I flew back to Virginia on Saturday. I had an early flight from Florida which meant I got into Charlottesville at noon. My friend, Carla, and her daughter picked me up at the airport and they were a very welcomed sight. We spent the drive getting caught up on all the latest and soon we were turning into my driveway. Bliss, joy, rapture. I love to travel but I also love coming home to my cozy abode knowing that I can burrow in and become a hermit (for a limited time, at least). They helped me drag my 50 pounds of luggage/crap into the house and soon departed leaving me to wallow in my nest. Which I did with a vengeance for the remainder of the weekend.
This voyage has been an amazing experience. Looking over some of the entries in the blog makes me wish for a longer time on the ship and more countries to visit. I hope someday I'll be fortunate enough to sail again. In the meantime, Semester at Sea announced they would no longer be sailing these short-term voyages since the enrollment numbers were so low. I was sorry to hear the news since I think the short-term trips offer a real service to the students who can't afford the time or the money for the longer voyages. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do this. I have some fantastic new memories and friends because of it.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
Fort Lauderdale - June 15
We're home! We arrived at the Fort Lauderdale port around 8:00 with little fan fare or drama. The dean made sure that everyone was awake on the ship at 7:00 am by playing "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond over the loud speaker...the entire song too! Yikes.
There wasn't much to do this morning since all of our packing was done and the library was taken care of so I unearthed a book and spent the morning reading. An excellent way to start the day. At around 10:00, the announcements started to come that we were allowed to leave the ship. After some hasty hugs and goodbyes, we were striding off the ship and into the most organized and calm warehouse where our luggage was stored. The complete opposite of the experience I had in Fall 2007 which was total chaos. It was quite blissful. A quick pass through customs and I was soon flagging down a taxi to take me to my hotel. I had made a hotel reservation before the voyage to spend the night here just in case something went wrong with the disembarkation since I didn't want to have to stress about making deadlines.
It turns out, my taxi ride was the most stressful thing about the day though. The driver spoke precious little English, talked or texted on his phone the entire time (until I asked him not to), and didn't appear to have the slightest clue where my hotel was located. Sweet (said with much sarcasm)! Fortunately, all ended well and he deposited me at the correct hotel where I quickly went to my room to find a glorious king size bed and free high speed internet access. Life doesn't get much better than this!
Around noon, I ventured out of my room to find some lunch and ran into Erin Mayhood and her family in the hallway. She is the librarian for the Summer 2012 voyage (http://mayhoods.wordpress.com). What are the odds? I helped her and her husband with their many duffel bags into the lobby while we exchanged news and information. It was wonderful to see them and get to experience their excitement at the prospect of their adventure. They eventually got their bags loaded into the S@S bus with the other summer voyagers and I wished them a bon voyage while experiencing a great deal of envy.
The rest of the day was spent napping and reading. Not a bad way to spend the day but I am definitely ready to be back in Virginia. My flight leaves at 7:45 (ick) and I'll be home by noon. Can't wait!
There wasn't much to do this morning since all of our packing was done and the library was taken care of so I unearthed a book and spent the morning reading. An excellent way to start the day. At around 10:00, the announcements started to come that we were allowed to leave the ship. After some hasty hugs and goodbyes, we were striding off the ship and into the most organized and calm warehouse where our luggage was stored. The complete opposite of the experience I had in Fall 2007 which was total chaos. It was quite blissful. A quick pass through customs and I was soon flagging down a taxi to take me to my hotel. I had made a hotel reservation before the voyage to spend the night here just in case something went wrong with the disembarkation since I didn't want to have to stress about making deadlines.
It turns out, my taxi ride was the most stressful thing about the day though. The driver spoke precious little English, talked or texted on his phone the entire time (until I asked him not to), and didn't appear to have the slightest clue where my hotel was located. Sweet (said with much sarcasm)! Fortunately, all ended well and he deposited me at the correct hotel where I quickly went to my room to find a glorious king size bed and free high speed internet access. Life doesn't get much better than this!
Around noon, I ventured out of my room to find some lunch and ran into Erin Mayhood and her family in the hallway. She is the librarian for the Summer 2012 voyage (http://mayhoods.wordpress.com). What are the odds? I helped her and her husband with their many duffel bags into the lobby while we exchanged news and information. It was wonderful to see them and get to experience their excitement at the prospect of their adventure. They eventually got their bags loaded into the S@S bus with the other summer voyagers and I wished them a bon voyage while experiencing a great deal of envy.
The rest of the day was spent napping and reading. Not a bad way to spend the day but I am definitely ready to be back in Virginia. My flight leaves at 7:45 (ick) and I'll be home by noon. Can't wait!
