mexican food was well needed and enjoyed.

After dinner we decided we were going to have another drink somewhere. So we decided on this area in the middle of the street (there are no cars) where plastic tables and chairs were set up. It was here where we were approached by a street kid (well he was 20). He tried to sell us this basket he weaves from these lilyish looking leaves. We got to talking to him and got him to sit down with us. His name was Williams and he knew a bit of English from learning it from tourists (mind you not many American tourists come to this area). So we made friends with Williams and he got his friend Matteo to come hang out with us too. After a while we decided to make our way to an outdoor bar with live music that we heard was good. We all sat down and enjoyed the music and company. This is where we met Fred (pronounced Fredge in his accent) who was the guitar player and all of the live music entertainment. He knew some American songs such as Black Eyed Peas, Don’t worry be happy, Jason Mraz, and of course Bob Marley. Mackenzie is a guitar player and has an amazing voice so we got her to get up there with Fred and we all danced and sang the night away.

I also met a guy named Bruno that night who is from Brasil (Sao Paulo) but lives in Australia (how convenient..I’ll explain later!). Anyways, the point of all these people introductions was to show that we made very good friends in this town.

So after this bar we all went to beach and hung out there for a little while but not too long. We had a long day ahead of us to follow.

We all woke up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel. After that we made our way to a tour place Kerry had spotted out the day before. It was there we met (gah I’m spacing her name) but it is similar to Maria. And she spoke near perfect English and she hooked us up with the sweetest tour ever. We were leaving at 2 so she recommended we spend the morning going to the Projecto Tamar (Project Turtle?). But it’s a place that this town is famous for. They breed and save turtles. It was amazing to see this place set up. It’s like an outdoor museum literally right next to the beach.

After the turtle rescue we decided to get a bite to eat. We went to a pizza place (standard) where we got these hugeee delicious pizzas. I can’t even explain to you how fresh and delicious the food was. I would recommended ANYONE to go to this town to vacation. I definitely see my parents vacationing there. (sorry off topic…).

It was nearing 2 and it was time for us to get back to the hotel where our tour guide was meeting us. We met up with him and his name was Hector and he was from Uruguay originally. He spoke some English but not a ton. He took us on this open bus type deal a little bit out of the town. Because we were about to go ATVing through the Brasilian jungle. How awesome is that!?

Okay I know I’m traveling the world, but I’m still my cautious Jess self (but I’m getting better). So, no I didn’t drive my ATV, Lis did. I just held on for dear life on the back. We had 2 on each ATV. Kerry and Mackenzie, Jimbo and Lauren, and Lis and Me. Lis and I were in the back and we literally laughed and joked the entire ride. We mesh well together and get each other’s humor J (yeah, I know you’ll read this later Lis you FREAK).

We rode our ATV to a river where we were about to go ZIP LINING! They had this like huge wooden house area that it looked like people could stay at. I can’t describe it. I’ll add a video to my blog once I’m in FL so you can see all my pictures.

We got suited up in our zip lining gear and zip lined across the river to the other side. It was three stories high I believe. I’m terrified of falling like that but I did it and it was awesome. We got to zip line back to the other side and this time we got to go over the Brasilian jungle. Doesn’t get much better than that!

When our zip lining was done we then got to do a small trek in the jungle (while carrying a tube) because now we got to go tubing down the river. At this point in time I had around 20 misquito bites. My family understands how allergic I am to the bites but others don’t. My friends were shocked my bites were the size of a quarter if not bigger from not even itching the bites. So, I was about to call even more attention to myself for the pesky bugs by cruising down the river. It was so amazing to be able to do that though!

 

Sidenote: Microsoft Word keeps telling me my verb tense is wrong so just ignore it if it is. I’m so tired but I promised myself I would finish this blog tonight (its 12:00 now)

So after the tubing we headed back to the ATV’s and rode back to where we met the bus. The bus then took us back to our hotel. As soon as we got back to the hotel we all showered and got ready for the night. It was Friday night, which is like America’s Friday night (a big party) so we were excited for that.

We all wanted to get a nice dinner together for our last night in Paria. So we found this place that Maria(?) recommended to us. Once there I ordered stuffed crab shell and shrimp (a specialty) with mashed potatoes and broccoli rice. This was by far the best meal I have had in a long time. The food was AMAZING. All of us agreed that it was so good.

After dinner we decided to do a little shopping before we went out for the night. After shopping we needed to meet up at this corner pizza place that Mackenzie had met the owner of earlier that day. The owner Tiago (sp?) went to high school in the US so he spoke perfect English. He was awesome and he definitely became a close friend to us. Anyway he had live music from this guy we called Toasty who was from Germany. Tiago kicked Toasty off the mike and let Mackenzie sing and it was so awesome to hear her and another local sing a Jason Mraz song in both English and Portuguese together. I will never forget hearing that.

After we spent some time there we all headed to a bar for a while/ dance club where everyone goes on the weekends. It was such a fun time and we made such great friends.

The next morning we were so tired and needed some breakfast. After a lot of searching, we finally found a place that serves breakfast. I got an amazing smoothie and I’m spacing what I ate at the moment (man can you tell I haven’t had much sleep lately, I’m spacing everything). But whatever, the food was really good, once again.

After that we decided to get hair wraps. Well, I didn’t, but Lis and Kerry got one. It’s like the kind you get in Disney World that my mom always hated. While they got their hair wraps done at this outdoorish beauty place I sat in their recliner and proceeded to fall asleep.

I woke up and we all decided to head to the beach. I got to lie out on the beach for like an hour—which was so great. Anyone who knows me knows I love the beach. We spotted our friends Williams and Matteo on the beach and chatted with them for a little bit. The language barrier is so funny sometimes.

After we were done at the beach we decided to do some last minute shopping before we were heading back to Salvador. This is where I proceeded to apparently spend almost every last dime on both credit cards I had. Oh well, last port.

It started getting a little late (5ish) so we decided to leave. We got a big cab back to Salvador and as we left Tiago was waving us off. We really did make friends in this little town. I’ve thought about them every day since I left.

Okay not too much happened after we got back to Salvador, but Ill write it in another blog. I can barely keep my eyes open.

I’m 3 days away from arriving in Florida. It’s so strange. Can’t really be put into words, but at least I’m not going through this alone. Tomorrow I have my last finals and we also have our Alumni Ball. I’m really excited. I’m trying to spend every last minute I can with all my friends.

 

 

i'm sure there's typos in here. Just ignore them like I did.

 

What else can I do to procrastinate on this take home final?

“Happiness is the meaning and the

purpose of life, the whole aim and end

of human existence.”

Aristotle

 

 

my blogs are in the process of being completed. dont worry.

Don Gogniat's Travel Tips

1. never let your age get larger than the number of countries you have explored

2. keep your feet on the ground

3. it's all about people

4. the more you know, the more interesting it is

5. sit on a park bench for one hour

6. take time to smell the roses

7. meet people with a smile (both ways)

8. "dip a post card in a country" and mail it home

9. listen with your ears and your heart

10. from travel, learn and practice humility

Brazil vs Brasil

just to clarify, I spell Brasil the way I do because that is how it is spelled in Portuguese and Spanish. I know it's spelled BraZil in the US. Ive gotten an email or two about the spelling, so I thought I would clarify that Im not a giant idiot and I realize how its spelled.

