Hi Readers!
How are you all? I am doing pretty well! I have been very busy during this long, oceanic stretch, but have also had plenty of time for fun and relaxation. We have been at sea for 11 days now. We are two days from arriving in Argentina, and I cannot wait to be there. During the crossing on the Atlantic, I haven't seen much land. It will be a pleasant sight when I do spot it, and the image comes to mind of a pirate in the lookout region on the ship, yelling out "Land Ho!' and the excited buzz of crew members. That is what it is like for us. Even so, being out in the middle of the ocean has been amazing. The sunsets have been breathtaking and I have enjoyed the views. The ocean itself has been both calm and rocky, depending on the day. Right now we are sailing through a rainstorm, so the waves are a bit choppy, but nothing major. Weather is not a good indicator of ocean swells, though. Earlier this week it was clear outside, the sun was shining, but the swells were giant and it was hard to get around.
Since we left South Africa, there have been several cool events happening on the ship. The first was Halloween. It was definitely an interesting experience. I wore a split P costume and several other students donned a creative costume to celebrate. Otherwise, there were no indicators that a holiday was occurring, save for two food art pieces that featured Jack o Lanterns and squash. Halloween was a study day on the ship, so I did spend a lot of my day doing just that. I also registered for classes next semester at CSU. Overall, I am pretty happy with my final semester schedule. It was sad thinking that this would be the last time I would register for classes for a couple years, or ever. Definitely a bittersweet moment! I am excited to come home, but sad about the prospect of leaving this amazing place I call home. The other thing I did was hand out candy to the children on the ship. There are 22 of them and I loved their costumes.
Another fun thing happening on the ship now is AsSASsins. So far, I haven't been killed, but who knows, I could be next. It is pretty fun to see people trying to look at the photos on the wall to see who their target is and then devising plans to find them, follow them and get them alone. Almost 300 people signed up and you can assassinate people in port as well as on the ship.
I can't believe that my time in Africa is over. I have to say that my favorite port thus far has been South Africa. I had an amazing experience there. It was not the most intense experience I have had, but I found value in it through the fun and connections I made. It was not as challenging as Ghana was for me. Cape Town could easily be mistaken for a city in my home state. The weather when we arrived was temperate and amazing. It was sunny, in the mid 60s, with a light breeze. I got to watch the sunrise the day we arrived, which was spectacular. What makes Cape Town special, in my opinion is the presence of giant mountains behind a city. It was kind of like Denver, but much more pronounced. I loved it immediately and was fascinated by the clouds that seemed to creep down from Table Mountain and disappear, as it got lower to the ground. Cape Town is also unique in that it has the largest noticeable and pronounced gap between the rich and poor. As we drove to our field lab, one side of the road had beautiful affluent looking homes with high walls and barbed wire, overlooking the white sand and turquoise water. On the other side of the road was a township. The homes were very different there and appeared to be more ramshackle. If I have one regret from South Africa, it is that I did not get the chance to visit a township. I guess it just gives me reason to return, and soon!
Here are the four things I loved about my time in South Africa- leaving out so many other wonderful things in the interest of a more succinct blog. :)
1) Food
I cannot talk about South Africa without mentioning the food. I have to say that it is some of the best I have had this whole trip. I loved it! I didn't know what to expect but I was happily surprised the whole time. The first food I had was bobotie pie, which is like Shepherd's pie but with an egg layer instead of mashed potatoes. It was really delicious and I loved it. It was sweet from the thin custard and from the meat itself. The pie was served alongside yellow rice and was accompanied by a thin crisp. It was a very balanced and composed dish. The second food experience I had that is worth mentioning was when I tasted a passion fruit Popsicle. For those who do not know me, I have this obsession with passion fruit. I love it! When I saw this Popsicle in the ice cream case I could not resist. It was so delicious and refreshing and I had five throughout my trip on the safari! I really wish we had these in the US. The next experience I had was tasting ostrich! I decided to be adventurous at a lodge and try some of the wild game. My favorite was the ostrich. It tasted like steak, but much richer. Ostrich is a healthy alternative to beef because it has low amounts of saturated fat. I loved the sear on it! I think we can learn a lot from South Africans about a healthy diet. Most of the other meals I had were full of variety and everything I tried was delicious. The only problem I had with the food was the eating times. Lunch is usually very light. Dinner was a lot later than I was used to and several times we ate around 7:30 or 8 PM. On the ship I have been eating dinner at 5:30, so you can see why that would be a problem for me. Luckily, I had plenty of snacks with me :) Also, while I was in South Africa, I had two pizzas! One of them was from a mall, but it was far from typical mall fare I am used to in the US. It was fresh, hot and delicious! My tummy was very happy!
