I (insert hyperbolic word for “very” here) LOVE NAMIBIA. I honestly would go back in a heartbeat. It is a beautiful country with really fun outdoor activities, like safaris, ATV-ing and patio breweries! Seriously. The people were all really friendly and eager to talk about their country and their experiences. While I was in full badass mode, riding my ATV down a giant sand dune in the Namib desert, the Atlantic to my left and endless sand to my right, I realized and subsequently screamed into my helmet- “This is my semester of college!” I have never loved college this much. Now on to the specifics about Namibia. I am going to paraphrase from my journal entries because otherwise I will forget things. This is gonna be a long one, children.
At the diplomatic briefing before debarkation in Walvis Bay, the attaché guy told us a sweet and gentle story about how someone broke into his b&b the night before and stabbed him in the arm with a screwdriver, obviously scaring us shitless. After Brasil, we were not in the mood for another country where you walked around fearing for your safety. He made it sound like that was an everyday occurrence. It is not. I guess the hyperbole was a good way to make sure our guard was up. We were also happy to be in a country where the national language is English, especially since after South Africa, English will be nowhere near the languages we’ll be hearing. We debarked at about 12, and started heading towards the bus stop for our 1pm bus to Windhoek. There were about 15 of us going on the safari, and we all made it to the bus stop on time and on the list. We got on the nice, chartery, comfy Intercape bus and started our magical journey!
As we drove out of Walvis Bay toward Swakopmund and then Windhoek (about four hours away), I got stunning views of the ocean right next to the massive Namib desert, a gorgeous juxtaposition of blue water and golden sand. After a few “refreshment stops”, which involved Namibia’s answer to Cheetos, Nik Naks-the mascot of which was, you guessed it, Nik Nak, who looked strangely like Lil Jon. Snap ya fangas.
Once we arrived in Windhoek, we got a free shuttle ride to our nightly accommodations, the Cardboard Box Backpacker’s Lodge, known simply as “The Box”. The rooms were named after Vegas Casinos (I stayed in the Luxor), and they were very simple, but clean and roomy. We had just enough time to throw our stuff down and check out the hostel bar- very cozy and open air, right next to the pool- before we got cabs to Joe’s Beerhouse, which was absolutely MAGICAL. I ate about 75% of what I was about to see on safari: Ostrich, oryx, crocodile, kudu, springbok, and zebra, along with delicious corn fritters and some kind of delightful white cheese dipping sauce. The decided favorite was the zebra steak, with the oryx and ostrich coming in close behind. Our entire dinner, including drinks, entrees and dessert, came to N92 each. Sounds painful, right? That’s just over $12. Like I said; magical. The place was safari-esque, with big ponds, gravel walkways and thatch roofs with long communal tables and barstools made from toilet seats. After dinner we headed back to The Box Bar for drinks and international socialization- there were people from Australia, Germany, Chicago and Boston. Even after only one night, the cheap food, nice people and lack of hassling from anyone made Namibia outstrip Brazil by a long shot.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for free pancakes- really they were cinnamon sugar crepes, hence the “pancrepe”-and tea. After breakfast, we were picked up by our safari company in the van that was essentially our home for three days. We drove to Etosha and set up camp in our nice little two-person tents, then watched our first incredible African sunset at the camp watering hole, where we saw both Jupiter and a family of rhinos.
After a simple dinner that still beat out ship food, we played some cards and went to bed. We woke up around six the next day and spent the day on various game drives throughout the park, ending at our next campsite, which had a pool and an outdoor bar cum bonfire, along with a cool enclosed atrium restaurant-bar-watering hole area. Game drives are super cool. We spent the morning searching for lions, because once it gets hot they go hide under cool shady trees. We didn’t see any until the last afternoon, when we found three lounging under trees rather far away, but my sexy digital zoom caught them pretty fantastically. We saw a plethora of zebras- there are mule zebras and horse zebras that hang out together- and a plethora and a half of springbok, which are super adorable (and delicious) little gazelles. We also saw gemsbok gazelles, called oryx, a herd of elephants, warthogs, mongeese (okay, mongoose, whatever pluralization), a meerkat, wildebeests, impala, a tiny antelope called a dik-dik (insert joke here), ostriches and giraffes! Giraffes are the cutest animals ever. They look super awkward when the bend down to drink at the watering hole, they have to splay their front legs out and bend their long necks down to reach the water.
