Dad's further adventures

Saturday – 9/3/05

Up early (6:30) to get breakfast and meet expedition group. 28 in my group – first off the ship. Had to take passport since the destination (upriver on the Caura River) was close to Brazil. No one else was interested, so I didn’t get an entry stamp to Venezuela – Darn!

Bus to airport (Caracas International – but really in LaGuira, the port city). Plane (1 hour) to Puerto Orinoco, then 4-wheel Toyota Land Rovers for 5 hours (interrupted with a lunch stop @2PM as an isolated fishing camp on the Orinoco. This had air conditioned cabins, and many other amenities – we just had lunch (good food) and went on. After the drive, we got into large dugout canoes with motors for a 3 hour ride to the overnight stop. It was dark when we got in. A long hard day!

The camp was on an island in the Caura River, with ‘buildings’ consisting of a roof and open walls. The beds were hammocks which took a while to get used to. Dinner in the dark was again tasty food, followed by some scare stories about anaconda snakes, viewing a tarantula and an amazing starscape, then to bed.

Sunday – 9/4/05

Up early – didn’t sleep well or continuous. Took a look at the river where we had come in in the dark last night. Those river pilots were good! Rocks all over the place with only narrow routes and lost of turns. If any of the boats had hit and tipped over in the dark, it could have been a disaster – many of the students had taken off their safety harnesses, and the current was very swift.

We were visited by a green parrot and a macaw and a family of some kind of chicken-like bird for breakfast – beggers of course. Tasty breakfast. Pack up and on the river again. Man, those dugouts were uncomfortable – hard seat, hard back on some of them, and a not-flat bottom lead to dead butts and strain on back, hips, thighs and feet. Then they also leak, so the bottom was always wet.

More and more of us took off our safety harness so we could sit on them and be a little more comfortable. Today, our first stip was at Crab mountain for a view over the river and tropical forest (the same one that feeds the Amazon). It was about 900 feet up, and in many spots a 60 degree rise. The guide set a hard pace, to the top in 1.5 hours. Many of us, students and adults (me too) were hard pressed to keep up. ½ hour at the top to rest and take some pictures, then back down to the dugouts.

A short ride to a minimal beach for lunch – a rice casarole. The heat and humidity were really getting to everyone, so most of us went into the river for a cool down and rinse. Hard to stay in one place with the current moving so fast. Saw a river dolphin. I hadn’t brought a swim suit, so soaked in my pants.

Back in the boats for 2 hours to an Indian village for dinner and sleep – again in hammocks. The students were in one large dirt floored hut while the adults separated ourselves in a smaller cement floored hut. Dinner was short, and while waiting for it, some of the students played with the children – way too active for the adults. After dinner, the play continued while we went to sleep.

Monday – 9/5/05

Sometime in the middle of the night, we were awakened by a student, who asked for help from the tour leader for a number of students who were suffering from some type of GI distress.. She and her husband are both retired MDs which helped to comfort the students. As the night went on, more and more of the students took sick, so the other adults – myself and one of the professors – had to help out so the doctors could get some rest. Shift on and off the rest of the night – no fun!

The villagers had strung a string from hut to hut so an old blind native could find his way. Needless to say, this string also caught many of us about the head and neck until we got used to looking for it. The bathroom was an outhouse, to be used to sit down, and flush with a bucket. The men were to urinate against any convenient tree. No electricity or running water anywhere. They maintained one hut with craftworks for sale. Got a few things. No apparent native costume

Up in the morning, some of the students quite sick. Many skipped breakfast, a lot of naps. Scheduled to go for walking tour of medicinal and eating plants of the Indians – few went. Also scheduled a bird watching trip on the river – cancelled. After lunch which more attended (naps had helped a lot), back in the boats to go back downriver (much faster) to our next night’s stay.

On the river, I and the other adults started to succumb to the infection – whatever it was. Not serious, but I was overdressed. At one of the stops to rest our weary butts, I fainted from the heat. Changed my shirt, and felt immediate relief. The rest felt I had to be coddled for the rest of the way – I didn’t object. I got to lay down in the boat – a lot more comfortable!

Our overnight stay was downriver where we had originally picked up the boats. This was a very well established ‘camp.’ The buildings were log or cement block, some with beds (the adults and some of the students opted to spend the extra money to get these). The students were mostly in hammocks again – apparently they were getting used to sleeping in them. The cottages also had proper bathrooms with running water (tho not hot).

There were a number of confusing times when everybody tried to pay the extra toll for a room. The proprietress apparently couldn’t understand the conversion value, especially when two currencies were combined. Finally, a good meal, a cool shower, and to bed.