Last day on the ship - June 14
This was our last full day on the ship. The students were engrossed in their finals and had little need for the library at this point, so Anne and I traded off every 2 hours or so, getting a few projects done but mostly taking care of packing our luggage in our cabins. Anne is staying on the ship for two more days and had to switch cabins and I had to get all of my luggage and boxes packed up for the 3:30 deadline when they would be collected. We kept some belongings behind for our overnight needs but otherwise, the cabin was very bare by the time I had everything packed up. It's a sad feeling, preparing for our departure tomorrow. This time has just flown by!
Tonight we had convocation where the professors were given 60 seconds to say something profound to the students. Of course, none of them were able to keep to the limit so it was a very long convocation! But, eventually, it was over and we had a mock pre-port for Fort Lauderdale that was hilarious and poked fun at all of the other pre-ports. It was a nice way to end the evening.
It doesn't seem possible that it is over. These 26 days have gone by much too quickly and has left me wanting more - which is a very good way to end this experience.
Tonight we had convocation where the professors were given 60 seconds to say something profound to the students. Of course, none of them were able to keep to the limit so it was a very long convocation! But, eventually, it was over and we had a mock pre-port for Fort Lauderdale that was hilarious and poked fun at all of the other pre-ports. It was a nice way to end the evening.
It doesn't seem possible that it is over. These 26 days have gone by much too quickly and has left me wanting more - which is a very good way to end this experience.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Cave Tubing - June 13
Today was my last day in Belize and I went cave tubing. Basically, it was floating down a river on an inner tube and going through a very large and long cave. It was beautiful! We floated down the river in groups of eight and we each had a guide with us. The job of the guide was to keep us from freaking out when we were in total darkness - besides the miner's lights on our heads which really don't do a heck of a lot to illuminate a place. He also towed us down the river when the current lagged which was really sweet of him but he worked hard since all eight of us had our tubes joined together in one long line. I wasn't able to take pictures of the caves or the rest of the river journey since I don't have a water-proof camera but I really wish I had one given how gorgeous everything was. We spent about 90 minutes floating down the river and 30 minutes of that was in the cave. It was just a refreshing and beautiful way to spend the morning.
After we were done on the river, we changed clothes and dashed into the nearby restaurant for lunch which turned out to be all-American food: potato salad, cole slaw, hamburgers, french fries, corn on the cob, etc. It was all very delicious but we were a little surprised at the lack of rice & beans and chicken given that we've had them at all other meals while in this region.
After lunch we had a 75 minute bus ride back to the port where we immediately jumped onto a tender waiting for us. Some of us had wanted to spend a few minutes poking around the shops and doing some exploring but the tenders haven't been reliable in their timetable and if we missed the last tender to the ship we were out of luck getting back before the 3:00 deadline. Since it was already 2:00 I decided not to chance it and headed back to the ship where a much-appreciated shower was waiting for me.
We are leaving port early tonight and heading back to Florida on Friday. We'll be back at sea while enjoying our BBQ tonight. Everybody is super excited about the treat and are talking of little else at this point. The things that make us happy!
After we were done on the river, we changed clothes and dashed into the nearby restaurant for lunch which turned out to be all-American food: potato salad, cole slaw, hamburgers, french fries, corn on the cob, etc. It was all very delicious but we were a little surprised at the lack of rice & beans and chicken given that we've had them at all other meals while in this region.
After lunch we had a 75 minute bus ride back to the port where we immediately jumped onto a tender waiting for us. Some of us had wanted to spend a few minutes poking around the shops and doing some exploring but the tenders haven't been reliable in their timetable and if we missed the last tender to the ship we were out of luck getting back before the 3:00 deadline. Since it was already 2:00 I decided not to chance it and headed back to the ship where a much-appreciated shower was waiting for me.
We are leaving port early tonight and heading back to Florida on Friday. We'll be back at sea while enjoying our BBQ tonight. Everybody is super excited about the treat and are talking of little else at this point. The things that make us happy!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Belize City - June 12
We anchored off the coast of Belize this morning quite a distance from land - I've heard that we are five miles from the harbor of Belize City. Apparently, the water is rather shallow closer to shore so we would probably get stuck. Not good, deah, not good. Bottom line is we would be tendering into Belize City during our visit here.
I was scheduled for a tour of a Mayan site called Lamanai so we gathered in the dining room at the appointed time of 7:45 am and then had to wait over an hour for the ship to be cleared by Belizian authorities. What a drag. Eventually, we were given the okey dokey sign and we thundered off to the 2nd deck where the tender was waiting for us. It took us 1/2 hour to get to shore which kind of dissuades spur-of-the-moment trips to shops or restaurants.