We also visited the Etosha Pan, which is just a gigantic expanse of crusty salty deserty earth that extends in all directions. We used the amazing scene to take a huge group jump shot- there’s a pretty fab picture of me doing a leap in mid-air. There’s also an amazing picture of what looks like Kate holding me in her hand. Oh, perspective. You’ll see them eventually, I promise.
That night, we had an amazing dinner of lamb, squash with cinnamon and Tafel, Namibia’s beer of choice. After dinner me and my friend Katey hung out by the bonfire and made friends with Lazizi, the bartender, who taught us to say “I love you” (!Namserega) and “I love Namibia” (Dideke Namibia ba a!nam) in !Nara, his native language- the !’s are clicks, which are crazy to listen to. We took pictures with our guides, Elias and Jason- it was Elias’s birthday the next night, so we celebrated and wished him happy birthday in !Nara, but I don’t remember how to say that one. He told us how he was actually turning 43, but his ID and all his papers say 39 because when his parents divorced, they had to do all sorts of paperwork and his dad put down the wrong age, but that’s the one the government took- he had to do all sorts of extra paperwork to get it fixed.
Elias was hilarious- he definitely did not look 43, and he was really jovial and vivacious- every time he wanted to make an announcement to the group, he would say, “Ding dong, attention please!” which we all thought was the best thing ever, and said it on a regular basis. I used my airline stewardess voice to say “ding dong attention please”, and Elias liked it so much he made me use that voice to give an entire fake airline spiel to the whole bus the next morning, complete with putting tray tables in the full upright position and pointing out the exits. We have a really great picture of me, Kate, Elias and Lazizi hugging a tree because Kate’s shirt said “treehugger” and Elias thought it was funny. Elias would also make hilarious animal noises, including hyena, zebra (woopwoop), and leopard (reowrREOWR, we made this noise the entire way home), although we stumped him with giraffe because they really don’t make noise.
After our bonfire party, Kate and I went up on the roof of the safari bus to stargaze- the stars looked amazing; you can see Jupiter and Mars along with totally different constellations from home, as we’re in the Southern Hemisphere. That reminds me- if you were under the impression that crossing the equator makes the water in the toilet flush in the other direction, it is FALSE! The pull of gravity is not strong enough to affect the direction of the water, it always goes the same way, no matter where you are…I was a little disappointed to learn that upon our Equator crossing. But that’s old news.
The next morning, we woke up around 6:30, ate a quick breakfast, and got in the vans for 8am. We then proceeded to drive until 5pm, stopping only for snack breaks, lunch, and a wood carving slash craft market where I bought way too much stuff that I am going to keep a secret because most of it involves presents. At 5pm, we arrived in Windhoek (still four hours away from Walvis Bay, mind you- somuchdriving) and left our safari guides at the tour place. We went back to Joe’s Beerhouse, which was just as magical as the first time (oryx and zebra and springbok, oh my!). We had a big group, and we got the “meter of beer”, which is just 12 beers in a giant wooden trough- hilarious. After another delightful dinner, we got back into yet another van (with yet another 6-song CD on repeat, just like the Amazon) to drive back to Walvis Bay, getting back around 1am. It was such a fabulous three days, but it felt really fabulous to take a looooong shower and get into my shipboard bed.