 

 

dad- I guess this means youll have to correct all the clothing items I bought in Brasil that read "Brasil" on them, and yes I did contemplate about buying you a shirt that said BRASIL on it in giant lettering.

On the road(?) again

brasil was amazing. SO amazing.

many blogs to come.

 

our ship JUST set sail...and that means i can officially say, im on my way home.

very werid. very very bitter sweet. more bitter. but it had to happen eventually.

so, here i come usa. i hope youre ready.

back to reality?

it just hit me. it just hit me that i have to go back to durango and im well on my way.

i pretty much immediately started crying.

and attempted to search places i could go instead on what little internet i have.

not much luck. BUT i will do anything i can not to return and continue traveling

or at least live in a new area.

Just Workin' on my Fitness

okay, this isnt my ghana blog either. i promise im really busy!

 

so much stuff to do and such little time. BUT i did fit something in today that i pretty much have never done.

yes, thats right, i squeezed a workout into my schedule.

pretty weird that I have actually resorted to working out eh? (tells you something about the food aka carbs only)

but i liked it and im going to do it consistantly from now on.

im pretty proud of myself.

 

this is going to make no sense if you dont know me. but if you do, you fully understand.

 

 

okay back to work.

We're all human.

This isnt my Ghana blog, yet.

This is my realization that this trip is coming to an end.

My heart just dropped as I was thinking about it. I'm not ready to come home. This whole idea is so bittersweet though. There are some days where I feel like I am but as a whole, Im not. I wish I could go home for a week and do this all over again. I've met so many amazing people on this trip. Not just college friends on the ship too. I've become close with professors, crew, staff, interport students, and of course people from each port. My friends and I have been saying over and over that when we go home and we are around friends from home and want to tell a story or a "remember that one time in India" and no one is going to know/understand/appreciate what we are talking about. We joke that we will all call and text each other when that happens. But seriously I know it will. Im going to miss all of the friends i've made on this trip so much. Im going to miss the ocean too. Lis was saying she misses seeing grass all the time the other day and I proceeded to tell her that I dont miss it at all. I LOVE being on the ocean 24/7. Ive come to love the freezing cold boat..er I mean ship, and the intense feeling of humidity outside. It's become a feeling of home to me. I come back from treveling independently in port and feel home once Im back on the ship and I know im not the only one who feels that way. Ive come to feel the rocking of the ship as soothing and normal. There are countless little things that have become my norm that Im going to want back home in Colorado. 

I just keep repeating it over and over in my head: one more port left, only one more port..seriously, only one more port?

Then I look over at my map and follow the red line of travel all the way from Littleton, Colorado- SanDiego, California- Ensenada, Mexico- Hilo, Hawaii-Honolulu, Hawaii- Yokohama, Japan- Kobe, Japan- Shanghai, China- Hong Kong, China- Siagon, Vietnam- Cambodia- Chennai, India- Cohin, India, Port Louis, Mauritus- Cape Town, South Africa to Tema, Ghana.

Then I look at how much longer I have to go in order to legally say I have circumnavigated around the world.

 

 

Can you believe that. I mean people on here say that like it's nothing. But when you really take the time to think about it, it's crazy. In less than a month I will be able to say that I, at 21 years old, have literally traveled around the entire WORLD. I have literally gone around the Earth. Wow.

I've seen things in the world that most people, even in America, will never see. I've had experiences that cannot ever be recreated or "one uped".

I've said this a million times, but im SO fortunate. Ive become so disgusted with money on this trip though. Its kind of a catch 22.

 

Maybe right now is finally when its hit me. I got on this ship and it hadnt hit me at all what I was doing. It still hasnt fully sank in. But its starting to...I think.

Ghana sort of made me realize it. When I called my parents and they asked how it was and what it is like it kind of clicked to me. Im going to places that people would (for the most part) never really travel to. Its not Europe where the standard college kid goes and then travels around and does that whole deal. Im staying in Japanese hostels, seeing cambodian killing feilds, and seeing greater poverty than most American's will ever whitness in their lifetime.

 

Its hard to wrap your head around.

I mean once you really sit down and seriously think about it. Its mind boggling.

I hope every kid on this trip realizes how lucky they are. As were told almost daily, "were lucky little bunnies".

 

 

"You are the most beautiful girl ive ever seen!"

South Africa.

What an experience-and a learning experience at that. Even though some bad things happened I still loved it and I know for a fact I will travel back there.

Alright, my first morning still cruising into Cape Town I woke up realll early. I mean the sun wasn’t even up. Thus the point of why I was up so early. I was getting up to watch the sunrise cause I had heard from past blogs that it’s beautiful-which it was. I was up so early that it was just me and my Global Studies teacher Don up at one point. He told me since I was up so early that he would tell me something. He pointed off in the distance to a light that would shine every few seconds. He told me that was the Cape of Good Hope. How cool! I was one of the first people on the ship to see it and I got to see it from a different angle than everyone else who went to see it from the land.

Anyways I was up so early and enjoyed the sun rise behind table mountain-very gorgeous. Then I had breakfast where I scored not one but two boxes of fruit loops. This is major on the ship and apparently it pays to be up that early.

So, after getting cleared off the ship I headed off the gangway and was met by a tour guide in a blue shirt with Lauren, Kelcie, Steph, Liz and Lindsey. This is because we were headed 2 hours away to cage dive with great white sharks. Yes, I, cautious Jess, went cage diving with great whites. We drove to the place, which was a beautiful drive, and once we arrived we were served a delicious meal that was prepared for us. Upon arrival we discovered that Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Anderson Cooper, Leonardo DiCarprio, One Republic and Prince Harry have all done shark diving with this company. I took a picture of their “autograph” they had signed in the guest book-pretty sweet. After our meal it was time for us to divide up into 3 boats and head out. My friends Chris, Conner, and Patrick were there as well and we were all on the same boat with some other SAS kids too. Surprisingly I wasn’t nervous at all. I was more nervous for the boat ride they were warning us about. He told us what to do if we got sea sick which I warned our captain that it would be me cause I have such a sensitive stomach to sea sickness on a giant ship.

Though the boat ride out to the shark area was rough I actually felt fine. We went about 20 minutes out into the water and all got into our wetsuits cause the water is pretty cold. It’s hard to describe the cage but I would say it looks like it’s from 1970 and its made of wire and there are holes you can reach your hand out of throughout the entire cage that are about 6in by 6in and the bottom is the same but the top is open with like 3 cross bars to hold onto. You’re lowered into the cage which is already almost fully under water with a mask on and when a shark comes you are instructed “divers down” (in a south African accent) and you go underwater and hold yourself down by holding onto the bars. They also put weights on you to weigh you down.

I was in the second group of kids who went into the cage and right as I was getting my face mask and being lowered into the water I got nervous. I was next to Steph in the water and once I was in the cage I wasn’t nervous anymore. It was actually really really cool. I was literally inches away from great white sharks. It is so crazy to think about.

