Yup...I am on the other hemisphere...crazy!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
mmmm...no hair...?
SO ya...you may have thought that last summer my hair was short, wait till you see me now! It is basically the shortest it has ever been in my life! {aying respects to King neptune as we crossed the equator seemed like something that just needed to be done! All pollywogs (those who have yet crossed the equator via a ship) have to go through a ritual which includes getting soaked in fish guts, jumping in the "sea" (the pool) and then kissing a fish...capped off by sacraficing your hair to king neptune...so here you have it!
I am off to ecuador with no hair!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Panama...Amazing a second time!
The four day trek down to Panama was definitely one that started to get long. I was super anxious to get off of the ship when we finally arrived in port. A little about Panama, for those that remember I was in Panama last year about this same time with some OSU students and had a blast, so I already sort of knew my way around. Panama is a county that is based mostly on the service industry, from the Canal, to its really liberal banking policies it is a country that has definitely had an impact on me. Panama has three native tribes that are still active and living cultures. The Embera and the Kuna are the two more well known tribes and both have great influence in the art that you find in the country. The skyline of Panama is amazing, and looks very metropolitan as we pulled up on Friday morning. Most of the tall skinny buildings reminded me of Miami and the beach front high rises in that city. I think someone mentioned that the buildings are a lot of new offices and of course new condos as Panama is the new place to come and retire (any takers???). A little about the Canal since it is Panamas main source of income as a country, and is also a engineering marvel. Built almost a 100 years ago, the canal has not been updated or changed since. Each of the locks in the canal are filled by gravity and waters from rivers and lakes in the middle of the Canal. The ships that go through the Canal actually end up being elevated 85 feet about sea level…which is incredible when you think about the weight of these ships! One 8 hour trip through the canal saves a tanker 21 days of travel around South America, which must be expensive, since the average ship pays upwards of 200,000 to pass through!
On Friday I spent the morning trying to help students leave the ship because our tendering process became extremely difficult due to the large swells the ship was in where we had anchored. At one pint the gangway which is basically a platform off the side of the ship was moving up and down at least 10 feet while the tender boat we were trying to get students on was also bobbing up and down that same amount. At one point the tender got caught under the platform and then launched the platform up against the ship. Lets just say that it was stressful and scary for not only the crew who had to do all this, but also the students who had to get on there in order to get into the city! Needless to say many students chose to stay in port the whole time and not return to the ship in order to avoid having to tender! Friday I spent the day at the Gamboa rainforest in the Soberania national park and did a SAS trip going up a tram that was very much like a the sky ride at cedar point or Disneyland…basically a people mover in the forest. I was with a bunch of cool students on this trip and really got a chance to get to know them better. Some of the girls on my floor are really sweet and really interesting to hear there experiences at there schools, the similarities and differences are stark at times. Anyway, the tram took us up the mountain where I was able to see a couple sloth’s, monkeys, toucans, and a lot of bugs.
The funny thing is that everyone that took the tram, on three different days all saw the same animals, so it made me think that they had these guys somehow tied to the trees J OK probably not, but it was cool to see that those animals actually still live around this tram and the people of the park. The rest of the night I just spent with the students at dinner…we went downtown Panama and had our first taste of home…Pizza…tasty…Getting home, the only good news was that the tender was definitely smooth.
On Saturday my plan was to head over to the Caribbean side with Tania, Anne, Nate, and Lisa…all student life folks. Lisa and Tania has a trip to the Embera tribe in the morning and thus could not leave until 5pm that night. We met up in the city and all five of us all coming from different places ended up somehow at one place all within 5 minutes of each other…truly amazing! When we all met up, Anne told us that she had talked to some people that recommended not going to Portobelo, the city wanted to head to late at night as that there was nothing to do there at night, nor was there any place to stay that late at night. So we had a change of plans and decided to get a hotel room in Panama City and catch the 7:00 AM train to Colon and then take a Bus to Portobelo and then a boat to Isla Grande, our final destination. After finding a hotel (the room I was in with Anne and Nate had a twin and a double, the double bed was literally the squeakiest bed in the world…you looked at it and it made a noise) we headed out to dinner in Casco Viejo. This area of town is a newly gentrified area that is beautiful! The only thing is that in order to get there you head through a part of Balboa that is not very safe at all. We catch a cab (4 people in the back of a 4 door sedan…always a good time) and the driver recommends dinner at Manolo Caracol…so of course we take it and head there for dinner.
The following is a recap of what was so far one of the most amazing meals of life. The thing to note about this restaurant is that there is no menu, the chef cooks what he has that night and brings food out till he runs out pretty much. The restaurant was decorated in local art, paintings and mosaics that all had a pair of the opposite gender, for example there were a group of mosaics of people, each group had a pair of men and women. Each table was set with wine glasses, bottle of wine, and crisp white linens. As we entered we walked by an amazing wall of wine corks filling this floor to ceiling container at least 3-4 feet wide and 8 feet tall FULL of corks…so cool…
When we walked in the restaurant we were the first table of diners to arrive and sat down…I will now try to describe the meal in the order of entrees:
1) Bread: fluffy white bread was brought to us with two spreads, a vibrant tallow spread made with kiri fruit (looked like red balls on a vine) and a fish pate of sort.
2) Sashimi 1: a fish sashimi with a Panamanian twist served a top a pineapple ring and topped with meat from the inside of a passion fruit
3) Inside out Ravioli: Hearts of palm cut into thin strips wrapped in a cold piece of beef topped with olive oil and herbs
4) Sashimi 2: a white fish topped with red onions and a light olive oil vinaigrette…perhaps some lemon in there as well?
5) Salad: A lettuce salad with slightly ripened mango, avocado, carrots and an amazing light and refreshing dressing
6) Mushrooms: Button mushrooms sautéed with herbs and butter…simple but amazing
7) Shrimp: large whole shrimp(head still on) grilled and covered in an orange and panela (sort of brown sugar honey thing) sauce
8) Papas y Pulpo: potatoes and octopus…not much more to say other then delicious!
9) Clams: a large bowl of clams steamed with herbs and butter…tasty shellfish with an amazingly fresh taste.