Once on shore, our group shuffled off to the bus to face a 90 minute drive to the middle-of-nowhere-Belize. We stopped at a restaurant on the bank of a river and switched over to a boat that would take us to the Lamanai temples. Once we got going, the boat was a lot of fun. The driver would speed through S-curves barely slowing down. It felt like we were in the tv show, Miami Vice, that way we were zipping down the river (and yes, I realize I am dating myself with that reference.) We would stop occasionally to gawk at animals, birds and other naturistic things. We had a monkey join us on the boat for a little while (which really freaked people out); spotted small birds that walk from lily pad to lily pad - it's nickname is the Jesus Christ bird since it looks like it is walking on water - don't ask me the real name; and spotted other assorted birds flying away from us as quickly as possible.
We reached Lamanai after about an hour on the boat. Brief history of Lamanai - "the Mayan ruins of Lamanai once belonged to a sizable Mayan city
in the Orange Walk District. "Lamanai" comes from the Maya term for
"submerged crocodile." There is evidence on Mayan life that
dates from about 1500 B.C. through Postclassic (A.D. 950-1544) and
Spanish colonial times (A.D. 1544-1700)" Credit to Wikipedia for the background info.
After a short hike, we found ourselves in front of our first Mayan ruin called the Mask Temple. You can see the masks on each side at the bottom of the temple in the photo above. The students in the group immediately climbed to the top but due to the heat and humidity, I stayed on terra firma and took lots of pictures.
We then moseyed down another path to the High Temple which was indeed, high. Again the energetic students sprinted to the top (they really did sprint) while I stayed at the base and took photos with the many cameras that had been thrust at me by the students racing to the top. I did my photographic duty and managed to get a few shots of the temple for myself before we were urged to continue our walk to the last temple, the Jaguar Temple. For some reason, the students stayed off of this temple even though they had the option of going to the top but perhaps the first two temples were catching up to them so they stayed with the group and listened to the history of the temple from our tour guide (which is also available on Wikipedia).
Side note about the High Temple - while we were there we could hear howler monkeys nearby. Egads! The sound of those things just makes your skin crawl. It was a surprisingly deep sound given that it was coming from monkeys. We saw several in the trees above us including the most freaking adorable baby howler monkey. Fortunately, they were NOT the ones making the skin-crawling noise.
After the Jaguar Temple it was 2:00 pm and time to get back on the boat for our one-hour ride back to the restaurant where we would FINALLY have lunch. To say we were a wee bit peckish by this time would be a massive understatement. We didn't stop to admire the wildlife on the way back and were totally focused on getting to the restaurant. We finally arrived and dived into some delicious rice & beans and chicken - all washed down with an ice-cold Belize Beer called Belikin which was necter from the gods, at that point. We were all sweaty, covered in sun screen and bug spray with matted hair from the boat ride so we had totally earned this beer! Delish!
We were back in the bus for our long ride back to the harbor and everybody immediately fell asleep - including me. It certainly makes the time fly quickly though. We arrived at the port and Anne and I had intended to stay there rather than return to the ship to peruse the shops and perhaps get something to eat. Unfortunately, everything closes at 5:00 and we were there five minutes after. Boo hiss! So we boarded the tender and headed back to the ship for the promise of showers...which felt blissful, by the way. Afterward, it was dinner and downtime in our cabins catching up on e-mails and blogs. This has been a fun but long day. I go tubing through caves tomorrow which should be lots of fun. Stay tuned.
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| Tendering from the ship |
I was scheduled for a tour of a Mayan site called Lamanai so we gathered in the dining room at the appointed time of 7:45 am and then had to wait over an hour for the ship to be cleared by Belizian authorities. What a drag. Eventually, we were given the okey dokey sign and we thundered off to the 2nd deck where the tender was waiting for us. It took us 1/2 hour to get to shore which kind of dissuades spur-of-the-moment trips to shops or restaurants.
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| Boat on the New River |
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| Mask Temple |
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| High Temple |
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| Jaguar Temple |
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| Howler monkey with baby on her back |
After the Jaguar Temple it was 2:00 pm and time to get back on the boat for our one-hour ride back to the restaurant where we would FINALLY have lunch. To say we were a wee bit peckish by this time would be a massive understatement. We didn't stop to admire the wildlife on the way back and were totally focused on getting to the restaurant. We finally arrived and dived into some delicious rice & beans and chicken - all washed down with an ice-cold Belize Beer called Belikin which was necter from the gods, at that point. We were all sweaty, covered in sun screen and bug spray with matted hair from the boat ride so we had totally earned this beer! Delish!