Our final (and only) day in Walvis Bay, a few of us from the safari took a cab into Swakopmund, a completely adorable Germanic town about 15 minutes outside WB. We decided to go ATV-ing, which was the GREATEST DECISION EVER. It was so much fun! We went with Desert Xplorers, which was a great choice because you know who else did? Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and their kidlets! There was a picture of the famous fam playing, and the bikes they used are named after them. We rode our sweet ATVs around the desert for an hour and a half, flooring it (well, thumbing it, there was no foot pedal) up and down the dunes like a self-driven roller coaster. Our ATV guide, Erwen, very generously too us back into Swakopmund proper in his Desert Xplorer van for lunch at an awesome German brewery, the Swakopmund Brauhaus. I had a delightful pork snitzel with bread dumplings, complemented by their signature beer. After lunch, we haggled our way into a cab back to the ship, to embark and head for South Africa.
We reach SA tomorrow, and are there for six full days. This is the first port where I don’t have any big trips planned, and I’m excited to explore all that Cape Town has to offer. I’m definitely going to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was kept, the Stellenbosch Winelands, and out to a township for Operation Hunger, where I’m going to weigh and assess the nutrition of (read: play with) little South African kidlets. Cape Town is a major world tourist destination, so I can’t wait to discover it! Thanks to all of you who have sent me emails thus far, they really make my days, and to those of you who haven’t? Email me! I would love to hear from you! I’ll have another (probably even longer) post in about a week when we leave SA for our 12-day journey to India.
25 September 2008
13 September 2008
Lesson Seven: How To Focus on the Positive
19:06 9.12.2008
Okay, I think I was a little harsh on Salvador, I’d just had a tiring day of flying and shopping and being hassled in the Mercado, so I think while I painted a true picture of the annoying and upsetting times, I skipped out on the good parts. So here are the good parts:
I WENT TO THE FREAKIN’ AMAZON JUNGLE! HOW COOL AM I? I saw awesome plants, CRAZY huge water lilies (Victoria Regia, oops forgot to add those to the kids blog!), and held a baby caiman! And fished for piranhas! And drank straight from a jungle vine!
I also had a FANTASTIC moqueca in Salvador proper. Moqueca is a seafood stew sort of thing, a traditional Bahian dish. Carrie, Marcella and I went to this little café right off Pelourinho square for caipirinhas and cuisine. The caipirinhas were delicious (I only had one, Mom and Dad, calm down)- they’re made with a sugar cane liquor called cachassa which is Brazil’s national beverage and involved in EVERY SINGLE BRAZILIAN DANCE SONG EVER. Seriously, in the Amazon we listened to this CD (over and over and over and over until it broke, which we were all very happy about) on which cachassa was mentioned at least once in every song, and once the chorus of the song was just “Cachassa! Cachassa! Cachassa! Cachassa!”
But I digress. Our entire meal was only R24 per person, which is like $15, and we got our caipirinhas and an enormous, 3-person-sharing-still-didn’t-finish-it moqueca. There were Langoustines, 2 of them, in there, along with these weird super-tiny mussels, shrimp (with heads and tails on, awkward one Brasil), and fish in an awesome sauce! We attacked that thing and we still only ate about half of it. It came with arroz (rice) and this weird but DELICIOUS cheesy grit sort of mixture called pirao. It was a delight.
Now more funny things about the Amazon! Along with all the songs about cachassa on our favorite oft-repeated CD was the Rihanna song “Umbrella”. You know, the one that goes “under my um-ba-rella, ella, ella, ay, ay, ay?” Yeah. On there. But in Portuguese. Remember how you felt when they (over)played that song on the radio last summer? Now picture it not by Rihanna, in Portuguese, and about 800 more times. That song was stuck in my head the entire plane ride(s) home, and I’m guessing it’s going to be stuck there for quite some time.