10) Rice: an Asian inspired rice dish with cabbage and other vegetables.
11) Fish: A white fish cooked on a grill topped with a fruity tropical sauce light enough to want to drink it
12) Beef: a beef filet toped with what appeared to be a think red plum sauce…this was most folks favorite dish
13) Dessert: small cubes of fruit including papaya, watermelon, mango and pineapple next to a coconut ball pressed together with honey and brown sugar.
Well if you are starting to wonder how much this amazing meal cost us…$40-50? More? Nope…all for the low price of $17…gourmet food in Panama! My quote of the night “You can’t even eat out Outback Steakhouse for that much”. All of us thought the same that this meal is going to be hard to beat for the rest of the trip…so many good things! After dinner we headed back to the creaky bed hotel and got up at 5:30 to catch a cab at 6am to make it to the train…and the beginning of our adventure!
Our plan for Sunday and Monday was to make it out to the Caribbean coast and spend the night. We were going on the hope that we would easily make it out to the island and find a place that had an empty room…its Sunday night right? Shouldn’t be to tough! Oh read on! From what we read in all our guidebooks was that we needed to get to Portobelo and then from there boat it out to Isla Grande. In order to maximize our time on this trip we decided that it would be fun to take the Panama Canal train that leaves Panama City every morning at 7am…one way and does not return until 5pm. Basically this train is used as a commuter service train for people that work in the free trade zone in Colon (the largest free trade zone in the western hemisphere 2nd only to hong kong in the world!)
We caught a cab and made it out to the train stop only to learn that the train doesn’t run on Sunday, a fact that at least 4 people we asked and the guide book we read before this didn’t know…something to tell the folks at Lonely Planet and Moon Handbooks…So with no train we were left the option of taking a bus. At the bus station we confirmed that we needed to take a bus from Panama City to Colon, but transfer in Sabanitas to a bus heading to Portobelo. So we were off…we got on an air conditioned coach and relaxed as we started out trek…luckily they were playing the newest Steven Segal movie to entertain us on the hour trek to Sabanitas. When we arrived at our stop we realized we were basically on an over crowded street corner in a small town in front of a grocery store and as each bus for Portobello pulled up is was PACKED and about 500 people tried to squeeze on…Sunday grocery store rush hour? Who knows. So we decided we would take a cab…they decided to charge us 20 bucks for what we were told would be a 20 minute ride. So we got in our 5 passengers in a Toyota corolla, basically Anne sitting between my legs in the back seat for what turned out to be a 35 minute ride to a small boat dock in the middle of a small bay. We got out and asked how much was a ride to Isla Grande…when we were informed it would be $50 a person we all laughed and realized that we needed to burn the guide books that told us it would be only $1.50 to the island. After seeing our reaction the cab driver informed us that there was a small town about another 30 minutes down the road that had said $1.50 boats, La Guiaria. So for another $10 we were off to this other small town in hopes that we would finally make it to this Island.
Once we made it to the boat dock, after a 35 minute car ride on what has to be the WORST rode in all of panama (picture the cab swerving from one side of the rode to the other every 10 seconds to miss the larger pot holes still falling in small and medium size ones) we made it out the island. On the way to the boat dock we read in our trusty guide book (haha) that Bananas resort had a $20 shuttle back to Panama city, check, so we decided to have out boat driver take is directly there. Unknown to us this resort was on the complete other side of isla grande then every other hotel, basically a private beach resort that left nothing to be desired. As we rounded the corner we pulled up to the heaven that we had been awaiting, a small beach with cute little cabins all waiting for us! After getting a couple rooms we headed out to the docks were we were able to snorkel for free! We also had kayaks, a pool, and many other inflatable floating devices we could use. The most amazing part of the resort was that it was Sunday, so the 30 or so people on the island that were there when we arrived ALL LEFT by 3pm and from then till the next day at 2pm when we left the Island was only inhabited by us 5 and the staff! Yup…the trek from hell paid off BIG TIME! Our own Private Island!
I spent the day snorkeling, napping, pool side, tanning, marvelous…a little dream come true! That night at dinner we all got cute and come down to enjoy our meal ocean side only to find that a large thunder storm was rolling in (I mean it is the rainy season in Panama).
We continued to eat as the rain started to come down really hard and the lightening bolts and thunder started to get closer…so close in fact that one hit RIGHT NEXT to were we were eating…the crackle from the lightening bolt and the intense roar of thunder were so intense that it sacred the bejeezus out of us and the staff of the hotel…I was a little jumpy the rest of that night! The best part was that for the ride home we were able to call a friendly van driver, Pedro that Anne had met early in the week. We arranged for Pedro to come get us the next day in hopes that he would find his way to this remote part of Panama and to the right dock on the main land. After our morning of lounging around and beach and pool we headed off the island expecting to have to hunt down Pedro our worse, try to find a new way home. The good karma of all we have done in Panama manifested itself in Pedro literally turning the corner into the boat launching area at the EXACT same time we were walking from the dock, the timing could not have been more perfect…not be a millisecond!
After almost passing out from joy of not having to figure my way back to the pacific side of Panama via public transportation we started our trek home making a few stops at some ruins and at a grocery store (mmmm….passion fruit juice). We pulled up to the docks to tender back to the ship and then started to help the students all tender back as well…to our amazement, every single student made it back on time and was on the ship even with the tendering factor before 9pm, on ship time! Way to go guys…I was so proud! I spent the night chatting with students and enjoying hearing there stories of Panama, so far one of my favorite places to visit in the world…I definitely feel a 3rd time coming up sometime in the near future!
On Friday I spent the morning trying to help students leave the ship because our tendering process became extremely difficult due to the large swells the ship was in where we had anchored. At one pint the gangway which is basically a platform off the side of the ship was moving up and down at least 10 feet while the tender boat we were trying to get students on was also bobbing up and down that same amount. At one point the tender got caught under the platform and then launched the platform up against the ship. Lets just say that it was stressful and scary for not only the crew who had to do all this, but also the students who had to get on there in order to get into the city! Needless to say many students chose to stay in port the whole time and not return to the ship in order to avoid having to tender! Friday I spent the day at the Gamboa rainforest in the Soberania national park and did a SAS trip going up a tram that was very much like a the sky ride at cedar point or Disneyland…basically a people mover in the forest. I was with a bunch of cool students on this trip and really got a chance to get to know them better. Some of the girls on my floor are really sweet and really interesting to hear there experiences at there schools, the similarities and differences are stark at times. Anyway, the tram took us up the mountain where I was able to see a couple sloth’s, monkeys, toucans, and a lot of bugs.