After my group went another group went and the shark was looking for the bait and I guess missed or something and bit the cage and got stuck! He could have easily bit the part of the cage where the divers fingers were! Luckily it didn’t and everyone was fine but wow it was so crazy and the pictures I have are amazing! It was an unforgettable experience and I’m so happy and proud I did it.

On our way back I was getting sea sick (typical) but it wasn’t too bad. We got another snack once we got back to the docking area. I got a sweet shirt and a DVD of my group and me shark diving that day. So, if you’re ever at my house and want to see just how close I got, you can. And mom and dad we can watch the DVD on my computer on Florida if you want- it’ll probably scare you Mom. After we were done with our snack and such we headed back to the ship to get ready for the night.

Side note: my captain took Matt Damon out shark diving and he said “you know how he’s so buff in the movies, well he’s not like that in person” And Matt Damon visited exactly a year after I did so apparently he’s chubby.

We met up at the ship and got ready for the night. Lauren, Lindsey, Steph, Kelcie and I went out to dinner at a place called Quay Four (if you goggle V&A waterfront in CapeTown, South Africa you can see it in the skyline). It was really good food, I got calamari and chips, and the view was beautiful as it was right on the water with a gorgeous view of our ship.

We were supposed to meet our friend Mackenzie at 11 on the ship so we came back to the ship and met her then. We then found Lis, Kerry and Jimbo and we all left the ship and went out. All the SAS kids congregated in the same place which is called Long Street. It’s a long street filled almost entirely with bars- really fun. So we stayed out pretty late and I decided, because my safari was leaving at 3:30 that next morning that I just wouldn’t go to bed.

So we left Long Street around 3:00 and I got back to my room packed for my safari and was off to the Cape Town airport. Once at the airport we headed to the gate to prepare for our flight. I didn’t know anyone in my safari but we were on the flight with 2 other SAS safari groups and I hung out with Kerry (Lis’s roommate) for my flights. I say flightS because after our first flight we had a second flight that was on our unmarked private chartered flight. Not bad SAS, not bad. I suppose that made up for the 2 hours we spent in the terminal trying to deal our boarding passes that they messed up like 6 times.

Anyways as our chartered flight was landing on the runway there were 2 cheetahs laying next to our plane! How cool is that? And that was just the beginning. So our flight landed. It literally landed in the middle of nowhere on this thing that looked like an empty parking lot. Once the plane stopped we spotted like 6 vans and then 3 open sweet looking safari cars. Yeah, the safari cars were for my safari and I’m pretty sure the other safaris were jealous. Our safari place Kapama River Lodge was about a 15 minute drive from the airport-not bad. We drove up to our resort/spa and it is absolutely the most gorgeous place I have ever stayed. Hopefully I can send a picture to my blog. Its out in the bush and everything is like open and out door. Our spa suites were a walk from the reception area, not a long one, but everything is spread out and the walkways are so modern and beautiful and so are the rooms and all the facilities. My type of roughing it for sure. We checked into the resort and we get our roommates alphabetically and my roommate’s name was Katie and we were on the plane together so had already talked. She was really nice and we got along really well. She’s from California and goes to Chapman.

Anyway, we checked in and made our way to our room to freshen up before lunch. Our room was SO beautiful and modern. We had a balcony (even though we were on the first floor) and there are literally safari animals roaming right out by your balcony. It’s so amazing.

We made our way to lunch cause we were all starving. Lunch was DELICIOUS. It was definitely one of the best places I’ve eaten yet. They spoiled us with fresh fruit and fresh cooked foods and sauces and smoothies. It was incredible and buffet style.

After lunch we had a few hours to relax before our evening game drive. I decided to take a nap cause I hadn’t slept the night before and only slept like 45minutes on the airplane. The beds weren’t huge but they were soo comfy and the comforter was even better than the one I have at home! After my nap Katie and I headed to afternoon tea and biscuits which happens before every afternoon game drive. Once again the food was SO good. They had carrot cake which I usually don’t like but this was literally the best cake I’ve ever had in my life. They had lots of different juices, such a guava juice, too. They had other snacks to chose from too.

After our snack we were off for our game drive. Due to a lack of pictures (which I’ll explain later) I don’t exactly remember what animals I saw on our first drive. I know we saw a giraffe and a baby giraffe that was only like 3 days old and its umbilical cord was still attached-that’s how young he was.

We also saw Zawzu, Pumba, and Nala. And yes I do refer to them by their Hollywood Lion King names. AND yes we did all sing the lion sleeps tonight at one point or another in our journey.

That’s beside the point. The drive was amazing and it started getting dark. We stopped off for some drinks. It was awesome. Our driver John and our spotter, who sits at the very front of the car (like on the hood) in a special chair, Stanley took a break in the middle of the African bush so we could relax for like 45minutes. It was awesome. Though this is where I lost any and all faith in the safari car I was a part of.

There were 10kids total. 5 guys and 5 girls (this is rare considering our ship is like 70% girls). One girl and I were the only ones who weren’t from the east coast. Which I suppose is sort of common, there’s a ton of east coast kids on this ship. Usually on these trips you make new friends or at least people you say hi to back on the ship and what not. Though, every single person but 2 of the girls were really unfriendly and clearly had no interest in getting to know people who didn’t have that common east coast bond. It was so strange, but whatever. It put a damper on the safari, but it didn’t change what an amazing experience it was.

So anyway after our break we got back into the car and headed back to the lodge for dinner. Our spotter, Stanley, in the pitch dark with only a quick glance using a flashlight spotted a chameleon which, if we wanted to, got to have our picture hold it on a stick-I passed. After this we were back at the lodge in a beautiful dinner facility. Again the food was amazing. I can’t explain the place we ate so that you’d understand how beautiful it was. It was open but there were separate tables for each car and a buffet in the middle of the open area and it had African décor with a fire pit in the middle. It was so amazing. After our dinner was done I was completely exhausted and decided to head to bed because I had an early morning ahead of me as well.

I woke up the next morning at around 5:30 am. Our morning game drive was at 6am but we had tea and biscuits before our drive from 5:30 until 6. So I headed over to the main lodge and got some juice and fruit. Then our morning game drive began.

It was awesome seeing the sun come up and it was really nice weather as well. We saw lionesses, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, various birds, rhinos, hippos and so much more! I also saw the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life. They were seriously 3 to four inches long (including their legs). Sick. Our driver John would go off-roading if necessary to see an animal and sometimes we’d drive through spider webs and we would all have to duck. Or we would seriously take down full trees with this open land cruiser and we would have to scoot in to avoid being scratched by these thorn tree deals. It was like a tree with thorns on it that looks like a lion’s claw.

After our morning drive we headed back to the lodge to eat breakfast at around 8am. The breakfast was amazing. I had the best omelet I’ve ever eaten in my entire life there. They make it in front of you and let you pick what you put in and how much. They had tons of fresh fruits and pretty much any breakfast food you could imagine.

After breakfast we had a bunch of free time until our next activity which was lunch at I believe noon. So during my free time I decided to take another small nap and shower. I also checked out the spa area which was amazing as well. It has an outdoor infinity pool that looks out to a watering hole that a hippo has been known to frequent. Because a lot of these kids on the ship and especially my safari have more money than they know what to do with they all booked spa appointments and such. It sounded like a nice idea but after you’re spending the ridiculous amount of money that my parents did on this safari it’s unnecessary.