2) Game Drives
Another thing I cannot avoid talking about in regards to South Africa are the game drives! I was lucky enough to go on three of them as a part of a four-day field program. The first one took place in Addo National Park. It had recently rained, and our guide warned us that animal sightings might be few and far between. I guess we got lucky though, because we saw two of the Big Five animals. For those of you who don't know, the Big Five are animals that were considered in the past to be the hardest animals to hunt. It had nothing to do with size. Before we saw those animals, we passed by a small group of Kudu antelope. I thought these animals were really cool and they are my favorite antelope. The males had horns that twisted and each twist represented 3 years of age. The females did not have horns because they could use the bushes for cover. Addo National Park was not what I was expecting in regards to a safari. There seemed to be thick bushes everywhere and it was super green. My impression of a safari was open topped vehicle in the dry savannah with animals galore. Instead, at Addo you had to look hard for the animals. The next thing we saw on that trip was a dung beetle! It was huge and our guide pretended to eat it, saying that they are a delicacy. We drove for a while and stopped whenever our guide had something to show us. He was full of information about everything we saw and was super funny. We saw some turtles, a male and a female. He joked that we interrupted their private moment. When we stopped the car, the male took off quickly into the bushes. We all agreed that these turtles were especially fast! The next thing we saw was the buffalo- one of the Big Five members. Our guide said that he would gladly take on a rhino or an elephant before a buffalo. He told us that they are extremely strong and intentional in their charges. From the looks of the one we saw, I wouldn't want to cross him either. After the buffalo, we saw movement in the distance, which turned out to be our second Big Five member, the elephant. There was a baby, a younger male and an older female in this small clearing. It was so cool to see wild elephants, not trapped behind bars in a zoo. You realize how vulnerable you are and you admire them. It is such a different experience than visiting a zoo. We watched them for a long time and then passed a warthog that we named Pumba. They are a lot uglier than I thought they would be! Pumba is a lot cuter in the Lion King!! The last few things we saw were Egyptian geese (they looked more like ducks), a black-backed Jackal, more warthogs and some more Kudu. It was a successful drive, and lasted about two hours.
The second drive was one of my favorites and it was definitely an experience for several reasons. One of my favorite things was the game drive vehicle itself. It resembled the jeeps on the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland. The drive was bumpy, just like the ride. There were also black bars on top of the seats and seat back pockets. It was cool. Garden Route was a lot more like the safaris I had imagined. It had plains and little brush. There were also hills and all kinds of plants scattered around. Before we left, we were given warm ponchos with fleece lining on the inside, because it looked like the sky was going to open up. After passing the electric fencing, we entered the park. All around we saw antelope. There were springbok and stembok. We also saw wildebeest. Near the antelope, there was a male ostrich munching on some grass. Little did I know I would be eating his relative that night! Haha. It was really cool because we got really close to the animals. After checking out the antelope, we saw rhinos in the distance and took off in that direction. Rhinos were number 3 on the big five list. At Garden Route they had two females and one male. My favorite part was hearing the rhinos munch on the grass. You could hear the tearing. A small gray bird followed them, grabbing any stray bugs that appeared. The rhinos also got very close to the game drive vehicle. I could almost reach out and touch them, but I had no desire to do so! It is sad to think that they are being senselessly killed for their horns. I think it is important to protect this majestic animal. Near the rhinos, there was a large herd of buffalo. When we were ready to leave we had some difficulty because the rhinos and buffalo kept walking in our path. It was slow going, but eventually we made it through without incident.
