Brazil, Part 2

Finishing Up Brazil:

On February 20th, I went with a Semester at Sea group to Itaparica Island. The bay at Salvador, known as All Saints’ Bay (for the day it was discovered), is the largest bay in Brazil and the second largest bay in the world. It is a gorgeous place littered with various islands; one of the more inhabited is Itaparica Island. At first we walked to the boat that was to take us on our tour of All Saints’ Bay. It was a rickety old boat about 40 feet long and powered by a disgusting diesel engine. The first leg of our tour took about an hour and a half. Our first stop was a beautiful island where we were given the freedom to go for a swim and enjoy the sun. Then we hopped back on the boat for a 45 minute trip to Itaparica Island. When we arrived there lunch was waiting for us. It was a delicious traditional Brazilian meal of meats and salad. After that Sheryl (Alissa’s roommate) and I walked around Itaparica and had a coconut and collected seashells. It was a cute town, but it did not really have much to offer. The day was just a nice chance to relax after the hectic schedule of classes and traveling. When we got back to the ship we ate and prepared ourselves for the night. We (Alex, Alissa, Chris, Jay, Sheryl, Joanne, and Kevin) decided to spend our last night partying it up at Carnival. We went up public elevator to the Pelorinho, or old town Salvador, and then went right for a while. We had no idea where we were going but we ended up in the best location in Salvador. It was right where two of the large circuits intersected, which meant nonstop dancing. We stayed for several hours listening and dancing to the great music. There were two main types of music; one circuit had more traditional, drumming and African-influenced. The other circuit had more modern pop like music. They were both very fun to dance to and we felt quite safe, especially with the MPs right behind us.

The following morning Kevin, Joanne and I went on a geological tour of Salvador hosted by Rachel O’Brien, one of the more enthusiastic and friendly professor on the ship. It began with an hour PowerPoint lecture by a local geology professor from Universidad Catholico de Salvador. It was actually quite interesting. We then went to the busses and headed out to a town that was about an hour outside of Salvador. It was originally founded by hippies 35 years ago and was home to some unique geological conditions. Waves constantly pounding the surface created was looked like a man made rock wall. It also created a pretty cool tide pool with a lot of sea urchins, crabs and fish. We then went to Praia do Forte, which was much better the second time. This time we had boxed lunches and were able to eat whenever we wanted. The geological landscape that we were viewing was much like the hippie town, but instead of it being created by the energy of waves, it was created by sea creatures living near the shore. Again we had the opportunity to check out the sea life in the tide pools because it was low tide. We then headed back toward Salvador and stopped at a point to view the Salvador landscape. All Saints’ Bay was created when a fault tried to split, but was unsuccessful. This created a large canyon like formation which was cover up by the sea and created a beautiful bay. It was a great place to get a picture of the city and actually see a fault line.

Now for some shipboard updates…

On first night back on the ship it was “Rock The Hawk” night. People were shaving their head in Mohawks and donating their hair to Locks of Love. To join in with the madness, Jay and I corralled Martha “AKA Diana” and Joanne to cut our hair. We sat out on the balcony and let free our newly cut hair to roam the ocean. I felt a little bad for their cabin steward, though, because he was probably picking up hair from all the neighboring balconies. The hair turned out great and Jay even had a “J” carved into his hair.

Neptune Day
Neptune Day is a fabulous British tradition, where one must pay homage to King Neptune, god of the sea, when passing the Equator. Unfortunately, we were not able to get to it until 9 days after we crossed the Equator. It began with the crew dressed in hand made costumes banging on drums through the hallways at about 6:30 in the morning. We were then reawakened at 9 and told to go up to the 7th deck, where the pool is located. Upon arrival, we saw King Neptune “AKA Captain Jeremy”, Queen Minerva “AKA Dean Larry” and their crew of shellback miscreants “AKA faculty, staff and crew who had already crossed”. King Neptune and Queen Minerva were fully dressed up with green paint and headdress to fit the part. After Staff Captain Costas welcomed them all on the ship, we were told that we needed to earn our safe passage and shellback status. We had to stand in the shallow pool and get a fish gut concoction poured on us, then swim across the pool, then kiss two fish and King Neptune’s ring and then get shellbacked (like knighted). It sounds awful but was actually quite a lot of fun. After the ceremony we were given the day to do whatever we wanted. Many of the people decided to shave their heads and so Jay and I joined in the fun and shaved off our Mohawks. Neither of us went to the skin, but I can say that this is the shortest my hair has ever been. The evening dinner was a great festive barbeque with ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream and all the goodies that one would expect to see on a Fourth of July celebration. It was the best meal we have had on the ship so far.

On Tuesday the 26th, Kevin gave a lecture on AIDS in South Africa to the entire shipboard community. It was quite a good lecture and I overheard many students talking about how it was the most captivating lecture that they had seen so far. He blended a video with his lecture quite well to keep the attention of everyone. This yielded a more powerful and lasting impression of the full impact of AIDS and HIV not only on South Africa but the world as a whole.

The interport lecturer for this leg of the journey was Gusavo Goni, an oceanographer from NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration). He lectured a couple of my classes about the research he was doing and we were able to see him throw over a couple scientific buoys and floats. The best part is that once he leaves, students will get to throw the buoys over. Alex and I will be throwing one overboard somewhere between South Africa and Mauritius. These instruments will be used to help record the position and surface temperature of water, which will help to understand currents and lead to better predictions of hurricanes and other weather patterns.

Two days after Kevin spoke we were blessed with the presence of an even better speaker (no offense Dad). Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave an enlightening lecture on the power of youth, the importance of forgiveness, and the positive possibilities of restorative justice. We were able to record his lecture for any of you who would like to see it when we get back. The man is a great speaker and full of life, happiness and hope. It was a great thing to hear after all the “gloom and doom” that the professors had been spouting for the past 4 weeks. He again spoke the following day, addressing the questions of students. It was a more informal setting and yet he still made a powerful statement about the ability of humans to do great and noble things. He has definitely been an inspiration to me. The Archbishop again joined us for the logistical pre-port meeting, where he helped Dr. Matt (the ship’s physician) and friends to sing a “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” rendition that was geared toward making the shipboard community aware of possible health dangers. It was one of the most entertaining and hilarious things that has happened so far. The man definitely likes to dance and has created a new dancing craze on the ship known as “The Desi”.

Things we have learned in Brazil and while crossing the Atlantic:
-Brazilian Portuguese is nothing like Spanish.
-Thumbs up and a smile can get you very far in life.
-Brazilians really know how to dance, and love to party…hard.
-While New York may claim to be the city that never sleeps, Brazil is definitely the country that never sleeps.
-Brazil is not that unsafe, if you take proper precautions and don’t temp anyone.
-During Carnival, all of Salvador is a bathroom.
-I don’t really look that bad with a Mohawk.
-British people have some really bizarre traditions.
-A “#4” on a beard trimmer is not the same as a “#4” on a hair clipper.
-Humans have “an incredible capacity for good”.