The funny thing is that everyone that took the tram, on three different days all saw the same animals, so it made me think that they had these guys somehow tied to the trees J OK probably not, but it was cool to see that those animals actually still live around this tram and the people of the park. The rest of the night I just spent with the students at dinner…we went downtown Panama and had our first taste of home…Pizza…tasty…Getting home, the only good news was that the tender was definitely smooth.On Saturday my plan was to head over to the Caribbean side with Tania, Anne, Nate, and Lisa…all student life folks. Lisa and Tania has a trip to the Embera tribe in the morning and thus could not leave until 5pm that night. We met up in the city and all five of us all coming from different places ended up somehow at one place all within 5 minutes of each other…truly amazing! When we all met up, Anne told us that she had talked to some people that recommended not going to Portobelo, the city wanted to head to late at night as that there was nothing to do there at night, nor was there any place to stay that late at night. So we had a change of plans and decided to get a hotel room in Panama City and catch the 7:00 AM train to Colon and then take a Bus to Portobelo and then a boat to Isla Grande, our final destination. After finding a hotel (the room I was in with Anne and Nate had a twin and a double, the double bed was literally the squeakiest bed in the world…you looked at it and it made a noise) we headed out to dinner in Casco Viejo. This area of town is a newly gentrified area that is beautiful! The only thing is that in order to get there you head through a part of Balboa that is not very safe at all. We catch a cab (4 people in the back of a 4 door sedan…always a good time) and the driver recommends dinner at Manolo Caracol…so of course we take it and head there for dinner.
The following is a recap of what was so far one of the most amazing meals of life. The thing to note about this restaurant is that there is no menu, the chef cooks what he has that night and brings food out till he runs out pretty much. The restaurant was decorated in local art, paintings and mosaics that all had a pair of the opposite gender, for example there were a group of mosaics of people, each group had a pair of men and women. Each table was set with wine glasses, bottle of wine, and crisp white linens. As we entered we walked by an amazing wall of wine corks filling this floor to ceiling container at least 3-4 feet wide and 8 feet tall FULL of corks…so cool…
When we walked in the restaurant we were the first table of diners to arrive and sat down…I will now try to describe the meal in the order of entrees:1) Bread: fluffy white bread was brought to us with two spreads, a vibrant tallow spread made with kiri fruit (looked like red balls on a vine) and a fish pate of sort.
2) Sashimi 1: a fish sashimi with a Panamanian twist served a top a pineapple ring and topped with meat from the inside of a passion fruit
3) Inside out Ravioli: Hearts of palm cut into thin strips wrapped in a cold piece of beef topped with olive oil and herbs
4) Sashimi 2: a white fish topped with red onions and a light olive oil vinaigrette…perhaps some lemon in there as well?
5) Salad: A lettuce salad with slightly ripened mango, avocado, carrots and an amazing light and refreshing dressing
6) Mushrooms: Button mushrooms sautéed with herbs and butter…simple but amazing
7) Shrimp: large whole shrimp(head still on) grilled and covered in an orange and panela (sort of brown sugar honey thing) sauce
8) Papas y Pulpo: potatoes and octopus…not much more to say other then delicious!
9) Clams: a large bowl of clams steamed with herbs and butter…tasty shellfish with an amazingly fresh taste.
10) Rice: an Asian inspired rice dish with cabbage and other vegetables.
11) Fish: A white fish cooked on a grill topped with a fruity tropical sauce light enough to want to drink it
12) Beef: a beef filet toped with what appeared to be a think red plum sauce…this was most folks favorite dish
13) Dessert: small cubes of fruit including papaya, watermelon, mango and pineapple next to a coconut ball pressed together with honey and brown sugar.
Well if you are starting to wonder how much this amazing meal cost us…$40-50? More? Nope…all for the low price of $17…gourmet food in Panama! My quote of the night “You can’t even eat out Outback Steakhouse for that much”. All of us thought the same that this meal is going to be hard to beat for the rest of the trip…so many good things! After dinner we headed back to the creaky bed hotel and got up at 5:30 to catch a cab at 6am to make it to the train…and the beginning of our adventure!
Our plan for Sunday and Monday was to make it out to the Caribbean coast and spend the night. We were going on the hope that we would easily make it out to the island and find a place that had an empty room…its Sunday night right? Shouldn’t be to tough! Oh read on! From what we read in all our guidebooks was that we needed to get to Portobelo and then from there boat it out to Isla Grande. In order to maximize our time on this trip we decided that it would be fun to take the Panama Canal train that leaves Panama City every morning at 7am…one way and does not return until 5pm. Basically this train is used as a commuter service train for people that work in the free trade zone in Colon (the largest free trade zone in the western hemisphere 2nd only to hong kong in the world!)
We caught a cab and made it out to the train stop only to learn that the train doesn’t run on Sunday, a fact that at least 4 people we asked and the guide book we read before this didn’t know…something to tell the folks at Lonely Planet and Moon Handbooks…So with no train we were left the option of taking a bus. At the bus station we confirmed that we needed to take a bus from Panama City to Colon, but transfer in Sabanitas to a bus heading to Portobelo. So we were off…we got on an air conditioned coach and relaxed as we started out trek…luckily they were playing the newest Steven Segal movie to entertain us on the hour trek to Sabanitas. When we arrived at our stop we realized we were basically on an over crowded street corner in a small town in front of a grocery store and as each bus for Portobello pulled up is was PACKED and about 500 people tried to squeeze on…Sunday grocery store rush hour? Who knows. So we decided we would take a cab…they decided to charge us 20 bucks for what we were told would be a 20 minute ride. So we got in our 5 passengers in a Toyota corolla, basically Anne sitting between my legs in the back seat for what turned out to be a 35 minute ride to a small boat dock in the middle of a small bay. We got out and asked how much was a ride to Isla Grande…when we were informed it would be $50 a person we all laughed and realized that we needed to burn the guide books that told us it would be only $1.50 to the island. After seeing our reaction the cab driver informed us that there was a small town about another 30 minutes down the road that had said $1.50 boats, La Guiaria. So for another $10 we were off to this other small town in hopes that we would finally make it to this Island.