Tuesday – 9/6/05

Again up early, for another good meal, than packed the 4-wheels and on the road. This time we had 3 cars with air conditioning. Adults and sick were placed in these 3, and off we went. We stopped once for fuel, another time for snacks in one of the villages we passed, another for the bathroom, and finally at a privately owned ranch for lunch and a view of some wild animals. Lunch was postponed until we got to the airport, and the animals were a disappointment – most were ill fed and housed. A disappointment.

We got to the airport with about 2.5 hours to wait. Did some shopping and rested in air conditioned comfort. Uneventful flight and bus to the boat. When our backpacks were inspected, the disallowed the small blowpipe I had purchased – broke it in half and threw it away. Excessive bureaucracy! On board and Home, at last! Still an exciting and interesting trip, not including illness.

Wednesday – 9/7/05

Today and tomorrow are the last days to pick classes to attend. I have settled on 3 communication classes (interpersonal, intercultural and non-verbal) and one on Islamic thought. This in addition to the Global Studies which everyone must attend. Thankfully. Adults do not have to complete homework or take exams. Just the classwork is educational enough.

Settling into the routine is comforting. Since we set sail last night, we have already come 185 nautical miles, heading E off the coast of Venezuela. Am gradually meeting the rest of the staff and adults on the trip – all are interesting in their own way. We have one passenger, a lady in her 80’s, who has been on about 16 of these trips so far. She never leaves the ship but stays on board the whole way. We are gradually getting stories from her, especially about the excitement on the Spring ’05 voyage.

Thursday – 9/8/05

Routine, but I found out today that I didn’t have to wait for the scheduled laundry day since I am an adult passenger – so sent my bag out. Each bag is $5 just to wash, so it is economical to send it out full. This time, it was full to bursting, and quite aromatic, since it included my shore trip clothes.

Saturday – 9/10/05

There are no weekends on this voyage – just spring breaks every week (shore trips). So school goes on. In the meantime, the adult passengers had a wine raising to a couple (Betty and Bob Wittemore) celebrating their 1st anniversary – in their 60s. And a birthday. Than the crew prepared and served a barbeque on the pool deck – quite a spread, and a very jolly time by all. A good break, especially since many had been suffering from mal-de-mer because of the rough seas.

There is a program – adopt a family – that pairs adults up with students if they sigh up to get a mentor – sympathetic ear. I was assigned 3 students, and met them tonight. Marshall Burt from Colorado, looking to join the Coast Guard, Ashley Hughes who is following her sister and aunt on Semester at Sea, from PA, and Kate Troiana, from the Cape in MA, who is suffering from homesickness, Larium and a little sea sickness. She will take a little looking after for a while.

Sunday – 9/11/05

Routine – classes, etc. The school schedule is set up while on board as A days and B days, with different classes set as A or B classes. So there is always an even number of A days and B days between ports. If the number of days at sea is uneven, the schedule establishes a free day. Global Studies, which is required for everyone on board except the crew, is given every day, and I am taking two A classes and two B classes.

They have given us a short Bio of Desmond Tutu, who is scheduled to be the port-tp-port lecturer from Brazil to South Africa. Looking forward to that!

Monday – 9/12/05

They have saddled me with being head proctor in one of the dining rooms for the first exam in Global Studies. I’m proctoring 115 students, with 3 assistants. My voice is not quite enuf for that large a room, but what the heck. The hardest part was the alphabetizing of the answer sheets before turning them in. All went OK.

No other exams for my classes. Routine rest of the day.

Tuesday – 9/13/05

Landfall – a different procedure at immigration. First, we anchored outside the bay for a medical clearance. Than into the dock, where immigration came aboard, and required all passengers to present their face and passport for comparison. Went well and relatively quickly.

My first shore excursion was to the Afro-Brazilian Museum, which concentrated on the history of slavery, and the synthesized black religion, called Condoble. The guide knew her stuff. One big difference between the slaves brought to Brazil and those brought to America was that most of them came from a few areas of the West coast of Africa, and kept their language, and religion, which did not distinguish between male and female heads. However, since they were not allowed to practice their own religion, the blacks incorporated the saints of the RC church into their hierarchy of spirits, and celebrated their spirits under the RC saints’ names.

Condoble is considered a monotheistic religion, but they don’t celebrate the primary creator as Christians do – they believe that the prime creator created other spirits (somewhat like angels) who were to then go on to create the things within their responsibility. There are 16 of these spirits who are considered prior, but they believe that there are hundreds of them.

These spirits manifest themselves to the people by possessing some of the initiates, One spirit can possess more than one receptive person at a time, and there is some tension between some of the spirits, so when both of these are present at the same time, the worshipers can feel the tension.

The next stop was at a Condoble compound. Within this one particular compound, which is one of the largest in Salvador, there are separate ‘chapels’ to each of the spirits who regularly possesses one of the initiates who belong to this ‘parish’. They also have an elementary school, which is open to the children of the ‘parish’ as well as children whose families are not believers. Besides the school, there were two crafts practiced in separate buildings – weaving of cloth and dolls of the spirits. There were also a number of residences (small, one or two room) where some of the families of the initiates lived, and several elderly members of the ‘parish’.