Our guides were kind of like good cop bad cop. They were both really nice, so technically they were both good cops, but one was short and slim and serious, but really knowledgable; the other was fat and jovial and loved to dance and talked ALL the time, but generally “said” less, if you know what I mean. So I don’t have to call him “the fat one” in this anecdote, I will tell you his name was Ronaldo. Ronaldo taught us to dance the “boiboomba”, some crazy Amazon dance that was generally awesome. Our last night in the Amazon, we went to a dance show about the legend of the Amazon women and all this other crazy Brazilian stuff. At the end of the show we got to go up and dance to the song Ronaldo taught us! It was super fun. Ronaldo also had a pretty sweet accent, and he would pronounce phrases like “jungle trekking” and “piranha fishing” like “jungle TREKking” and “piranha FEESHing”, which I found endearing and took to saying them the same way. Mattias (the serious one) told us all to Facebook him. Ridiculous.
Also, when we were on one of our lake excursions, we saw a guy in this little riverside house hanging out the window, we say hi and, in Portuguese, he says "wait! i have cats!"...huh? But, lo and behold, he indeed has cats, which he proceeds to THROW OUT THE WINDOW INTO THE RIVER! He just laughs and goes "they're Amazon cats, they can swim!" and the cats climb out of the water and back into the house, the guy goes "Wait! I go get more cats," and run back inside and gets two cats at a time and just throws them in, laughing hysterically. CRAZY but totally hilarious, my friend on Voyage Book got a sweet picture.
I also forgot to tell you about my favorite, faith-in-humanity-restoring, first-day adventure in Salvador! I cannot believe I forgot, because it really was an incredible experience. I went on a Faculty-Directed Practicum to the community of Saramandaia, an up-and-coming “comunidade” in Salvador. Usually it would be called a “favela”, but that is seen as derogatory to the locals and usually only used in academic context. We went to see the Projeto Arte Consciente, a social change project that keeps kids off the streets by teaching them performance and urban art, like capoeira, boxing, circus arts, graffiti, and music. It was amazing to see. While we were there, the kids performed their respective arts for us, and really seemed to enjoy performing for our rapt audience.
The leaders of Arte Consciente were saying that everyone in Salvador has their own “social change” projects, and that there’s really been an effort to help those in the slums rise above their roots and stay in school. Most kids drop out by sixth grade, and Arte Consciente has about 200 kids, but there were only 40 or so at the performance because most of them have to work on the street to make money for their families. It’s nice because if the kids are really talented, they sometimes get accepted into larger professional groups, like Circo Piccolino, which is, you guessed it, a circus. It was really fun to hang out with the kids and see them in their (new and expanded!) performance space, doing what they love.
Souvenirs from Salvador include Havaiana flip flops (cheap!) with the Brasilian flag on them, a gold wire headband, and the very hammock that I personally slept and sweat in in the midst of the Amazon. Score!
In terms of shipboard life, other than class, I am a staff photographer for Voyage Book, which is a GORGEOUS, 120-page, full-color photo book with quotes and attributions that everyone gets FOR FREE. Since we take photo submissions from the entire shipboard community, I get to help edit those (edit=take out the crap ones) and go on “assignment” to take pictures of stupid but necessary stuff like the campus store. I also joined the “media arts club”, which is code for “we watch movies together and then make a few of our own”, which should be cool and a possible resume builder if the videos come out well enough. Seamus, a fellow Bostonian (an Emersonian, hurray!), is in charge of that business. Should be fun!
Now on to Namibia! I am très excited for my upcoming safari! It is super weird to come back from port and have to concentrate on class. Wah wahhhhh.
Okay, I think I was a little harsh on Salvador, I’d just had a tiring day of flying and shopping and being hassled in the Mercado, so I think while I painted a true picture of the annoying and upsetting times, I skipped out on the good parts. So here are the good parts:
I WENT TO THE FREAKIN’ AMAZON JUNGLE! HOW COOL AM I? I saw awesome plants, CRAZY huge water lilies (Victoria Regia, oops forgot to add those to the kids blog!), and held a baby caiman! And fished for piranhas! And drank straight from a jungle vine!