After a bumpy ride for a while, we found a hare. It reminded me of my rabbit at home, and I got a little homesick just then. Our guide then drove to the other side of the park so we could catch the lions. In order to get there, we had to drive over electric netting on the ground. This is to prevent the lions from accessing the animals on the other side. The sky was getting darker. We stopped to look at some birds and then spotted the lions in the distance. We stopped pretty far from the lionesses because they were in a hard to reach spot on a hill. They were feeding on a carcass! All of a sudden I saw something whizz down from the sky. A second later, a piece of ice that was ¼ inch thick hit my roommate! A few seconds later, we were in the midst of a hailstorm. I was surprised because it was not very cold. Soon after, fat, cold droplets began to pour down. It was a torrential, chilly rain and our faces got soaked! We did our best to shield from the rain, but it was hard to do in an open top vehicle. The runoff from my poncho soaked the sides of my capris!
Luckily, the rain calmed after five minutes or so. I was the one to spot the male lion on a hill. It was hard to get photos because he was so far away. We started to head back, but when I turned back I saw other vehicles really close to the male in the distance. We convinced our guide to turn around and drive over there. So, we got to see the male lion up close and personal. We had to constantly back up the vehicle though to keep our distance. He was so cool and a beautiful animal! We had seen the fourth animal on the big five list. Unfortunately, I did not see the 5th animal- the leopard. They were present at Garden Route, along with Hippos, but they were hard to spot.
The last game drive was also fun and was at Garden Route. That morning we saw the rhinos again, along with zebra, springbok, eland and giraffes. One of the giraffes was munching on a bone. That surprised me. There was also a female and a baby. That drive was much shorter because we had to get on the road so we would be back in time to see Desmond Tutu. Altogether, the game drives were successful and I saw a lot of cool animals up close. I would go back in a minute, especially to Garden Route!
3) The Zip Line
Part of my field program included a morning of zip lining through the Tsitsikamma forest. It was a fantastic experience and I had a blast. There were ten sections and it took over an hour to get our whole group through all of them. Each section had varying lengths and speeds. It was such a cool moment to fly through the forest, letting my cares go as the wind hit my face. On the third section, I stopped part way through to look down from the highest point on the course. It was awesome. The only wildlife I noticed was a chameleon that I named Chamillionaire. Haha. He was super cool! The zip line itself was constructed with protection of the forest in mind. The cables are wrapped around the trees but do not touch the bark due to rubber pads. There are no screws or bolts in the trees. Instead, the system they have allows them to let more slack on the cables every three years or so. After having a blast, I made the hike up to the car. It was quite a hike!!! I got some exercise and I loved breathing in the fresh mountain air. It was also a spectacular day, perfect for spending time outdoors!
The company of this zip line is also present in Costa Rica. A portion of our entrance fee went to the children of AIDS. It was cool to hear that the staff there regularly volunteered with that organization. After the zip line I purchased a DVD of the experience. I will always remember it!
4) The Elephant Sanctuary
This experience might be my favorite of all the others I had. We had the opportunity to spend time with elephants at a special sanctuary. This sanctuary housed elephants that had been orphaned because of poaching or because they were caught in snares as infants and their mothers left them. The leader of the elephant herd was Marula, and I interacted with her the most. First, we walked hand in trunk with the elephants. When my turn came, I was assigned to the boss lady. You had to put your hand in a C shape and hold it behind you. The elephant would then place its trunk in your hand and you would walk along with them. Marula decided she would be the leader by sort of shoving my hand and indicating she wanted me to go faster. She had the best personality, and I had to laugh. After that, my hand was a bit snotty and dusty, but it was a unique experience I wouldn't trade for the world.
The handlers then let us touch the elephants and feel the different parts like the skin, ears, tail, tusk and feet. I think the coolest thing besides the rough skin was the tail. The bristles on it felt like the bristles on a plastic broom. It was not what I was expecting! The skin was also interesting. It was rough but much thinner than I expected. I liked the feet because they were squishy to the touch. It was super fun to get up close and personal with the elephants. We also got to see inside their mouths!