Once we made it to the boat dock, after a 35 minute car ride on what has to be the WORST rode in all of panama (picture the cab swerving from one side of the rode to the other every 10 seconds to miss the larger pot holes still falling in small and medium size ones) we made it out the island. On the way to the boat dock we read in our trusty guide book (haha) that Bananas resort had a $20 shuttle back to Panama city, check, so we decided to have out boat driver take is directly there. Unknown to us this resort was on the complete other side of isla grande then every other hotel, basically a private beach resort that left nothing to be desired. As we rounded the corner we pulled up to the heaven that we had been awaiting, a small beach with cute little cabins all waiting for us! After getting a couple rooms we headed out to the docks were we were able to snorkel for free! We also had kayaks, a pool, and many other inflatable floating devices we could use. The most amazing part of the resort was that it was Sunday, so the 30 or so people on the island that were there when we arrived ALL LEFT by 3pm and from then till the next day at 2pm when we left the Island was only inhabited by us 5 and the staff! Yup…the trek from hell paid off BIG TIME! Our own Private Island!
I spent the day snorkeling, napping, pool side, tanning, marvelous…a little dream come true! That night at dinner we all got cute and come down to enjoy our meal ocean side only to find that a large thunder storm was rolling in (I mean it is the rainy season in Panama).
We continued to eat as the rain started to come down really hard and the lightening bolts and thunder started to get closer…so close in fact that one hit RIGHT NEXT to were we were eating…the crackle from the lightening bolt and the intense roar of thunder were so intense that it sacred the bejeezus out of us and the staff of the hotel…I was a little jumpy the rest of that night! The best part was that for the ride home we were able to call a friendly van driver, Pedro that Anne had met early in the week. We arranged for Pedro to come get us the next day in hopes that he would find his way to this remote part of Panama and to the right dock on the main land. After our morning of lounging around and beach and pool we headed off the island expecting to have to hunt down Pedro our worse, try to find a new way home. The good karma of all we have done in Panama manifested itself in Pedro literally turning the corner into the boat launching area at the EXACT same time we were walking from the dock, the timing could not have been more perfect…not be a millisecond!After almost passing out from joy of not having to figure my way back to the pacific side of Panama via public transportation we started our trek home making a few stops at some ruins and at a grocery store (mmmm….passion fruit juice). We pulled up to the docks to tender back to the ship and then started to help the students all tender back as well…to our amazement, every single student made it back on time and was on the ship even with the tendering factor before 9pm, on ship time! Way to go guys…I was so proud! I spent the night chatting with students and enjoying hearing there stories of Panama, so far one of my favorite places to visit in the world…I definitely feel a 3rd time coming up sometime in the near future!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Acapulco Continued!
Acapulco Day 2
Well if you are keeping track, day 2 in Acapulco was my birthday and I must say was probably one of the most fun bdays I have had. We spent the day at Isla Roqueta which is a small island off of the main drag in Acapulco, recommended to us by both the tour books we read and by the students that had gone the day previous. Our students commented on the fun ride over on the tour boat and the cute little island. So we met up early, myself, Doug, Anne, Rasa, Tania and Karen and we headed over to were we could get a ferry. As we boarded the ferry near the Zocalo (the town square in Acapulco full of fun little shops and a main church) we got a chance to see just how massive our ship is in this tiny little port.
After looking through the books we thought the ride to the island would last at most 20 minutes, in a very slow boat. However, our tour guide had a different idea as this boat was not only a $3 ride to the island, but also a tour and show of all the local sights on the 1 mile ride to the island. We were shown the houses of Mexican politicians, actors and actresses highlighted by the hous of Ricardo Montalban…yup…thrilling. The little boat then stopped near a rock were our guides jumped off and climed a rock and gave us our own little cliff diving show. As we rounded the bend and could see the island we had a few more stops at the Virgen de Guadalupe and at a place were we could see some fish through our glass bottom boat. Finally, and 1 hour and 15 minutes later we pulled up about 200 meters from the island were a smaller boat selling tacky shell ornaments and conch shells (the tackiest being a jesus on the cross surrounded by shells). Then our boat was boarded by some locals selling shrimp and sodas. At this point, we could see the island, we were hot, and just upset that we were not informed that we were going to be given a tour rather then just driven to the island that Rasa decided she was going to jump off and swim to shore. So with in seconds Rasa had jumped off of the ship and was swimming her way to the shore while the rest of us sat in the boat waiting for the painful ferry ride to end. An hour and half total we sat on the little boat for a ride that could have taken 10 minutes tops.
La Isla was way cute, but very much a local Mexican tourist spot, no white people in sight which was great! We made our way to the quietest part of the beach and realized that like usual in Acapulco it was a million degrees outside so we rented some umbrellas and chairs and just began a day of relaxation. Well, relaxation apart from the 2340832048 people trying to sell you there crap, anything from braids and massages to necklaces and water floatees. All I know is the last thing I would want in that heat was for someone to touch me. Rasa put it best, “I don’t understand how there could ever be a population issue in Mexico, I don’t know how anyone would want to have sex in this heat”.
After the Island we made it back to the ship for a quick nap and shower and then we headed off to the Cliff Divers at the Quebrada. This was one of the highlights I wanted to check out in Mexico. We made it there in time for the 7:30pm show which cost us $3.50 to get down close were we could see them jump and land in the water. I got some amazing photos, I hope that you all can see them!