So, after I did all of that Katie and I were hanging out in the room, which has no TV by the way, and we saw a Kudu roaming around out by our back porch! How crazy is that!

Then time came around at about 4:30 for us to head back to the breakfast area to eat our afternoon tea and biscuits. They had chocolate cake this time. It was really good as well and so rich. This cook must have been flown in from somewhere or very well trained. All the food was great. 5:00 rolled around and it was time to begin what would be our last evening game drive.

It was the same as the night before and I won’t repeat what I have already said to spare your eyes from unnecessary reading (because I despise unnecessary reading). BUT we were missing one of the big 5. Except, we did get to be about 4 feet away from a male lion who looked JUST like mufasa or scar. We also got to hear him roar which I got a video of (useless now). But I guess the memory of the roaring lion is what really counts.

Let me explain. When one goes on an African safari they are most likely looking for the big 5. This consists of: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhino. These are grouped together because they are said to be the top 5 most dangerous animals in Africa to hunt.

So, like I was saying, we were missing one of the big 5. If you’ve been reading carefully you would have noticed that I hadn’t seen a leopard yet. Well, john was on a mission and we got a call on his walkie-talkie deal that one had been spotted by another car. Needless to say, we fully off-roaded it in the dark and finally found the leopard. She had just made a kill and we got to sit and watch her eat her dinner. That was really awesome. After watching that for a while we drove around a bit more and finally headed back to the lodge for dinner-which some of the wasted east coast kids in my car most definitely needed.

Again, I’m repeating myself but its true, the food was so amazing. We got fresh stir fry and got to pick what we wanted in it and with what sauce-delicious.

After dinner it started raining but no one really wanted to go to bed. So a bunch of us met up in the check in area and played cards and hung out. After a while of playing cards (its super popular on the ship, let me tell you) I decided to call it a night ‘cause I would again have another early wake up call.

The next morning I did the same routine. I woke up for early morning biscuits and tea while shortly after I proceeded to the safari car for our morning drive. Some of the kids in our car were gone for the morning because they did an elephant back safari (another extra like the spa). We saw lots of animals on our morning drive but nothing we hadn’t already seen. We couldn’t go offroading because it had rained so hard the night before, which was okay with us since we had seen the big 5.

After our morning drive we headed back to the lodge to eat breakfast and then pack our stuff and head out to our flight back “home”. We got on our chartered flight (yes!) with all the other safari kids. I met up with Kerry again and we compared stories and pictures and decided we both had a great time.

We landed in Johannesburg but we had a layover. So I did almost all my south Africa shopping in the airport in fear everything would be closed the next day in port because it was Easter (I was wrong on that one). So after our shopping, FIFA stuff and all, we ended up getting an earlier flight and rushing everyone back to the gates.

Once I got onto the plane the man by the plane door told me my bag was too big and he needed to check it. I grabbed my iPod out of the bag and didn’t think anything of it. I stupidly left my camera and phone in my bag. Yeah, you can guess where this is going. After our flight and not till later that night did I realize my camera and phone had been stolen. Not only was I out a camera and a phone but I was out all of my shark diving and safari pictures as well. It’s really unfortunate and I pretty much haven’t stopped thinking about it since it happened. I guess it’s a lesson learned and a test of my memory with none of my own pictures to share.

I made it back to the ship and got ready to go out for the night. I met up with Kelcie who then met up with Lis, Liz, Lindsey, and Lauren. We all got a cab and went down to Long Street where we later met up with Steph, Mackenzie and Kerry. The night was fun but 2 of my friends got money taken from them and one was held and knife point. Petty crime in South Africa is high and ever more so at night. It was all a lesson learned I guess you could say.

The next morning I was pretty upset about my camera and phone and needed to call my parents to let them know. What a great easter morning huh?

Though, my friends and I (Lis, Liz, Lindsey, Lauren, Kelcie, Steph and Mackenzie) all went to breakfast and had a delicious Easter breakfast together. It was right on the waterfront and still had a view in to the bay area where there are a lot of small shops. It was awesome!

My friends and I just hung around in the harbor all day till on ship time. We got some errands in and I got to buy a new camera luckily. I also learned electronics there are not cheap and that when you buy a camera the charger is NOT American, its European. Luckily I have a European outlet in my room on the ship!

 

So that was my stay in south Africa. And as I typically procrastinate this blog right before I arrive in the next port of call, I’ve done it again.

 

I’m like 7 hours away from Ghana. I’ll be up at 5:45 am to see the sunrise. Wish me luck and hope that none of this petty crime happens again. I hear the police are corrupt here which scares me, but we’ll see.

 

I cannot believe I have one more port of call before I arrive back in the States. How weird.

 

xx

wow.

this is pretty much just for my mom and dad.....my phone isnt working in south africa but i did make it to the safari and its amazing and the most beautiful resort ive ever seen. more later. sorry my phone isnt working.

through all of the islands and all of the highlands, if we couldnt laugh wed all go insane

Kerry and Me in Mauritius

darling what else is left to do, but sit back and enjoy my presidential view

“Mauritius was made first, and then

Heaven, and that Heaven was copied

after Mauritius.”

Mark Twain

 

Mark Twain really hit the nail on the head with this one. I’m still looking at my Mauritius pictures in awe of how beautiful that paradise really is. I want to have a house there someday or at least go back and visit from time to time. We had a minor bump in our trip, but besides that I absolutely loved the Island, the beaches and water, and the people.

There was a group of 9 of us but two were meeting us later on, so we started off with 7 of us. We all got off the ship together in the morning and got two cabs to take us to our hotel we had booked for the night. We had directions to the hotel and it took the cab drivers forever to figure out where this place was. We stopped like 3 times and finally he called the place and said it was closed. So, two of us ventured to check out another place. It was pretty nice but then we found out that we could go to our original place. So we trekked over to our original place we had reservations at and all got out and checked it out. We came to a consensus that we liked the place we had originally stopped at that we didn’t make a reservation at from the start. Our places (we got 3 rooms, not by choice) were literally on the beach and we had balconies in our room that over looked the beach and crystal clear ocean. It was beautiful.

After we got settled in we were pretty hungry so we decided to hit up the ATM (a common theme in my blogs) so we could get local currency for a place for lunch. There was a place directly across from where our hotel was that we decided to eat at. It was real nice and the food was good but kind of small portioned. I had prawns in a tomato sauce which was really good. We all enjoyed our lunch but needed to hurry a little because we had a snorkeling trip planned at I think it was 2:00.

Our meal was complete and we got in a van that took us to the beach where we got a glass bottom boat (pretty awesome seeing as the water is crystal clear) that took us out to a snorkeling area. It was okay snorkeling, not the best I’ve ever done but it was still beautiful. I think there are better areas to snorkel there but they don’t really like taking tourists there. In fact I don’t think the locals like that the tourists come there at all really. They love the money they get but not the destruction. I would definitely compare it to be the Hawaii for the Europeans.

