Cape Town, South Africa

Oh South Africa… what a place! We approached Cape Town on February 14th to a very overcast sky. Due to all of the clouds and rain that was in the area that port was actually closed for the morning and we arrived 4 hours later than scheduled. It killed many of us to sit off the coastline and be able to see land but not get off the ship for so long. People were really starting to get quite restless and I can only imagine what people will be like when we arrive in San Diego. Since we were so late, many people missed their trips that were supposed to have early departures from Cape Town International and therefore had to run around and try to re-book flights and hotel rooms and various other details.

The 4 hour delay was actually a blessing for me because it gave me an extra few hours to finalize details on the 4 day Safari that I had booked about 20 hours before I had to be on a plane on my way to Kruger National Park… on the other side of South Africa. Yes… I know it was quite last minute, but as I have said before I am learning that this trip is about taking risks and just sailing along for the ride. As a person that very much needs to have a regular schedule and likes to know exactly where I need to be and when I need to be there, this has been a total change of pace for me. I am learning to love it!!!

I spent the early afternoon of my first day in Cape Town making phone calls to the lodge that Jess (my friend from Pittsburgh who goes to Penn State) and I would be staying in before our Safari. I also walked around the waterfront area and explored a bit where our ship was docked. The waterfront area reminds me a lot of Baltimore or Annapolis and is truly beautiful. It was not what I expected, and I was quite pleasantly surprised. There is a huge western mall just footsteps from the ship (complete with an Apple Computer Store, a Hallmark, and a store that almost resembled Target.) The waterfront also had tons of restaurants, a Nike concept store, and a small amphitheater where there was constant live entertainment. Like I said, it was nothing what I expected South Africa to be. After exploring a little bit, I had to meet Jess back at the ship around 6:00 to drive to the airport for our evening flight to Johannesburg. The flight was fine and like Brazil I was once again impressed with the standards of non-US airlines. South African Airways really prides themselves on their hospitality and when they say they will do anything they can to make your flight more comfortable, they really mean that they will do anything. Jess and I had already eaten dinner before the flight and since it would be almost unheard of for South African Airways to not serve a full meal on one of their flights, Jess and I politely declined, however, since it was Valentine’s Day our chocolate cravings were in full swing. We asked the flight attendant if she could do anything to find some chocolate and within about 5 minutes she returned with some chocolate bars that she had found complete with Happy Valentine’s Day written on the label. It may sound insignificant, however, she really went out of her way to do something nice for us and we appreciated it. It might be generalizing, but I can’t imagine that US Airways would do something like that just to satisfy two girls’ sweet teeth on Valentine’s Day. You are lucky if you get 4 pretzels in the bags that they serve these days.

Jess and I met a local South African businessman and talked to him on the flight for a bit. He started the conversation by asking us how long we American girls would be spending on our “holiday” in South Africa. We asked him how he knew we were Americans on vacation. He said… and I quote… “It wouldn’t be less obvious that you were Americans if you had flashing light bulbs above your heads that said American.” So much for blending in and not acting like tourists. Oh well. He was very nice and clued us in on some local terminology to make us stand out a little less. I think it is mostly the accent that we Americans use that really is the factor that makes us stand out.

After a two hour flight we arrived in Johannesburg. The manager of the lodge picked us up and drove us back to the lodge. While we were driving, we could tell that we were in a really nice part of Johannesburg, but we had no idea that we would be staying in a mansion for the evening. After we arrived and I picked my jaw off the ground from shock at how beautiful the place was. There were 5 guest rooms that were beautifully decorated in all white linens and huge over stuffed furniture. It was just beautiful. We woke up the next morning at 6:30 and had a quick breakfast at the lodge and met our guide, Phillip, and got in the jeep and headed towards Kruger. It was about a 5 hour drive and by the time we got there we were ready for our first game drive through the park. In total over the 4 days we had 6 game drives and were successful in seeing what Africa calls the “Big 5.” The Big 5 are lions, buffalo, elephants, leopards, and rhino. We missed the leopards, but were no more than 5 feet away from any of the other animals. I was able to take some really amazing pictures, and only wish that I could have had more time in the park for the game drives. We also saw giraffe, hippos, wildebeest, all kinds of birds, zebra. Basically, you name it, and it was there! The best time of the day to see animals in either in the early morning or the late afternoon/ evening, so the trip included lots of long days and early wake up calls. It was all worth it though to be able to see some of the animals that I saw. We took a night drive on our second night in the park and it was really amazing to drive in an open air jeep in the late evening when everything is starting to settle in for the night. I just can’t describe what it is like to watch a lioness and her cubs hunting in total darkness less than 3 feet away from your jeep. It is really amazing.

After what seemed like mere hours in the park we had to head back to Johannesburg to catch a flight back to Cape Town early Saturday morning. (Are you getting the feeling that I don’t sleep much on this trip?) We arrived in Cape Town and was greeted by the same little taxi driver that took us to the airport a few days earlier and he drove us back to the ship. He had told us that he would come back and pick us up after we returned from our Safari, but Jess and I didn’t believe him. I guess it just goes to show you the kindness of the South African people. They really are wonderful!! The taxi driver told us that two students were kicked off of our ship for possession of drugs and he had heard the news from standing at the end of the pier at speaking with the security officials from our ship. Sure enough, when we got back to the ship and asked around, the taxi driver was correct… two students were asked to leave- no questions asked. They don’t mess around here, that’s for sure!