From there we took a cab to El Cabrito a cool little restaurant snuggled in the most authentic part of Acapulco…basically next door to the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood J So Yes, it was it was in a touristy spot, but is known for its amazing Mole. So of course, I had the Mole! Mole is combination of like 400 ingredients that make this brown pasty sauce that is an awakening to anyone’s palette. After ordering about 8 more people showed up to help celebrate my birthday! It was so much fun, I enjoyed some Sangria, a few shots of Don Julio tequila and well just basically an amazing time with new friends. After dinner we ended up in a Mexican karaoke bar next to some great loud boisterous women who were a hoot and how recommended that we hit a bar called Salon Q. This place reminded me of the Havana club in I Love Lucy. Basically a bunch of tables in a large semi circle elevated in tiers around a dance floor and a large stage with live music. After some dancing we were removed from the dance floor for a show with some club dancers in banana and Cuban outfits. The dancers were followed by 3 female impersonators…yes…drag queens…at this random bar in Acapulco…funny to say the least. The night ended around 3AM and trust, I crashed!
Day 3 Acapulco
Today was my first SAS sponsored trip. SAS offers trips that they plan and we pay for, the only real beneft of doing trips through them is that you don’t have to do any of the planning or worrying about transportation to these sites. So my first trip was out to the local aquarium to swim with dolphins! Yup…I got to swim with dolphins, definitely something I have always wanted to do. The water park were the dolphin aquarium was located at was actually very nice, go figure it was in the touristy area of Acapulco. When we got to the park we had some free time before our swim time. The park had 4 dolphins, all looking great and totally healthy. It was so cool to be sitting in a pool with dolphins…my dolphin, whose name was Maite loved me…I was the only one that was able to get there dolphin to turn on its belly and let me pet its stomach, just call me the Dolphin Whisperer. Favorite part is when they had the dolphins pick us up with there noses and push us out of the water! I think the craziest part of this is that about 20 students did not make it to the swim because they were to hung over to get up…yup…that means they just wasted a $125 trip…
The afternoon/night of day 3 was pretty tame we headed to the mall and then to another out door market to check out the goods. I tried to get myself a Mariachi Sombrero, but I as I was looking I was reminded that I would probably have to wear the hat home on the plane, and while that may seem like a good idea, a red eye flight while wearing a huge hat is not really going to be fun. Dinner was seafood on the ocean again, I think that is something I will greatly miss from this trip, the amount of amazing seafood I have been eating!
Day 4 Acapulco
Today we spent the day at a beach called Pie de la Cuesta which was located about 45 minutes north of Acapulco. The time we spent here was amazing, it was a long white sand beach with HUGE waves that knocked me around, but the most amazing part was how empty the beach was! It was pretty much our private little beach. We ate lunch at this little place on the beach which ended up paying for our rent of some hammocks and chairs…so yes, we took advantage of those. Today was also the final game in the Copa De Oro Futbol tournament…and who was playing? Mexico and the US of course! I believe the US won 2-1, so the rest of the day we were definitely Canadian J On the way back to the ship our van driver we rented took us by the local Diego Rivera mosaic (Diego was the husband of Frida Calo). Diego had one of his mistresses living here in Acapulco, what is more fitting then building one of his last works of art in front of her house!
So now we are back on the ship and back to ship life…I Am very glad that I did not get sea sick and that I was able to ease right back into the flow of life in the MV. What does a day look like for me? Well I have been getting up in the morning around 7am to work out and eat breakfast. At 9:20 is Latin America today which is a class that we all need (should) attend. From there we have a student life meeting at 11am and then lunch. The afternoon I work at the student life desk or have the time to enjoy the ship or get some work done! The night time is usually reserved for programming efforts or being on call at one of the alcohol nights. Alcohol has been pretty tame so far on the ship. In Acapulco, not gonna lie the students went a little crazy, well some of them did…most actually were totally fine!
Apart from that all is well! I hope to call people when I get to Panama on Friday! Much love…
Well if you are keeping track, day 2 in Acapulco was my birthday and I must say was probably one of the most fun bdays I have had. We spent the day at Isla Roqueta which is a small island off of the main drag in Acapulco, recommended to us by both the tour books we read and by the students that had gone the day previous. Our students commented on the fun ride over on the tour boat and the cute little island. So we met up early, myself, Doug, Anne, Rasa, Tania and Karen and we headed over to were we could get a ferry. As we boarded the ferry near the Zocalo (the town square in Acapulco full of fun little shops and a main church) we got a chance to see just how massive our ship is in this tiny little port.
After looking through the books we thought the ride to the island would last at most 20 minutes, in a very slow boat. However, our tour guide had a different idea as this boat was not only a $3 ride to the island, but also a tour and show of all the local sights on the 1 mile ride to the island. We were shown the houses of Mexican politicians, actors and actresses highlighted by the hous of Ricardo Montalban…yup…thrilling. The little boat then stopped near a rock were our guides jumped off and climed a rock and gave us our own little cliff diving show. As we rounded the bend and could see the island we had a few more stops at the Virgen de Guadalupe and at a place were we could see some fish through our glass bottom boat. Finally, and 1 hour and 15 minutes later we pulled up about 200 meters from the island were a smaller boat selling tacky shell ornaments and conch shells (the tackiest being a jesus on the cross surrounded by shells). Then our boat was boarded by some locals selling shrimp and sodas. At this point, we could see the island, we were hot, and just upset that we were not informed that we were going to be given a tour rather then just driven to the island that Rasa decided she was going to jump off and swim to shore. So with in seconds Rasa had jumped off of the ship and was swimming her way to the shore while the rest of us sat in the boat waiting for the painful ferry ride to end. An hour and half total we sat on the little boat for a ride that could have taken 10 minutes tops.
La Isla was way cute, but very much a local Mexican tourist spot, no white people in sight which was great! We made our way to the quietest part of the beach and realized that like usual in Acapulco it was a million degrees outside so we rented some umbrellas and chairs and just began a day of relaxation. Well, relaxation apart from the 2340832048 people trying to sell you there crap, anything from braids and massages to necklaces and water floatees. All I know is the last thing I would want in that heat was for someone to touch me. Rasa put it best, “I don’t understand how there could ever be a population issue in Mexico, I don’t know how anyone would want to have sex in this heat”.
After the Island we made it back to the ship for a quick nap and shower and then we headed off to the Cliff Divers at the Quebrada. This was one of the highlights I wanted to check out in Mexico. We made it there in time for the 7:30pm show which cost us $3.50 to get down close were we could see them jump and land in the water. I got some amazing photos, I hope that you all can see them!