After our snorkeling we weren’t done swimming so we asked the boat to drop us off at a beach, so he did. We hung out at this beach for like 2 hours. We met some other SAS kids there that are cool and kind of hung around them too. Once we were done swimming and hanging around the beach we walked back to the hotel and got ready for the night.

Side note: we had been hanging around this guy Ku who we eventually found out works at the restaurant we ate at for lunch. He went snorkeling with us and to the beach. He had told us once we got back to our hotel that the place across the street where we had lunch was throwing us a party and special dinner, so we thought, why not, let’s just go. So we get over there and no food was ordered for us. It was just brought to us, and not very much of it either. So we ate and met up with the other 2 people from our group. They brought us our dinner bill and it was $400.00...that’s US dollars. We talked back and forth with everyone there and couldn’t agree on anything so Me, Steph, and Kelcie and a little of Lauren’s money ended up paying for the entire bill.

We had enough and everyone started fighting and yelling. A French woman even came outside and asked what the yelling was about and another SAS kid said we were being typical SASsholes. (sas has a bad reputation in Mauritius). That’s when Me, Steph, and Kelcie decided to leave the chaos and go to a bar called Bananas that lots of SAS kids were going to. We were happy to be there and away from all the yelling and we ended up having a great night there.

The next morning we got up and got some FREE breakfast at the place across the street again. We also went to try to settle the bill. We talked and talked about it and went over it item by item. We concluded that they overcharged us by 6000 Mauritian rupees. This would equal to about $170  US. Ku claims his boss wasn’t in and there was no money around to be given back yadda yadda. Basically we were screwed. Next we had to pay our hotel bill. This is when it hit me that Ku was a fraud.

Lauren and I had totaled our entire hotel bill including snorkeling. We figured it out with the hotel guy and Ku kept saying he needed some of the money for taking us around or something. And the man who works at the hotel asked us why we were paying anything to this guy, he’s just a cook that works across the street. That is when is dawned on me. The only money Ku would get is if we ordered something from his restaurant.

We paid the right price for our rooms and Ku kept insisting we give him 1000rupees. Finally we did what was right and said no and started to walk away. He then threatened us with using our passport numbers and calling the police. We weren’t worried about it so we just walked away calmly and decided to walk along the beach to calm everyone’s nerves.

This immediately changed our moods and calmed us. The beach is so beautiful. It seriously looks like a postcard or a desktop background on your computer. We kept walking along the beach and Liz got thirsty so I and she stopped at this beach bar along the way that looked super nice and modern. We got her water and everyone decided we should just stay there and get some lunch. This place was called the beach house and it was AMAZING. While we waited for our food we literally walked down 3 coral steps and into the sand down to the beach. It was seriously what you imagine a tropical paradise to be. The food was amazing (they had really good pizza) and they had good drinks too. Some of us took like an hour break to go shopping in town (obviously I was one of them) and then after that we came back into the bar and hung out there until we needed to leave back to Port Louis (30min away) where our ship was docked.

Mauritius was definitely our “spring break” (I put it in quotes because let's get real, I’ve been on spring break since January 17^th) but it was a great time to relax completely. I will most definitely be coming back here no matter what. I still can’t get out of my head how beautiful it is there.

Also, currently I’m sailing to Cape Town (like in the last blog). We are so close that we are following the shore line 6 miles away. It’s like a tease. I can see it but I can’t go out and experience it! It's SO weird typing this knowing im looking at Africa typing to people in Colorado or the US. Such a strange thought.

Not tomorrow but the next day we will be there and I’ll literally be swimming with the great white sharks. I’m scared a little but I know well be safe. Who would have ever thought I would cage dive with great white sharks!

 

xx

 

on the note of thinking its strange im writing to people back in the US while i'm staring at Africa. Well, I got on facebook and I guess it must have been a decent time back in the States cause people were online and I decided to chat a couple. But it was too overwhelming for me. I don't even know why. Just the thought that I was in the middle of the ocean somewhere and talking to someone back in Durango was way too weird of a thought for me. I can't imagine how Im going to feel after I'm actually back in the States. It's going to be bitter sweet and as of right now I think it will be more on the bitter side.

no buy, no problem II

Okay so my second India blog…

The second morning in India me Lis and her roommate Kerry decided to go find an internet café so we could skype or just get on real internet and what not. So we walked around for like 45 minutes trying to find an internet café. It wasn’t as easy as we thought it was and finally we just decided to get a rigshaw and have him take us. First we had to get to an ATM though so we could get money out. We got to an ATM and my card worked but Kerry and Lis’s card didn’t. We tried another ATM and the same thing was happening. This seemed really strange so for some weird reason we decided it was a major emergency and to head to the US conciliate, which was like 15 minutes away. So we get there and go through major security and finally get inside and the guy we talked to (who is fully American and born in American) was the same guy who had come to give a diplomatic briefing to our ship community the day before.  He was very nice and told Kerry to try to use the ATM in their building which sure enough worked. While Kerry was figuring out all of her card stuff me and Lis asked if they had internet and sure enough, they had a full library upstairs with internet that costs like 25c for an hour. We only spent like 20 minutes on the internet but it was good enough for me.

So after that we got back into the rigshaw and headed back to our ship because Kerry, Lis, and all my other friends had an FDP at 1:00. It took us a lot of firm No’s to finally get across to our driver that we don’t have time to go to any shops and especially the ones he’s getting points at. I think he was pretty mad but we had to get back so we didn’t really have a choice.

We made it back in time for their FDP and I just hung around the ship for a few hours cause I needed to pack and get ready and prepare myself for my adventure across India.

Lis, Lauren, and Steph got back later that night and we left the ship around 7, we were also joined by our friend Patrick who was traveling with us too. We were basically kicked off the ship because it was leaving at 8ish to sail to the other port where we were meeting it.

So we got off the ship and hired a taxi driver that took us to our bus station. Uh and on the way to the bus station our taxi driver (keep in mind the previously stated driving situation in India) hit another car. Yes we were in a car accident and all that came of it was my driver getting out and looking at the damage and then both cars just moving on and making their ways elsewhere. I guess it’s just not that big of a deal in India or something to hit a car and just bounce. It pretty much was not helping me considering I was already EXTREMELY anxious about this whole India traveling thing to begin with.

So anyways, we got to the bus station at like 9:30 I think (at night) and it was so crowded and so many buses and I had no idea what we were doing or where we were going and I pretty much had a mini panic attack. I started to cry and needed to sit down because I was so overwhelmed with pretty much anything and everything that India is all about. But Patrick had previously visited the station and he was helped and got our tickets and once we had them I was a little less anxious..I guess.  So we had time to kill and decided that we would hang out at this bar that was next door inside a semi-nice hotel. We noticed that we were the only women in this bar..or any bar I went to in India for that matter. But we had a drink and some snacks before we got to spend the next 9 hours on a sleeper bus.