I also had a FANTASTIC moqueca in Salvador proper. Moqueca is a seafood stew sort of thing, a traditional Bahian dish. Carrie, Marcella and I went to this little café right off Pelourinho square for caipirinhas and cuisine. The caipirinhas were delicious (I only had one, Mom and Dad, calm down)- they’re made with a sugar cane liquor called cachassa which is Brazil’s national beverage and involved in EVERY SINGLE BRAZILIAN DANCE SONG EVER. Seriously, in the Amazon we listened to this CD (over and over and over and over until it broke, which we were all very happy about) on which cachassa was mentioned at least once in every song, and once the chorus of the song was just “Cachassa! Cachassa! Cachassa! Cachassa!”
But I digress. Our entire meal was only R24 per person, which is like $15, and we got our caipirinhas and an enormous, 3-person-sharing-still-didn’t-finish-it moqueca. There were Langoustines, 2 of them, in there, along with these weird super-tiny mussels, shrimp (with heads and tails on, awkward one Brasil), and fish in an awesome sauce! We attacked that thing and we still only ate about half of it. It came with arroz (rice) and this weird but DELICIOUS cheesy grit sort of mixture called pirao. It was a delight.
Now more funny things about the Amazon! Along with all the songs about cachassa on our favorite oft-repeated CD was the Rihanna song “Umbrella”. You know, the one that goes “under my um-ba-rella, ella, ella, ay, ay, ay?” Yeah. On there. But in Portuguese. Remember how you felt when they (over)played that song on the radio last summer? Now picture it not by Rihanna, in Portuguese, and about 800 more times. That song was stuck in my head the entire plane ride(s) home, and I’m guessing it’s going to be stuck there for quite some time.
Our guides were kind of like good cop bad cop. They were both really nice, so technically they were both good cops, but one was short and slim and serious, but really knowledgable; the other was fat and jovial and loved to dance and talked ALL the time, but generally “said” less, if you know what I mean. So I don’t have to call him “the fat one” in this anecdote, I will tell you his name was Ronaldo. Ronaldo taught us to dance the “boiboomba”, some crazy Amazon dance that was generally awesome. Our last night in the Amazon, we went to a dance show about the legend of the Amazon women and all this other crazy Brazilian stuff. At the end of the show we got to go up and dance to the song Ronaldo taught us! It was super fun. Ronaldo also had a pretty sweet accent, and he would pronounce phrases like “jungle trekking” and “piranha fishing” like “jungle TREKking” and “piranha FEESHing”, which I found endearing and took to saying them the same way. Mattias (the serious one) told us all to Facebook him. Ridiculous.
Also, when we were on one of our lake excursions, we saw a guy in this little riverside house hanging out the window, we say hi and, in Portuguese, he says "wait! i have cats!"...huh? But, lo and behold, he indeed has cats, which he proceeds to THROW OUT THE WINDOW INTO THE RIVER! He just laughs and goes "they're Amazon cats, they can swim!" and the cats climb out of the water and back into the house, the guy goes "Wait! I go get more cats," and run back inside and gets two cats at a time and just throws them in, laughing hysterically. CRAZY but totally hilarious, my friend on Voyage Book got a sweet picture.
I also forgot to tell you about my favorite, faith-in-humanity-restoring, first-day adventure in Salvador! I cannot believe I forgot, because it really was an incredible experience. I went on a Faculty-Directed Practicum to the community of Saramandaia, an up-and-coming “comunidade” in Salvador. Usually it would be called a “favela”, but that is seen as derogatory to the locals and usually only used in academic context. We went to see the Projeto Arte Consciente, a social change project that keeps kids off the streets by teaching them performance and urban art, like capoeira, boxing, circus arts, graffiti, and music. It was amazing to see. While we were there, the kids performed their respective arts for us, and really seemed to enjoy performing for our rapt audience.
The leaders of Arte Consciente were saying that everyone in Salvador has their own “social change” projects, and that there’s really been an effort to help those in the slums rise above their roots and stay in school. Most kids drop out by sixth grade, and Arte Consciente has about 200 kids, but there were only 40 or so at the performance because most of them have to work on the street to make money for their families. It’s nice because if the kids are really talented, they sometimes get accepted into larger professional groups, like Circo Piccolino, which is, you guessed it, a circus. It was really fun to hang out with the kids and see them in their (new and expanded!) performance space, doing what they love.