From there we took a cab to El Cabrito a cool little restaurant snuggled in the most authentic part of Acapulco…basically next door to the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood J So Yes, it was it was in a touristy spot, but is known for its amazing Mole. So of course, I had the Mole! Mole is combination of like 400 ingredients that make this brown pasty sauce that is an awakening to anyone’s palette. After ordering about 8 more people showed up to help celebrate my birthday! It was so much fun, I enjoyed some Sangria, a few shots of Don Julio tequila and well just basically an amazing time with new friends. After dinner we ended up in a Mexican karaoke bar next to some great loud boisterous women who were a hoot and how recommended that we hit a bar called Salon Q. This place reminded me of the Havana club in I Love Lucy. Basically a bunch of tables in a large semi circle elevated in tiers around a dance floor and a large stage with live music. After some dancing we were removed from the dance floor for a show with some club dancers in banana and Cuban outfits. The dancers were followed by 3 female impersonators…yes…drag queens…at this random bar in Acapulco…funny to say the least. The night ended around 3AM and trust, I crashed!
Day 3 Acapulco
Today was my first SAS sponsored trip. SAS offers trips that they plan and we pay for, the only real beneft of doing trips through them is that you don’t have to do any of the planning or worrying about transportation to these sites. So my first trip was out to the local aquarium to swim with dolphins! Yup…I got to swim with dolphins, definitely something I have always wanted to do. The water park were the dolphin aquarium was located at was actually very nice, go figure it was in the touristy area of Acapulco. When we got to the park we had some free time before our swim time. The park had 4 dolphins, all looking great and totally healthy. It was so cool to be sitting in a pool with dolphins…my dolphin, whose name was Maite loved me…I was the only one that was able to get there dolphin to turn on its belly and let me pet its stomach, just call me the Dolphin Whisperer. Favorite part is when they had the dolphins pick us up with there noses and push us out of the water! I think the craziest part of this is that about 20 students did not make it to the swim because they were to hung over to get up…yup…that means they just wasted a $125 trip…
The afternoon/night of day 3 was pretty tame we headed to the mall and then to another out door market to check out the goods. I tried to get myself a Mariachi Sombrero, but I as I was looking I was reminded that I would probably have to wear the hat home on the plane, and while that may seem like a good idea, a red eye flight while wearing a huge hat is not really going to be fun. Dinner was seafood on the ocean again, I think that is something I will greatly miss from this trip, the amount of amazing seafood I have been eating!
Day 4 Acapulco
Today we spent the day at a beach called Pie de la Cuesta which was located about 45 minutes north of Acapulco. The time we spent here was amazing, it was a long white sand beach with HUGE waves that knocked me around, but the most amazing part was how empty the beach was! It was pretty much our private little beach. We ate lunch at this little place on the beach which ended up paying for our rent of some hammocks and chairs…so yes, we took advantage of those. Today was also the final game in the Copa De Oro Futbol tournament…and who was playing? Mexico and the US of course! I believe the US won 2-1, so the rest of the day we were definitely Canadian J On the way back to the ship our van driver we rented took us by the local Diego Rivera mosaic (Diego was the husband of Frida Calo). Diego had one of his mistresses living here in Acapulco, what is more fitting then building one of his last works of art in front of her house!
So now we are back on the ship and back to ship life…I Am very glad that I did not get sea sick and that I was able to ease right back into the flow of life in the MV. What does a day look like for me? Well I have been getting up in the morning around 7am to work out and eat breakfast. At 9:20 is Latin America today which is a class that we all need (should) attend. From there we have a student life meeting at 11am and then lunch. The afternoon I work at the student life desk or have the time to enjoy the ship or get some work done! The night time is usually reserved for programming efforts or being on call at one of the alcohol nights. Alcohol has been pretty tame so far on the ship. In Acapulco, not gonna lie the students went a little crazy, well some of them did…most actually were totally fine!
Apart from that all is well! I hope to call people when I get to Panama on Friday! Much love…
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Acapulco and more...
The last few days at sea seem to be a blure at this point. The students had there first 2 days of classes, and let me tell you they are going to be over worked! I am scared for some of these guys, the amount of reading is grad level in most classes…and lets not forget that all in all we only have 28 days at sea! So needless to say students are truly freaking out. The last couple of nights we had our first “pre-ports” which are were we have different people from the community brief us on the country and city we are about to port in. two nights before a port is a “cultural pre-port” and the night before a port is the “logistical pre-port.” The cultural pre-port was fun, a long time semester at sea professor had the whole community singing Mexican Mariachi music while our IT lady (who is from Vera Cruz, Mexico) told us all about things we should try and eat in Mexico. The logistical preport was on the other hand a little dry and ran WAY past the hour allotted for it to be complete. I am hoping that we can convince the deans that run these that we need to add a little energy to the presentation!
We also had our first “AFTer hours” which is basically the alcohol service night on the ship where student can drink from 2100-2300 hours. On some of these nights we get to semi-police them and make sure they are not breaking any policies! This first night was pretty much a success I would say. No students got into trouble and all went fairly well. If you are curious, the name AFTer hours comes from the aft of the ship, which is the back. Since our pool deck and alcohol service occurs there, we call it afterhours…genius…
Like I think I mentioned I was in charge of the Sea Olympics on the ship, and so we had our first meeting. I thought the meeting was going to be a bust because of how late the logistical preport had run…but alas I had about 25 students come and seem to be interested in making the sea Olympics an awesome and amazing day! Nothing planned as of yet…but if you have any ideas for competitions we can play on a ship? Let me know! The RDs got me a cake to celebrate my birthday a little early, so we had some wine and got to hang out. We then headed upstairs to deck 7 were the stafulty lounge is located were we found a good number of the other younger professionals on the ship. We then gave them some cake, turned up the music, and started a little birthday dance party! So much fun.