So we got on the sleeper bus and we got the very back row. It had 5 connected seats which worked out perfect for us. I sat in the corner by the window and unfortunately that and the other corner were the only chairs that didn’t lean back. But let me tell you, the guy in front of me fully let me know his chair was capable of leaning back and he took full advantage of that fact that it did. I slept maybe an hour on the bus. They turn the lights down like they would on an airplane flight but they had a tv in the front that was playing the loudest Indian movie with so many loud fighting scenes. The AC was either blasting causing us to freeze, or it wasn’t on at all causing us to die of heat. Needless to say a few stops and 9 hours later we FINALLY made it to Madurai (Google it).

Seeing as we were on a bus for 9 hours, our first priority was getting to a bathroom. We went to the first one we could find and it was pretty sketch and we had to pay for it. Pretty much it’s a hole in the ground but a little more dressed up…but not really (don’t worry I took a picture). I remember seeing a toilet like this from when Brian studied abroad and thinking, “oh god if I ever had to use one of those, well, I just wouldn’t”. Looks like I’ve changed a bit.

We were also hungry too. So we just picked a place that looked semi decent that wouldn’t hurt our intestines too much. We found this veggie place (which most places are in India) and sat down there. There was a worn sign that said they only use mineral water which was a good sign. But it was a bad sign when I could see their process of cleaning dishes. But whatever I tried really hard not to let it get to me and kept layering on hand sanitizer. I think I used a total of like a half of a large bottle of that stuff during this trek. But I ordered a plane dolsa and we got this donut thing that tasted fishy for free. The food was pretty good and didn’t even end up hurting our intestines.

After that we kind of just wanted to walk around. So we did. We ended up in some rural neighborhood and market area that only locals would know about. We met a man from Georgia there and he asked if we were lost and needed to get back to the main road but we told him no and that we liked roaming around seeing the real India.

It’s just so mind boggling to see such poverty but such happy people. We all had our cameras out some of these people had never even seen a camera before and had no idea what it was or how to work it. They were absolutely amazed when we’d ask to take a picture and then get the playback and show them their own picture. It was so great to see how happy it made them. The people photograph so well and look genuinely happy. Steph brought a huge thing of stickers that she started handing out to the kids and at one point I think we were the talk of the town cause we had kids following us and tracking us down for a sticker everywhere. We even gave some away to the adults. They just loved it.

After wandering around for a while and sweating out everything we took in, we decided to get a rigshaw to take us to a temple. Madurai is known for temples so we figured we should see one while we were there.

The temple was pretty and was set in front of what kind of look like the red rocks back home and we were told that their god lived or had been to the top of the rocks that were set behind the temple. We were snapping pictures and this guy saw us an invited us to come to his rooftop in order to get a better picture. We accepted and got some great pictures and a great view over part of the town. After we were done doing that we decided to walk to the market area down below. We bought some cool hand made Indian bracelets and Patrick got a freshly cut coconut drink that was pretty sweet and he chopped it open and stuck a straw in it right in front of us. At this point it was getting towards lunch time and we wanted to find another trustworthy restaurant.

We found a place that was actually awesome. You pay upfront and pay like a little more for an AC room. Though, we came to find out it’s not really AC it’s just open windows but we still had a fan with a breeze from the windows and we were upstairs around like one other family which was nice. We had the best meal here. It was a thing where you eat with your hands and the guy serving us was hilarious. We got a dolsa on a banana leaf and tons of sauces and rice to mix with the sauces and some potato mixture too. Pretty much you have to have the mindset that you’re a 2 year old in a highchair playing with your food before you shove some sort of half solidified mixture half soupy into your mouth for an amazing taste. It was great! And this guy just kept coming over and giving us more sauce and more food from this bucket they keep it in. We made a huge mess but it was great. He gave us this shot type thing of sweet stuff (I wasn’t a fan) and we didn’t know what to do with it so he showed us by shoving the whole thing down Patrick’s throat haha. We also got bananas for dessert (yes, this is why American’s are fat, we don’t eat a mini banana for dessert). But their bananas are so fresh and delicious. I don’t think I’ll ever eat “American” bananas the same!

The meal was delicious but we had made a deal earlier with this travel company that we would rent a car and driver from them so they could take us to a small mountain town called Kumily (seriously Google that) ((AND visit, it’s gorgeous and amazing)). So we got this nice air-conditioned SUV and this crazy driver and his girlfriend to take us there. It was a gorgeous scenery throughout the ride and we had a really fun time driving. And I’m pretty sure we almost died 6 or 7 times with this guy’s driving skills at hand.

I think the drive was like 3 hours, but it went by really quick. Once we arrived in Kumily we walked down this main entrance street and we were approached by this man who lives there and goes by the name Charlie. He was awesome. He showed us a brochure of all this stuff we could do and knew of where we could stay and said he would pretty much be our tour guide for our stay in the town.

This town has a small town feel and I kept telling my friends that I would compare it to Durango. Anyone who loves Durango would love this town most definitely. So Charlie took us to where he thought would be a good place for us to stay. We walked up this side road which was kind of windy and it had a bunch of hotels and hostels and a few homes that locals lived in too (which were actually pretty nice). We finally got to our place (after seeing 3 other SAS kids, how they found that town is beyond me). Our hotel, first of all, was called the Rainbow Hotel and it looked straight out of the Bahamas. It was like yellow, pink, orange, lime green. It was awesome. We got to view the rooms before buying (which you should always do) and they we nice. They were also color themed. One we got was bright lime green and the other was bright pink. Obviously we made Patrick sleep in the bright pink room. And the beds were like extra large king beds which were nice too.

We decided we loved it so much we would stay two nights instead of one (we were winging the entire trip, so why not). We planned out our next day with Charlie and then he took us into town (a 5 minute walk) where he told us a few places we could eat at. So we decided to do a little shopping and then head to our new favorite restaurant Lord’s. It has tons of different types of food and all of it was SO good. Some of us got banana pancakes (they’re made with their locally grown organic mini bananas). And they were by far the best pancakes I’ve ever had. So we ate there and decided we would go out for a little bit after that.

We went back to our hotel room to “get ready” which consisted of bathing in baby wipes. After we were ready, we headed out to this bar that was next to one of the nice hotels in Kumily. Me, Lis, Lauren, and Steph were, again,  the only girls who were in the entire bar. I guess in their culture its not really appropriate for women to be out at night like that-which actually was similar in other cultures I’ve seen as well.

-oh I forgot to add that I changed shoes and noticed at this point that I had kankles. Real nice. My ankles were the size of my upper thigh pretty much. It wasn’t just mine though; all of our ankles were like this. We think it is because we slept sitting up on the sleeper bus. But who knows. I do know it really bothered me at the time though. And of course my friends were saying the size of my ankles swollen were the size of their ankles normally yadda yadda-ah how I love when people point out how tiny I am, never gets old.

After being there a while we were so tired, seeing as we slept like 1 hour the night before so we headed to bed. Plus we had an early morning and a full day in front of us.

We woke up the next morning and got some breakfast at the hotel and ate on our balcony which overlooked a lot of Kumily- very beautiful. We met Charlie at like 9ish because we were going to RIDE ELEPHANTS!! He got us in this off-roading jeep that took us to the elephant park. Once we got there we were literally up close to these elephants and we could even see a baby one off in the distance. We all got up on this platform and divided into two groups (3 on each elephant) to begin our ride. Me, Lis, and Steph rode on a male elephant and I couldn’t pronounce his name for the life of me but he was so giant and beautiful. His skin was really rough and the hairs on his skin were very course. We got to go on a half hour ride through the Indian mountains, which really looked more like rainforest. It was really neat, our guides didn’t speak hardly any English but as wed pass by something theyd tell us what it was. We saw pepper, jack fruit, coriander, coffee beans and more. We even got to try them too.