After a relaxing day in Cape Town, I went out to dinner on the waterfront with some friends. We all ate fresh seafood and enjoyed ourselves constantly reminding each other that we were actually in Cape Town and encouraged one another to soak up every minute of this experience that is possible. Yes, it sounds corny, but when you are here experiencing the things that I have been experiencing, I just have to take a minute every once a while to remind myself how fortunate I am to be doing the things that I am doing this semester. It’s a once in a life time experience and I am SO grateful!!!

Monday finally arrived and it was my last day in Cape Town. It was incredibly bittersweet because as much and I didn’t want to leave I know there are still so many things on this trip that I am looking forward to. I went to Robben Island, the prison island where Nelson Mandela was held during his struggle against Apartheid in the morning. It was a very interesting tour and all of the tours are actually led by a political prisoner that was once on the island. Prisoners were separated by race and were put into groups. There were awful divisions between the race classes as far as who was able to eat what each day, and who was able to exercise and study each day. Obviously, blacks were treated as second class citizens and received less food, time for exercise, and time for study than the other prisoners received.

As if the last day in Cape Town wasn’t packed enough, after Robben Island, I headed off to the Cape Winelands with 5 of my friends for a quick vineyard tour, wine tasting, and lunch at a restaurant called Moyo. The vineyard was beautifully situated between the mountains and the Mediterranean climate of South Africa makes it a perfect place to grow grapes… and let me tell you the grapes are pretty perfect here because the wine is as close to perfection as I have ever tasted. Lunch was incredible too and at the restaurant they paint your face and there are tables situated in the trees. After a quick stop at a local market outside of the vineyard we jumped in a taxi for the 40 minute ride back to the ship. We left Cape town last night (Monday, February 20) and I already can’t wait to come back.

I could write forever on this port, but I realize if you have gotten to this point you have read over 2.5 pages of single spaced text- so thanks for getting through to the end. Thank you also to everyone for the e-mails. It is so great to keep in touch with everyone from home and it means the world to me that you are following me on this incredible journey that I am on. Tell you friends and family about this program…. encourage people to read about it and consider it… I’m less than ½ way through my voyage and I already want as many students (and adult passengers can travel on this program too!) as possible to be able to experience what I am experiencing because I can already feel that its changing me. I love it out here and I am so thankful for the opportunity to live and learn about this incredible world of ours this semester.

Thanks for reading and look for more updates soon!!
Love,
Leah

Pictures from the Voyage

A soccer game in Salvador, and Kids at social project in Rio.

An Update from Brazil

Brazil is an incredible place. We pulled into port on Wednesday, February 1st and are now sailing towards South Africa. I wanted to update this blog though before I get too wrapped up in school work and planning for Cape Town though. Thanks for everyone’s love and support so far on this voyage, you all have been wonderful. Ok a summary of my time in Brazil…here we go.

We pulled into what is called the “lower city” of Salvador alongside two enormous cruise ships around 8AM and proceeded to go through customs. I was off the ship by about 1PM and was greeted by women in local Brazilian costumes and a huge sign welcoming us to Salvador. I spent the first day in Brazil walking around and exploring Salvador, and as far as I am concerned to explore properly you need money! After getting off the ship I had to find a place to exchange my money for Brazilian Reals (pronounced: Hay-ALLS). In the process of entering a bank I got stuck in a sliding glass door contraption. Basically one glass door slides open and the security guard working at the bank looks you over and decides if you look safe enough to allow into the bank, and then if you do, the guard will open the other glass door to allow you to enter the bank. Well, it either took an extremely long time for the guard to decide if I looked safe enough, or the door mechanism was broken. I’m pretty sure it was the latter. I stood there for what seemed like forever as my friend Liz stared at me through the glass looking quite panicked from the street. They eventually fixed the door and I was able to enter into the bank. I exchanged some money without any problems and was on my way. I was a little surprised at the over abundance of security officers in uniform carrying machine guns at the bank… it was a little intimidating.

I went up to the “upper city” on what the locals call “the elevator.” It is literally an outside elevator that would be inside a typical building that takes you from where the docks and market are (the lower city) to the upper city where some of the historic buildings, shopping, and beaches are. The whole ride takes about a minute and costs 5 centavos or about 2.5 cents. There are streets that connect the two portions of the city, but they are very unsafe to walk on even during the day, so we just stuck to the elevator.

That evening I went to a welcome reception at another local university similar to the one in Puerto Rico, however, since it is summer in the southern hemisphere, the students are out of school for there summer vacation. There were not too many students that were around, but the ones that were there were extremely friendly and taught us all the Somba, which is the local dance of Brazil. I was having a great time, but my mind was on the early wake up call that I was receiving the next morning. How early you ask? Try 3:00 AM.