Acapulco Day 1
So we arrived in Acapulco and Doug and I made sure we were up to watch the ship arrive in port. We woke up about 30 minutes to EARLY at 6am (trust me I would have preferred the sleep!) But we did get to see an amazing sun rise as we sailed very slowly into the Acapulco bay. I will try and load some pictures of this. The ship was cleared by customs around 10AM and Doug, Anne and Rasa went off to explore the city on foot. The first thing I should note is that while I did not get the least bit sea sick, I could NOT believe how hard it was to walk on land. I honestly almost got sick from land sickness after 3 days of sailing! What I am going to do after 6 full days before Chile is beyond me! We mad our way to an ATM to get some Pesos and then found a sign pointing to the Mercado Central. After about 10 minutes of walking we found the central market which was jam packed with people an booths selling every and anything you can imagine from Queso Fresco (mmmmmm) to dead hanging chickens to piñatas and herbal medicine. My favorite part had to be the flower section were they were selling fresh flowers and arrangements. The interesting thing was to see how symmetrical the Mexican flower arrangements were…it wasn’t pretty…but interesting non the less. We found a place for lunch, a little taco stand and had 5 tacos for 15 pesos…so if you are doing the math in your head, we had lunch for $1.50…Barbacoa tacos, cilantro, hot sauce, lime, and onions…I hope your mouth is watering!
The heat in Acapulco is crazy! After walking around the city for a while we were able to sweat enough to fully drench everything we were wearing. After lunch, a beer on the beach, and a visit to the grocery store we made it back to the ship to shower, rest and change for dinner. We spent dinner with Aaron (the video guy), Nicole (the field office person), and a couple of ISE folks that were just on the trip through Acapulco. Dinner was everything I could want…a full fish, head and all, cooked a la plancha with a garlic and chili crust…amazing…I only hope the rest of the meals on this trip can be this delicious.
Tomorrow we are heading to an island…and I hope to buy a phone card to give everyone a call!
Love ya!
We also had our first “AFTer hours” which is basically the alcohol service night on the ship where student can drink from 2100-2300 hours. On some of these nights we get to semi-police them and make sure they are not breaking any policies! This first night was pretty much a success I would say. No students got into trouble and all went fairly well. If you are curious, the name AFTer hours comes from the aft of the ship, which is the back. Since our pool deck and alcohol service occurs there, we call it afterhours…genius…
Like I think I mentioned I was in charge of the Sea Olympics on the ship, and so we had our first meeting. I thought the meeting was going to be a bust because of how late the logistical preport had run…but alas I had about 25 students come and seem to be interested in making the sea Olympics an awesome and amazing day! Nothing planned as of yet…but if you have any ideas for competitions we can play on a ship? Let me know! The RDs got me a cake to celebrate my birthday a little early, so we had some wine and got to hang out. We then headed upstairs to deck 7 were the stafulty lounge is located were we found a good number of the other younger professionals on the ship. We then gave them some cake, turned up the music, and started a little birthday dance party! So much fun.
Acapulco Day 1
So we arrived in Acapulco and Doug and I made sure we were up to watch the ship arrive in port. We woke up about 30 minutes to EARLY at 6am (trust me I would have preferred the sleep!) But we did get to see an amazing sun rise as we sailed very slowly into the Acapulco bay. I will try and load some pictures of this. The ship was cleared by customs around 10AM and Doug, Anne and Rasa went off to explore the city on foot. The first thing I should note is that while I did not get the least bit sea sick, I could NOT believe how hard it was to walk on land. I honestly almost got sick from land sickness after 3 days of sailing! What I am going to do after 6 full days before Chile is beyond me! We mad our way to an ATM to get some Pesos and then found a sign pointing to the Mercado Central. After about 10 minutes of walking we found the central market which was jam packed with people an booths selling every and anything you can imagine from Queso Fresco (mmmmmm) to dead hanging chickens to piñatas and herbal medicine. My favorite part had to be the flower section were they were selling fresh flowers and arrangements. The interesting thing was to see how symmetrical the Mexican flower arrangements were…it wasn’t pretty…but interesting non the less. We found a place for lunch, a little taco stand and had 5 tacos for 15 pesos…so if you are doing the math in your head, we had lunch for $1.50…Barbacoa tacos, cilantro, hot sauce, lime, and onions…I hope your mouth is watering!
The heat in Acapulco is crazy! After walking around the city for a while we were able to sweat enough to fully drench everything we were wearing. After lunch, a beer on the beach, and a visit to the grocery store we made it back to the ship to shower, rest and change for dinner. We spent dinner with Aaron (the video guy), Nicole (the field office person), and a couple of ISE folks that were just on the trip through Acapulco. Dinner was everything I could want…a full fish, head and all, cooked a la plancha with a garlic and chili crust…amazing…I only hope the rest of the meals on this trip can be this delicious.
Tomorrow we are heading to an island…and I hope to buy a phone card to give everyone a call!
Love ya!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Lat 22º 9.98 N
Long 109º 43.64W
Speed 19.2 knots
Course 125º
Some where off the coast of Mexico just south of the Baja Peninsula
So the students got here a few days ago, the ship is divided into “seas” which are floors/areas and each RD is in charge of a Sea. I am in charge of the Caribbean Sea, so it was great telling people on move-in day “Welcome to the Caribbean Sea” and watching them look at me like I was crazy cause we are in the Pacific Ocean…oh well…they figured it out!
We had our lifeboat drill, which was entertaining! Who knew that I would be in charge of calling out names at the muster station. That’s right, 113 people at my muster station and I get to make sure they are all there during the drill. Lets just say that after standing at attention wearing bright orange life vests and crammed up against each other these folks weren’t all that happy!
We spent 2 days pretty much doing orientation meetings after meeting after meeting….thrilling! But that is over and now our regular days are finally starting! Tonight is the activities fair where I get to sign people up for the recreation and Sea Olympics committees. Sounds as though I will have a lot of interest and that students are pretty excited about the opportunity to get involved. I am going to try and upload some pics…www.flickr.com/photos/marioperaza
Saturday, June 16, 2007
At sea
The flight out…
8 hours later we finally made it out of Columbus and back to the great state of California! I really did not remember hoew much I love this place, just the smell alone of eucalyptus and the smog brought back great memories J The flight over was not bad, from Columbus to Denver I initially thought I was sitting next to a small girl (read: more leg room), but then the nice guy in front of us (read: Large…large man) asked if the girl wanted to move up a seat and sit with her family. I suppose that was nice of him, but that took away my ability to move my legs what so ever!. The large man consumed the following on hour 3 hour trip to Denver:
- 1 large bag of Garlic Chex Mix
- 2 bags of pretels
- 1 bag of steak-ums (those smelled delightful…)
- 1 bag of cheez-its
- 1 bag of nuts
- 1 bag of trailmix
- 1 brownie type item
- 4 glasses of red wine
The rest of the flight was uneventful…but I did get to watch the Office from Denver to San Diego!