Souvenirs from Salvador include Havaiana flip flops (cheap!) with the Brasilian flag on them, a gold wire headband, and the very hammock that I personally slept and sweat in in the midst of the Amazon. Score!
In terms of shipboard life, other than class, I am a staff photographer for Voyage Book, which is a GORGEOUS, 120-page, full-color photo book with quotes and attributions that everyone gets FOR FREE. Since we take photo submissions from the entire shipboard community, I get to help edit those (edit=take out the crap ones) and go on “assignment” to take pictures of stupid but necessary stuff like the campus store. I also joined the “media arts club”, which is code for “we watch movies together and then make a few of our own”, which should be cool and a possible resume builder if the videos come out well enough. Seamus, a fellow Bostonian (an Emersonian, hurray!), is in charge of that business. Should be fun!
Now on to Namibia! I am très excited for my upcoming safari! It is super weird to come back from port and have to concentrate on class. Wah wahhhhh.
11 September 2008
Lesson Six: How to Shock & Awww
September 11, 2008 16:55 Salvador, Brasil
Boa Noite, friends and family!
We are on our way to Walvis Bay. That rhymes and is therefore even more awesome. That also means you get a nice, long (and I mean long, this literary journey that you are about to embark on is formidable) blog post. I’ve sectioned it up for your comfort and convenience.
SALVADOR
Unfortunately, I can say with absolute certainty that I am happy to be leaving Salvador. I think it was a “good” experience for me in terms of containing realizations about the rest of the world, but by this afternoon, I was tired of being solicited for cash, food, “presentes” that of course cost money, and being tapped on the shoulder and called “beautiful lady” by EVERYONE. Salvador is a dangerous city, comprised mostly of a public square rampant with people and animals, a small business district, and mass outcroppings of favelas (comunidades is the proper local term, favelas is to comunidades as “third world” is to “developing country”). People had cameras stolen, attempted muggings, were threatened with razor blades by an 8-year old, and cheated by ATMs and bartenders alike.
What’s truly upsetting to me is not that it is dangerous, as every city is if you are not careful, and especially if you are outwardly touristy, but that people HAVE to do things like that because that is their livelihood. That eight-year old kid has no home, no money and no food, and is possibly addicted to drugs. The vast dichotomy of wealth and poverty in Brazil in general and ESPECIALLY Salvador makes it impossible for that kid to change his situation, because there are literally a million other kids (and adults) like him across the city.
*Sidenote: Carrie & Marcella are my closest friends here on the ship; they’re right across the hall and we hang out all the time. So I’ll just use their names instead of always saying “my friends this” and “my friends that”.*
So Carrie and I were talking about how everyone hates America. It is really apparent here. Carrie said, and I paraphrase, that she expected to be looked at like she was weird as a white, blonde, tourist, but that the looks she received were worse than weird. People stare at you as if they already hate you, and then they aggressively try to sell you things. When, finally, we were just tired of being gawked and hawked at, Marcella said “No! Go away!” to the trillionth guy who was following us out of the Mercado (market) trying to sell us lame jewelry and he starts yelling “Go! Go back to America!” Rather than making me angry, it makes me embarrassed. I am embarrassed that the current administration’s foreign policy is so heinously craptastic that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY hates us. Okay, it’s an exaggeration to say hates us, but many do, and most if not all have at least a few large, marrow-filled bones to pick with us. I feel embarrassed that instead of reflecting my personal values, which differ greatly from George W. Bush, I am looked at as an extension of him, as a citizen of “his” country, and therefore a huge douche.