We were back in the bus for our long ride back to the harbor and everybody immediately fell asleep - including me. It certainly makes the time fly quickly though. We arrived at the port and Anne and I had intended to stay there rather than return to the ship to peruse the shops and perhaps get something to eat. Unfortunately, everything closes at 5:00 and we were there five minutes after. Boo hiss! So we boarded the tender and headed back to the ship for the promise of showers...which felt blissful, by the way. Afterward, it was dinner and downtime in our cabins catching up on e-mails and blogs. This has been a fun but long day. I go tubing through caves tomorrow which should be lots of fun. Stay tuned.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Rough Seas - June 11
Soon after we left Costa Rica last night, we started to experience the roughest seas of our voyage. The poor students were attending a mandatory event in the Union where the waves are very pronounced. Many of them went rushing out of the room. Sleeping last night was not at all restful since the waves were forcing me from one side of the bed to the other all night long. I was spared from the nausea that night and while I was in my cabin today but working in the library today was not a pleasant experience. With the an increased roll in that area along with staring at the computer screen, I was not a happy camper. Fortunately, I had ginger candy to chew on and I managed to maintain until I got back to my cabin.
The timing of the increased waves couldn't have been worse because our fancy dinner and dance was tonight. The best meal of the voyage and everybody was struggling not to turn green at the site of it! We all got gussied up in our best clothes and met with friends in the dining room for the special dinner - complete with champagne. We had a great time and did our best to ignore the pitch and roll of the ship.
Anne and I took the opportunity to pose with several of our library student workers - unfortunately, we couldn't locate all of them last night so these are four of the seven students working with us in the library. We have been incredibly fortunate to get these students - they've done a fantastic job for us! We hope to get a picture of all of us together on the last day on the ship.
The dinner was amazing and the crew serving us did a phenomenal job and rushed around like crazy to make sure we had everything we needed. It was a great night and we all managed to forget the movement of the ship for a few hours. But as soon as dinner was over, we all went back to our cabins rather than go to the dance afterward. We just couldn't deal with that too tonight. I think the dance would have been the downfall of a lot of people.
Tomorrow is our last class day which just doesn't seem possible since it marks the near end of the voyage. This time has really flown by!
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| Me and Anne |
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| Cici, Lauren, me, Andrea, Melanie, Anne |
The dinner was amazing and the crew serving us did a phenomenal job and rushed around like crazy to make sure we had everything we needed. It was a great night and we all managed to forget the movement of the ship for a few hours. But as soon as dinner was over, we all went back to our cabins rather than go to the dance afterward. We just couldn't deal with that too tonight. I think the dance would have been the downfall of a lot of people.
Tomorrow is our last class day which just doesn't seem possible since it marks the near end of the voyage. This time has really flown by!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
White Water Rafting - June 9
We were on the bus at 9:00 this morning for our trek to the white water rafting location. I was so excited! I've been wanting to go white water rafting for years and this is the first time I've made it a reality. It took us about an hour to get to the river, suited up in oh-so attractive helmets and life vests, and then got our 10 minute safety lecture about how not to be idiots on the river (my interpretation, not theirs).
Then we clambered into the boats and had a five-minute testing of our new paddling skills and we were off. Our boat guide was Andreas and he was fantastic. He had a great sense of humor and regaled us with stories and pointed out birds and vegetation along the way. We had the lead boat out of six boats so we never knew what was ahead of us until we were in the thick of it. It was so much fun! Even though it was only class 1 and 2 rapids it was still a thrill...but I definitely want to try this again with bigger rapids!
We reluctantly came to the end of our expedition after an hour and a half trip and climbed onto the bus in our soaking wet, clammy clothes for a 1/2 hour ride to the rafting headquarters where we were able to change into the dry clothes we brought and scarf down a bite to eat since it was now 1:15. We were starving!
After lunch, we were back on the bus for the hour-long trip back to the ship and then an uneventful afternoon and evening. Between the zip-line excursion and the white water rafting, Costa Rica has been a lot of fun! We left the port around 8:00 pm and we are on our way to Belize - our last port before heading home.
Then we clambered into the boats and had a five-minute testing of our new paddling skills and we were off. Our boat guide was Andreas and he was fantastic. He had a great sense of humor and regaled us with stories and pointed out birds and vegetation along the way. We had the lead boat out of six boats so we never knew what was ahead of us until we were in the thick of it. It was so much fun! Even though it was only class 1 and 2 rapids it was still a thrill...but I definitely want to try this again with bigger rapids!
About half-way through our journey, it started to rain but by that time it didn't make any difference whatsoever since we all thoroughly drenched from the waves. We continued down the river splashing the other boats when they came close to us and just generally trying to get people even more wet.
We reluctantly came to the end of our expedition after an hour and a half trip and climbed onto the bus in our soaking wet, clammy clothes for a 1/2 hour ride to the rafting headquarters where we were able to change into the dry clothes we brought and scarf down a bite to eat since it was now 1:15. We were starving!
After lunch, we were back on the bus for the hour-long trip back to the ship and then an uneventful afternoon and evening. Between the zip-line excursion and the white water rafting, Costa Rica has been a lot of fun! We left the port around 8:00 pm and we are on our way to Belize - our last port before heading home.
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