After the welcome reception I packed, and went to bed. I got about 2.5 hours of sleep and woke up at 3 to meet my group and transfer to the Salvador airport for my flight to RIO!! The flight was relatively uneventful and we flew a 737, the crew spoke both English and Portuguese, and I tried to sleep as much as I could to get a little caught up on the sleep deficit. One thing that I did notice about the local Brazilian people that were on the plane is that they do not like to wait in lines. When a plane lands in the states everyone waits for the fasten seat belt sign to go off, then people begin to collect their luggage, wait for the cabin door to open, and file out of the plane by taking turns in order of your seat number. It’s a pretty good system, right? Well… Brazilians ignore the whole waiting in line process and rush to the front of the plane ignoring the seat belt signs and practically trample people in their way. I don’t think they mean to be rude as they do it, but I suppose they just want to be the first ones waiting for their bags as baggage claim. Who knows. Anyway, I watched several people do it and it was just the strangest thing to me. A few other students commented on it to me and we all agreed that it was just a little bizarre.
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After we arrived in Rio, we ate at one Brazil’s famous churrascarias. These are all you can eat meat type buffets where the meat is brought to your plate on sword type skewers that are about 3 inches wide and about 3 feet long. The server brings the dozens of kinds of steak, chicken, pork, and other mystery meats including frog legs and camel to your table and cuts them off the slab of meat that is on the skewer and it falls to your plate. I ate so much I thought I was going to explode. After we left the restaurant we boarded busses and traveled to Sugar Loaf Mountain which via a series of cable cars that take you to the top of the mountain which offers some of the most amazing views of the city of Rio. The weather was a perfect 80 degrees and the sun was shining. After we came down from the mountain we checked into our hotel on the infamous Copacabana Beach. That night the group went out to a local Irish Pub and welcomed ourselves to Rio. I was so excited to see a sign outside the pub that said they would be broadcasting the Superbowl that Sunday. (By the way I’m so excited that they Steelers won… and no I didn’t get to see any of the game. There is supposed to be a tape that is on its way to South Africa from one of the professor’s husband. I am hoping to watch it soon.)

The next morning the group (there were 50 of us) headed back into the city to see the Christ the Redeemer statue that gracefully watches over the city. The statue stands 1145 feet from base to top and is currently undergoing some renovations. The area around the base of the statue also provides some breathtaking views of the city and I just had to keep telling myself… “Leah YOU ARE IN RIO!!” It was quite surreal. After visiting the statue we boarded open air jeeps and drove through the rainforest that is on one side of the mountain and stopped for lunch at a local fish restaurant.

Later, we stopped at a social project that’s main responsibility is keeping kids that live in the flavellas (the slums) of Rio out of drugs and other problems. There are 2 million people that live in flavellas in the city and there are many social projects that do their very best to help the situation, but there is still so much that needs to be done to give these children a decent life. The poverty I saw in just a few short hours was amazing, yet the children still had smiles on their faces. I got my digital camera out of my bag and started taking pictures of the children once they realized what I was doing they started posing. They were so exited when I was able to show them the pictures I had just taken on the back on the camera. It was almost as if they didn’t know who they were looking at on the screen and once they realized it was actually themselves they got so excited. All they wanted to do all afternoon was take pictures of us, the tour guides, and themselves. No wonder my camera batteries died that afternoon.

After we left the social project we drove through the streets of Rio and got a little bit of a city orientation from our guides who were wonderful to us and then it was back to the hotel. I had dinner with my friends at a local Brazilian restaurant in Copacabana and then it was off to experience more of Brazilian nightlife. Wow… those locals can party!

My last day in Rio was incredibly bittersweet. I was so excited to see more of the city and stay as long as I could, but at the same time I know that there is just so much to look forward to in some of the ports that are in front of me. I flew back to Salvador in the late afternoon on Saturday.

Sunday, I went to a Brazilian soccer game. I am sure you have seen or heard about the soccer games in Brazil, but until you have actually gone to one, you simply haven’t experienced it. There were 400 students from the ship that went and we took over an entire section in the stadium. It was great. Most of us cannot speak Portuguese, but as long as we were screaming Bahia (the local team) as loud we you could the locals were happy to have us sit with them. There were people that were lighting fireworks, sparklers, and other colored flame throwing objects from inside the stadium and there are army officers with machine guns that protect the referees as they walk off the field between halves. It was nuts.

I had such a good time in Brazil. I would love to come back sometime and bring my family as see more of this amazing place in the future. Thanks for reading and look to hear from me after South Africa!

Salvador and Rio

Welcome to Brazil! This sign greeted us as we arrived in Salvador.

Second Stop... Salvador!

Hello from Salvador, Brazil. The ship arrived this morning, February 1st, and I have spent most of the day exploring this beautiful city. I leave for Rio tomorrow morning at 4 AM and will be spending 3 days and 2 nights there. I cannot wait to see what that city has to offer and I am sure that flying on a Brazilian airline will be interesting too!! I hope all is well at home.

Go STEELERS! :)