BIZNASS (<3>
Now, after that long post, I’ve decided this about my blog in general, and how it is most likely going to progress. I have WAY too many journals. I have journals for psych, a personal journal, two online journals and a journal where I keep track of money. TOO MANY JOURNALS. So, I am journically (it’s a word now) delegating. I like this blog because I can talk about grown up things without calling you pirates or adventurers. I like the kids’ blog because I can talk about cute little animals and plants and leave out the parts about their razor-blade-weilding, crack-addicted peers (too soon? Is that a too-soon joke?) So here’s the deal, faithful adult-or-nearly-there-or-very-much-there-because-you’re-old-just-kidding readers: If you want educational, awesome details about the Amazon, safaris and general adventures, READ THE KIDS BLOG. The meat and potatoes of what I want to say is still there; if you’re not a reader then there will be no big words so as to avoid obfuscation (get it? I used a big word for confusing to illustrate my point, OH SNAP). This plan could change as of, oh say, any time the whim strikes me. But that’s how it’s gonna be for now. Check the “juicy reads” sidebar and click on “High Seas Adventure”.
THE AMAZON
That business aside, the Amazon kicked ass. Compared to the other groups we sort of got the shaft in terms of not holding anacondas or sloths, not climbing trees, and not receiving snack, but on its own the trip was cool. Only complaint: We waited around for freakin’ EVER. Without explanation as to why we were sitting in a non-moving riverboat for 1.5 hours. On several separate occasions. Someone once called the Amazon “green hell”, and I generally agree with that statement. The Amazon is HOT AS ANYTHING. Super humid, super toasty, and of course you have to wear long pants because getting bitten by fire ants and dengue-fever-carrying mosquitoes can really put a damper on your jungle trek. The shower I took at about 4:30pm today was the GREATEST SHOWER OF MY LIFE. Except for the super kick-ass natural rainforest shower I took when it started raining in the rainforest and I put on my bathing suit and shampooed my hair in the rain. Nature’s shower is the best (not to mention cleanest) shower. Excepting that quasi-shower, my compatriots and I were one big sweaty, DEET-y, Banana Boat SPF 30-y, hammock fuzzy (god could those hammocks fuzz on you, if only there were natural plant lint rollers in the Amazon) MESS. For an explanation and list of sweet medicinal plants and super adorable animals that I wish I could show you pictures of (thanks, superslow, upload-limited internet), read the kidlet blog. Seriously we saw some AWESOME stuff. CUTEST FROGS EVER.
Really I just have way too much to tell you all in terms of what happened, awesome things I did, saw and ate, and hilarious things my friends say, so I’m bound to miss something and that kills me. So email me if you have questions because it makes me feel better about missing all the stuff that’s going on in your lives! I’ll probably post more in the next couple days, I feel like if you’ve gotten this far you must be a bit overloaded. Tchau!
Boa Noite, friends and family!
We are on our way to Walvis Bay. That rhymes and is therefore even more awesome. That also means you get a nice, long (and I mean long, this literary journey that you are about to embark on is formidable) blog post. I’ve sectioned it up for your comfort and convenience.
SALVADOR
Unfortunately, I can say with absolute certainty that I am happy to be leaving Salvador. I think it was a “good” experience for me in terms of containing realizations about the rest of the world, but by this afternoon, I was tired of being solicited for cash, food, “presentes” that of course cost money, and being tapped on the shoulder and called “beautiful lady” by EVERYONE. Salvador is a dangerous city, comprised mostly of a public square rampant with people and animals, a small business district, and mass outcroppings of favelas (comunidades is the proper local term, favelas is to comunidades as “third world” is to “developing country”). People had cameras stolen, attempted muggings, were threatened with razor blades by an 8-year old, and cheated by ATMs and bartenders alike.
What’s truly upsetting to me is not that it is dangerous, as every city is if you are not careful, and especially if you are outwardly touristy, but that people HAVE to do things like that because that is their livelihood. That eight-year old kid has no home, no money and no food, and is possibly addicted to drugs. The vast dichotomy of wealth and poverty in Brazil in general and ESPECIALLY Salvador makes it impossible for that kid to change his situation, because there are literally a million other kids (and adults) like him across the city.