The next part of our interaction included a 10-minute ride on their backs. I was super excited for this portion! I didn't know what to expect. When it was my turn, I had difficulty getting on Marula, especially since I have short legs. It was an amusing struggle. The ride itself was like riding a horse, but you had a wider stance and you could feel the backbone underneath you. It was such a cool moment to think that I was riding an elephant, in Africa. Marula stopped several times and even started to jog at one point. That was disconcerting, but overall it was a great time. Another experience I will always remember. Throughout the day, I found myself loving elephants even more!
We also got to feed the elephants as a thank you for letting us interact with them. Our guide told us that if you give Marula only a few apple pieces, she would hold out her trunk until you give her as much as she thinks she deserves. Like I said, quite the personality! I thought it was hilarious! J The last thing we did was have an anatomy lesson in an outdoor-classroom. It was pretty fun and I learned a lot. One thing I appreciated about the experience was that the handler's loved the elephants, and it was evident that the elephants were happy and well taken care of. If the elephants did not want to do something, they did not have to. It was clear that free choice was present, and I think it is extremely admirable. The elephant needs come first, and their happiness does as well. It is a sanctuary after all. I loved my time there, and it was truly special!
5) Cheetahs and Reptiles!
The last cool thing that I did that is worth its own section is our trip to see the cheetahs and the reptiles at Garden Route. The lodge has a cheetah sanctuary area within the vicinity of the resort. There were five cheetahs total and each had their own cage, save for two. I was lucky enough to film and witness the two cheetahs playing with each other. They really are powerful and beautiful creatures and they run fast!! Another cheetah was sleepy, and I got some cute pictures of him sleeping. It was really fun and I was excited to see the cheetahs. I did not know that we would get to see them. They are in the sanctuary to prevent inbreeding. We spent about 15 minutes there and then walked up to the Reptile Center. There, I got to see several crocodiles, a giant turtle, a baby turtle and some lizards. I also saw a python, boa constrictor, a green mamba and the deadly black mamba. It was definitely cool, and I enjoyed it.
Of course, I had many more exciting experiences in South Africa. The field lab I participated in was really valuable and I got to apply a lot of things I had learned in class. That is one of many things I love about Semester at Sea. What you learn in class is useful in port and you get so much more out of the class! Another short visit we did was to Storm's River Mouth at the suspension bridge. It was really beautiful and another hike to get there. I couldn't get over how amazingly beautiful South Africa was. Everywhere I went I was amazed. In Cape Town, I visited a mall and was shocked by how Western it was. It caused me to forget I was in Africa, with its designer stores and two huge movie theaters inside. I made sure to remind myself of where I was, and also to think about the serious issues that South Africa still faces today. Even so, I want to return there as soon as I can! I can't wait to go back, or even study there.
I mentioned earlier in the post that we had to hurry back to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He is a Semester at Sea alum and for our 50th Anniversary he was visiting the ship to talk to us. We were able to make the five-hour drive to make it back 2pm. I got pretty good seats in the Union and we waited for his speech at 3PM. I must admit that I didn't know much about him before his speech. When he entered the room, there was a standing ovation to greet him. He was this adorable old man that I immediately liked. His speech was extremely powerful! It left me in awe and admiration and almost brought me to tears. He is such a charismatic speaker! He is also really really funny. He made jokes throughout the speech. I absolutely loved his laugh. The main message of his speech was that as Semester at Sea students, we have the power to let the world know about world issues and as young people we can affect the moral climate of the world. He said that he was blown away by us and other Semester at Sea students for all that we do to help others. I think that was the most amazing compliment he could give. All I could think of afterwards was WOW.
I guess that is about it for now. I had an exam today and I am glad it is over with. Now I can focus on the upcoming port. Right before getting there I think about what I want to get out of it and make a list of to dos. I am most looking forward to amazing food! :) I am so excited to explore Argentina, and to continue my journey into South America! Until next time!
-Jessica
Photos in next entry! :)
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