After our ride was over, we got to go over to where the baby elephant was. He was chained down by his feet which was really sad but I guess that’s what they have to do to keep them from running away and not keep them in an enclosed cage. I got to pet the baby and feed him some sugar. He knew we were coming over to feed him and he started dancing it was so cute. I went to pet him and he brought his trunk up and sniffed my arm with it. It was like something from a movie-it was really awesome and it really makes me want to work with animals for good now.

So after that we watched a man bathe an adult elephant and watched the elephant get water in its trunk and then spray it on itself-just like a movie once again. Then Charlie told us we were going on a little hike. It was like 10minutes up to the main road but it was through the forest/mountainous area. It was so neat and this is where we got to taste all the foods and spices I talked about earlier. We also got to try papaya which was cool. The last time I had fresh papaya like that was in Hawaii when I was little. So we waited on the side of the road for a rigshaw that took us back in to town where we got lunch at Lord’s again.

We brought Charlie this time and treated him to partially thank him for all he had done for us. This time at lunch I got fried rice and veggie spring rolls.

Sidenote: ever since my anthropology of food class I have for the most part become a vegetarian. I never thought this would happen but it definitely has. Though, I will definitely be getting a giant cheese burger sometime after I get home no matter what.

Okay, so the food was really good-again. We didn’t have too much time to eat though because we were now going to get a ride down to the Periyar Tiger Reserve. And let me save you the anticipation, no we did not see any Tigers. But we did make our way down there and met our guide, who actually had really good English and he led us around this park. It’s pretty much like a giant hike and I believe they said it was 3 or 4 miles long. It was led through the Indian mountains, which looked more like rain forest. It was really beautiful and though we didn’t see tigers or wild elephants, we did see monkeys, birds, butterflies, some sort of buffalo deal, and different spices like nutmeg in its original form.

After our trek we headed back into town and rested up for a little while and got ready for our last meal in Kumily. We had Charlie join us because we wanted to treat him in order to partially thank him for all he had done for us in the past 2 days. He was probably the kindest person I had met in all of India. He wasn’t even out to make a profit from us; he just wanted to educate us on his town and the people. It was truly amazing and I would come back and stay in Kumily any day

He took us to this super nice restaurant that, I think, his friend worked at. It was in a super new area that looked like a miniature British town of mini condo deals. And they had this place to eat inside of it all. They had great food- I got fish and chips which was soo good. Can’t go wrong with that. And we all got ice cream and milkshakes (we even made Charlie get one). We have all learned that only American’s like sweets as sweet as we do.  And yes the ice cream and milk shakes went down fine. (we tried some pretty gnarly food this trip and none of us were affected by us, I think Dr. Morte is trying to scare us).

The meal was done and we decided to say our goodbyes to Charlie. Then we proceeded to do some last minute shopping. I got a shirt and some other stuff. Laruen and Patrick got these coconut monkey things which I fondly refer to as Dust Collectors. So, yeah, we all got some shopping in and decided to head back to the hotel for the night.

We needed to get up at 3:30 the next morning to catch our 4am bus ride to Cochin where we were meeting the ship. So we slept for like 3 hours and woke up and made our way down to the bus. We didn’t have time for breakfast, plus nothing was open. This is where the near 60 bananas Patrick bought came in handy. We had a whole rack of them, it was hilarious and we’d offer them to any India who approached us. They pretty much thought we were crazy.

So I don’t know what kind of bus you’re picturing me on but I should probably describe it. Well on Wikipedia its called a “crowded Indian bus” serious emphasis on the crowded. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thanjavur_04.jpg) . Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what our bus looked like. Don’t worry, I had an aisle seat instead of hanging outside of the bus, but let me tell you they pack that bus SO full that you cannot even move your arms.

I was on this bus for a grand total of 6 hours. It took a lot of patience and I almost had another panic attack towards the end but it was worth the experience. Once we got semi-close to where we thought the ship was, we got off the bus and used my google maps in my blackberry to determine where we were. We decided walking wasn’t going to work so we all shoved into a rigshaw and after about 15 minutes and some stand still traffic we FINALLY made it back to the ship. I have never been so happy to see it!

So I did it. I traveled independently across India with no major plans in mind. I’m really proud of myself considering before this I could hardly go anywhere in Durango by myself. I feel fully confident traveling anywhere in America by myself now.

I had this last day in India to do stuff and I will write about that and possibly Mauritius in another blog cause this one is way too long. Hopefully all the lines show up-I hear they aren’t fully showing up on my sight. Don’t know why that is.

 

I’m currently one day away from Cape Town and I’m really excited!

 

xx

No buy, no problem

Okay. India. Now I know why this country is such a major deal to this trip. It really is the country that’s life changing to us who go there. And it’s not really something you can explain in a blog, or pictures, or even a video. You have to be immersed into the culture and experience with your own eyes what these people are experiencing even as we speak. Coming from a well off white suburban area and then seeing this was mind blowing. Like I said before and in e-mails to friends and what not, I’ve never ever been so grateful for even the smallest things.  I can’t remember if I wrote it in my blog or not. But my first day out in India I came back to the ship and came straight to dinner and first of all being in the AC I was so thankful, sitting at a clean dinner table in a well functioning clean chair with clean utensils, and purified cold water and food that was not even questionable to eat was amazing. I usually leave some food on my plate once I’m finished with a meal. But since that night I’ve never left a bite of food on my plate. I went to bed later that night and I was laying on my white sheets and was so thankful I had a clean proper bed to sleep in with sheets that are super white from how clean they are. I can’t even explain the realization in a blog or even in words. And even if I try it’s not something anyone who reads this would understand.

We were talking about that at lunch the other day. A group of 9 of us were discussing how no one back home is going to understand what all of us SAS kids went through together. I’ve been saying all along that us SAS kids have a common bond of traveling and its true. Were the only ones who will fully understand one another’s stories and where were coming from while explaining our experiences in these countries.

I read a blog before I came on this trip (well one of the many I read) and it was saying that when he came back to the US he would try to explain to his friends some of his many tales of traveling abroad with SAS but his friends didn’t get it. He got the standard “oh how cool! That’s awesome! Amazing!” responses but no one really asked details or really got down to the nitty gritty of all of it. And I know that’s going to happen to all of us SAS kids. That’s why we have one another. And I’m thankful we do. I know my friends love hearing what I’m doing but no one fully understands what I’m going through.

I knew I was going to come back from SAS a different person but I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen. Now I know and its definitely for the better. I’m so thankful I got to do this and I think anyone who has the chance to do SAS or any other travel abroad program should. It’s worth every penny you spend. You’ll have experiences, memories, and world views that don’t even compare to most people's in America.