*Sidenote: Carrie & Marcella are my closest friends here on the ship; they’re right across the hall and we hang out all the time. So I’ll just use their names instead of always saying “my friends this” and “my friends that”.*
So Carrie and I were talking about how everyone hates America. It is really apparent here. Carrie said, and I paraphrase, that she expected to be looked at like she was weird as a white, blonde, tourist, but that the looks she received were worse than weird. People stare at you as if they already hate you, and then they aggressively try to sell you things. When, finally, we were just tired of being gawked and hawked at, Marcella said “No! Go away!” to the trillionth guy who was following us out of the Mercado (market) trying to sell us lame jewelry and he starts yelling “Go! Go back to America!” Rather than making me angry, it makes me embarrassed. I am embarrassed that the current administration’s foreign policy is so heinously craptastic that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY hates us. Okay, it’s an exaggeration to say hates us, but many do, and most if not all have at least a few large, marrow-filled bones to pick with us. I feel embarrassed that instead of reflecting my personal values, which differ greatly from George W. Bush, I am looked at as an extension of him, as a citizen of “his” country, and therefore a huge douche.
BIZNASS (<3>
Now, after that long post, I’ve decided this about my blog in general, and how it is most likely going to progress. I have WAY too many journals. I have journals for psych, a personal journal, two online journals and a journal where I keep track of money. TOO MANY JOURNALS. So, I am journically (it’s a word now) delegating. I like this blog because I can talk about grown up things without calling you pirates or adventurers. I like the kids’ blog because I can talk about cute little animals and plants and leave out the parts about their razor-blade-weilding, crack-addicted peers (too soon? Is that a too-soon joke?) So here’s the deal, faithful adult-or-nearly-there-or-very-much-there-because-you’re-old-just-kidding readers: If you want educational, awesome details about the Amazon, safaris and general adventures, READ THE KIDS BLOG. The meat and potatoes of what I want to say is still there; if you’re not a reader then there will be no big words so as to avoid obfuscation (get it? I used a big word for confusing to illustrate my point, OH SNAP). This plan could change as of, oh say, any time the whim strikes me. But that’s how it’s gonna be for now. Check the “juicy reads” sidebar and click on “High Seas Adventure”.
THE AMAZON
That business aside, the Amazon kicked ass. Compared to the other groups we sort of got the shaft in terms of not holding anacondas or sloths, not climbing trees, and not receiving snack, but on its own the trip was cool. Only complaint: We waited around for freakin’ EVER. Without explanation as to why we were sitting in a non-moving riverboat for 1.5 hours. On several separate occasions. Someone once called the Amazon “green hell”, and I generally agree with that statement. The Amazon is HOT AS ANYTHING. Super humid, super toasty, and of course you have to wear long pants because getting bitten by fire ants and dengue-fever-carrying mosquitoes can really put a damper on your jungle trek. The shower I took at about 4:30pm today was the GREATEST SHOWER OF MY LIFE. Except for the super kick-ass natural rainforest shower I took when it started raining in the rainforest and I put on my bathing suit and shampooed my hair in the rain. Nature’s shower is the best (not to mention cleanest) shower. Excepting that quasi-shower, my compatriots and I were one big sweaty, DEET-y, Banana Boat SPF 30-y, hammock fuzzy (god could those hammocks fuzz on you, if only there were natural plant lint rollers in the Amazon) MESS. For an explanation and list of sweet medicinal plants and super adorable animals that I wish I could show you pictures of (thanks, superslow, upload-limited internet), read the kidlet blog. Seriously we saw some AWESOME stuff. CUTEST FROGS EVER.
Really I just have way too much to tell you all in terms of what happened, awesome things I did, saw and ate, and hilarious things my friends say, so I’m bound to miss something and that kills me. So email me if you have questions because it makes me feel better about missing all the stuff that’s going on in your lives! I’ll probably post more in the next couple days, I feel like if you’ve gotten this far you must be a bit overloaded. Tchau!
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