In San Diego my cousin Jeremy was able to pick us up at the airport and had us stay at his place on the couch…minor detail he forgot to share before he picked us was that his roommate would be hosting an 8 person card party till 3am (read: 7am our time) so we were a little tired getting to the ship!
The ship = AMAZING…I am not gonna lie, I feel a little guilty traveling the world in a first class ship, while yes, there is no casino, we do have a full spa and gym. The room I am in, while might be small for 2 people, is perfect for one. This year the RDs lucked out and were able to get rooms with windows! Honestly I don’t know if I could have handled not having natural light in my living space for 2.5 months! I have so much storage space I could have brought more clothes if I wanted to (the only thing I am afraid I might not have enough of is socks, the ship is SO cold I can’t wear flip flops around!) I literally have to have a sweatshirt on at all times! At one point I had to sit on both my feet in a meeting I was so uncomfortable!
The first few days have been pretty much filled with training, and training and a little more training! Basically we have gotten a chance to learn about all the different functions of the ships and how they can help us do our jobs! So my job, you think I would have figured that out by now J kidding, I am the recreation RD, so apart from the typical RD stuff I will be in charge of pulling together the Sea Olympics…a chance for each “sea” (what we call or floors) to battle it out for the opportunity to be the first floor to exit the ship once we dock back in San Diego in 65 days…I’ll let you know how that goes…any ideas for some fun events we can play on a ship?
The morning of our second day we pulled into Ensenada, Mexico where we will be picking up the students on the 17th. We got a chance to head into town that night for our first taste of another country (while really only really within spitting distance of San Diego!). We pulled into port and the first sight we are welcomed by is literally the largest flag I have ever seen…this Mexican flag is GINORMOUS! The people standing at the bottom of the bowl looked like ants in comparison! We left the ship and headed out to wander the town and somehow ended up in the touristy part of town (of course what part of ensenada isn’t a tourist spot?). Grabbed some dinner at what we thought maybe not a touristy spot, but we found out that yes, the menus we received where in English (booo). I had some tasty Tamales, something I had not had in Columbus yet!
We didn’t really walk around much since all of us were pretty exhausted! We headed back to the ship and I definitely fell asleep by 9:30pm, of course I was planning on getting up at 5:45 to go do Yoga with some folks that were gathering in the ships Union.
Not much to report from the last few nights…tomorrow the students arrive and the real work begins!
8 hours later we finally made it out of Columbus and back to the great state of California! I really did not remember hoew much I love this place, just the smell alone of eucalyptus and the smog brought back great memories J The flight over was not bad, from Columbus to Denver I initially thought I was sitting next to a small girl (read: more leg room), but then the nice guy in front of us (read: Large…large man) asked if the girl wanted to move up a seat and sit with her family. I suppose that was nice of him, but that took away my ability to move my legs what so ever!. The large man consumed the following on hour 3 hour trip to Denver:
- 1 large bag of Garlic Chex Mix
- 2 bags of pretels
- 1 bag of steak-ums (those smelled delightful…)
- 1 bag of cheez-its
- 1 bag of nuts
- 1 bag of trailmix
- 1 brownie type item
- 4 glasses of red wine
The rest of the flight was uneventful…but I did get to watch the Office from Denver to San Diego!
In San Diego my cousin Jeremy was able to pick us up at the airport and had us stay at his place on the couch…minor detail he forgot to share before he picked us was that his roommate would be hosting an 8 person card party till 3am (read: 7am our time) so we were a little tired getting to the ship!
The ship = AMAZING…I am not gonna lie, I feel a little guilty traveling the world in a first class ship, while yes, there is no casino, we do have a full spa and gym. The room I am in, while might be small for 2 people, is perfect for one. This year the RDs lucked out and were able to get rooms with windows! Honestly I don’t know if I could have handled not having natural light in my living space for 2.5 months! I have so much storage space I could have brought more clothes if I wanted to (the only thing I am afraid I might not have enough of is socks, the ship is SO cold I can’t wear flip flops around!) I literally have to have a sweatshirt on at all times! At one point I had to sit on both my feet in a meeting I was so uncomfortable!
The first few days have been pretty much filled with training, and training and a little more training! Basically we have gotten a chance to learn about all the different functions of the ships and how they can help us do our jobs! So my job, you think I would have figured that out by now J kidding, I am the recreation RD, so apart from the typical RD stuff I will be in charge of pulling together the Sea Olympics…a chance for each “sea” (what we call or floors) to battle it out for the opportunity to be the first floor to exit the ship once we dock back in San Diego in 65 days…I’ll let you know how that goes…any ideas for some fun events we can play on a ship?
The morning of our second day we pulled into Ensenada, Mexico where we will be picking up the students on the 17th. We got a chance to head into town that night for our first taste of another country (while really only really within spitting distance of San Diego!). We pulled into port and the first sight we are welcomed by is literally the largest flag I have ever seen…this Mexican flag is GINORMOUS! The people standing at the bottom of the bowl looked like ants in comparison! We left the ship and headed out to wander the town and somehow ended up in the touristy part of town (of course what part of ensenada isn’t a tourist spot?). Grabbed some dinner at what we thought maybe not a touristy spot, but we found out that yes, the menus we received where in English (booo). I had some tasty Tamales, something I had not had in Columbus yet!
We didn’t really walk around much since all of us were pretty exhausted! We headed back to the ship and I definitely fell asleep by 9:30pm, of course I was planning on getting up at 5:45 to go do Yoga with some folks that were gathering in the ships Union.
Not much to report from the last few nights…tomorrow the students arrive and the real work begins!
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