Okay. Now I should probably get back to India. Cause this blog is going to be long. I stayed in Chennai for 2 days and 1 night (on the ship) and then for 4 days and 3 nights I traveled independently across India to Madurai, Kumily, and then Cochin where my group and I met the ship.

So the first day we had a huge group and traveling with a huge group just isn’t the easiest thing in these countries so we all broke up and me, Lauren, Kelcie and Stacy decided to group together. We just wanted to kind of get out and explore and shop around Chennai. So we walked out of the ship area and like most of India when you wander aimlessly you are seriously hounded by 10 rig shaw drivers (it’s a taxi in their country. But pretty much it’s 2 rows of benches on a scooter base) ((and they’re super fun/scary)) all talking your ear off convincing you to take this rig shaw that will take you hear and do this for that price, all times 10 and they have no sense of personal space. They are all up in your face and if you move they’ll follow. It’s intimidating for the first few times and really overwhelming. So we pretty much just randomly picked this guy out of the crowd and settled on a price before getting in the rig shaw (that’s what you have to do so they don’t rip you off) ((they see dollar signs in our eyes and do pretty much all they can to suck every last penny out of you)). So we get this guy Nana and he tells us hell take us all around and we stayed with him the entire day. The drivers there like doing that, even if it means waiting for you for an hour while you eat because they figure if they have you as a customer all day they’ll make more money. Which would be true in the United States too im sure.

So we get in and he takes us to this temple to start with. This was the very beginning of my germ-a-phob emersion. We get to the temple and as in most countries you aren’t allowed to wear your shoes. So you check your shoes in at this worn down holding area being watched by this woman who probably could care less if my shoes were there when I got back. But I dropped them off regardless and walked down an Indian street in my socks. If you know me this is a MAJOR feat. I get grossed out walking through airport security at DIA. And I had just walked through an Indian street and an entire temple with only socks on. And yes my friends made fun of me because they know that I hate germs and dirt.

So we saw this temple and it was really cool. They seemed to be getting their food blessed and other things and many were praying too. We were the only white people in this entire place so, as we did all over all of India, we got full stared at. (Gini you may seriously want to go to India, but if you can’t handle a person in dgo staring at you..India isn’t gona be your forte-though the Chinese were worse).

After we experienced the temple we told Nana we wanted to go shopping at the markets. Now I need to explain to you how rig shaw drivers work in India. Each rig shaw driver works on a point system. Any tourist he brings to certain stores (whether the tourist buys something or not) they driver gets a point. Once the driver gets, I think it was, five points he gets a free shirt/uniform. So, when we said shops he took us to places where there was a ton of other SAS kids-hmmm what a coincidence. Once we saw the other SAS kids we knew exactly why we were taken to this store so we politely looked around but we didn’t buy anything-most stuff is overpriced in these stores. It was good to shop though and the people are very friendly and love to ask where you are from and the second they find out that US is home to us, they say, “OBAMA!” I’m pretty sure they know more about Obama and his family than most American’s do.

So anyway we looked around and went to another market and walked up and down. And then we spotted 2 of our LLC’s and their kids and spouses. Jenny (LLC) is from the Springs and Rob (LLC) is from Ohio but he’s Lis’s LLC and were close with him. They had just got back from lunch and we were looking for somewhere to eat so we asked them where they ate. They ate at a veggie restaurant like 30 seconds away that they were raving about so we had to try it. So we made our way over to this place.

I cant remember the name of it, but the food we ate was with our hands. We ordered a dolsa which is a crepe pancake pretty much and they put it on top of a banana leaf and you eat that with different sauces. My dolsa also had vegetables in it which were really spicy but so good. We also got samosas which are like fried on the outside but have potatoes and other veggies on the inside-they’re delicious. To drink I defintiely had a pepsi-I needed a little American in that meal (and yes mom pepsi is their pop of choice in India-a plus is you ever go) and we got water which you have to, by the way, check the seal of because theyve been known to refill waters with non-purified water and sometimes they even glue the tops back on so youll hear the popping noise when you open the bottle. BUT The meal was awesome and for four of us the total was like 6usd- can’t beat that!

After our meal we had Nana take us to get real henna tattoos (I guess that’s kind of an oxymoron). They were only like 100 rupees which is like 2 bucks and they were beautiful and so detailed. Mine lasted about it week which is fine with me. Next, we went to the beach. It was a little drive, but it was beautiful. Of course we were hounded like 50 times once we got there to buy stuff but after a few minutes’ people just left us alone and let us enjoy the scenery. It was so amazing. I really am able to love a beach anywhere I go!

Nana dropped us off there for a while and then we met him and because we had gotten to know him so well during the day he offered to take us to his house so we could meet his wife and his son. We agreed and we were on our way. Also, I remember now, on our way there we got stuck in “rush hour traffic” and everyone was at a standstill because the train was crossing and we all had to wait. Let me tell you about traffic in India.

So to start off, there aren’t any lanes and there isn’t a speed limit, there may be markings on the roads and posted speeds in a few places but those don’t mean anything, and neither do the few stop lights they have. So pretty much you make up any lane you want which has room for whatever vehicle you have and go the speed of your choice. Speaking of vehicles, there is a wide variety: rig shaws, actual car taxis (which is a like 1950 Chevy), actual real cars, motor bikes, and cows pulling carts. Yes, that’s right, I was in rush hour traffic next to a cow. So surreal.

The stopped traffic was taking too long so we decided to park our rig shaw and walk the rest of the way to Nana’s house-it really wasn’t that far from where we got out. We had to walk to a very poor area and alley way to get to his house. For anyone who has ever been to my house, I would say his entire house is the size of my back deck-maybe smaller. His kitchen, living room, dining room, and family room were all one square room that could hardly fit all of us in it. The other room he had was his bedroom. The mattress was extremely dirty and worn with a few rips and tears in it. He had a few blankets for the bed, but they were also worn and dirty. Four people live in the house and they have another child on the way. It was so amazing to meet Nana’s wife (they had a traditional arranged marriage) and his son and his wife’s mother. They were very welcoming and though they didn’t speak too much English, we communicated through laughter and smiling.

We had to make it a quick visit because we needed to meet our friends back at the ship by 6pm so we left Nana’s house and he took us back to the ship. Once we got back to the ship we were all exhausted and I just stayed in for the night. I was disgustingly dirty and didn’t feel like having to deal with it again that night. I was also so overwhelmed by the day that I just couldn’t go back out. Though, Stacy went back out because Nana wanted to drive us around more that night. The last line he gave us once we left his taxi before going in around 6pm that night was, “you’ve seen my family, you’ve seen my house, you know I’m poor, please help support me”. It was then that we realized we probably weren’t the only tourists that have been taken to Nana’s house but he was still very kind in what he did all day and he seemed like a genuinely good guy.

A common theme that all SAS kids and I have found about India in general is the overwhelming want for money. Everything they say, think, and do is money. Every move they make is about making a profit. Which, I guess looking at it from their eyes I probably would too. Most of their population lives on less than $2.00 a day. I couldn’t even imagine living that way and for that I am so thankful for the privileges I have and everyone else in America should be too.  

 

This is only the first day of India, but it’s already over 3 pages in a word document. So ill keep this all as one blog and add another one later tonight.