Back to the ship, where only one dining room was open because most of the students and staff were out on the town or on their own excursion.

Wednesday – 9/14/05

This morning we had to get up around 4AM to catch a 6:30 flight to Rio, where my group was scheduled to stay for 4 days, 3 nights. Found out that our group was bumped off the direct flight – we would have to change planes in Brazilia. But on the way back, we would get the non-stop flight. As it was, our flight took 5 hours, instead of the 2 that had been originally scheduled.

When we got to Rio, it started to rain. And after lunch it was pouring, so we rescheduled the trip up to Sugar Loan to Friday. The lunch was at a restaurant on Copacabana Beach, and was a fantastic spread – buffet style for the appetizers, and they included everything – salads, seafood, cooked and raw. Then after we had eaten that, the servers brought around the meat – on skewers, from which they carved portions at the table – and they had all kinds and cuts of meat, with a couple of fish and frogs legs just for variety. That turned out to be a lot of protein!

Since we missed the Sugar Loaf, we went to the hotel to register, and were greeted with drinks and an invitation to visit a jewelry factory, which a lot of us accepted. An impressive operation, and I an the other adult ended up buying, at what we think are good prices, some jewelry.

The other adult on this trip was the trip leader, and her background was as a comptroller, i.e. bookkeeper-accountant. She is a very nice lady, but fulfilled the stereotype – very detail oriented, and a worry wart. She and the tour guide in Rio succeeded in convincing everyone that the streets were dangerous, both day and night, so no one went out on their own, and we all took taxis at night instead of walking. I later learned that their care was slightly exaggerated, but the warnings kept me in at night.

The weather in Rio, being early spring, was cooler than many of the kids had planned for – they were dressed in shorts and T-shirts, which was suitable for Salvador, but not for Rio. Luckily, most of the afternoons the weather was in the low 70’s, so comfortable.

Thursday – 9/15/05

Up at a civilized hour, with a good breakfast. Our first stop for the day was the site of the Carnaval parade. There was a display of costumes, some of which could be tried on (over clothes). The site is permanent, 1 ½ miles long, lined with grandstands. There are 12 ‘schools’ of samba clubs, each of which has around 5000 members, who compete for first place prize, which is mostly prestige. But they are serious enough to spend a whole year preparing. Of course, Carnaval is not limited to this one site, but this is the place for the formal celebration.

Later, we continued our city tour, which covered a number of neighborhoods, expensive, or artist colonies. When we stopped for lunch, there was an impromptu samba demonstration – two drummers and a guitar. Since our guide loved samba, she wanted everybody to take part. Lunch itself was similar to yesterday’s, but the beer came in 1 liter bottles instead of the familiar 12 oz.

After lunch, we jumped into 4 wheel drive jeeps that held 10 in the back in facing seats, for a trip up to the Christ statue. The statue is in a national park, which has very few birds. Apparently, the capuchin monkeys which were imported to Rio, eat all the bird eggs, so there are more birds in the city than in this park.

The statue is @ 650 meters higher than the city, so the temperature is about 5 degrees cooler, and much less humid, than in the city. Since I had prepared for cool weather, I was overdressed for the city, but very comfortable up the mountain. The statue is impressive, and the surrounding views were spectacular.

After the statue, we went back down to the city to attend a samba class to be given by a professional choreographer, Jaime Aroxa. A very good lesson, lots of fun, wore me out. When we returned to the hotel, I was so tired I slept through to the early hours.

Friday – 9/16/05

Up relaxed in the morning, leisurely breakfast, then went shopping in a nearby mall – very familiar. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but had a pleasant walk. Lunch was on our own, but I wasn’t hungry. The tour than continued with our trip up to Sugar Loaf, via 2 cable cars. Good views at the first stop, but at the top the clouds were low lying, so only caught glimpses when the wind blew a hole.

Our next stop was at a drumming school for lessons in Brazilian rhythms. After a rather labyrinthine route thru an old warehouse (converted to a music club), we got to a basement room where we were met by a rhythm group, with lots of extra percussion instruments – drums (base and kettle), gourds with beads on the outside, tube with beads on the inside, and a large bell. We all picked up one of them, and started making music. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the bottle of cotton balls until the first exercise was completed, so my ears rang for a while. Lots of fun!

Then dropped of at the hotel, for dinner on our own, which was OK but not as good as the first lunch. And to bed.

Saturday – 9/17/05

The only scheduled activity was returning to the ship, so a relaxed morning, but to the airport, and a non-stop flight to Salvador. On the ship for dinner and back to the routine. Archbishop Tutu joined the ship’s company tonite – everyone is looking forward to his presence and contribution.