So here it is…my last blog from Semester at Sea. First of all, thank you for reading. I know it ranged from entertaining to unbearable, but thanks for sticking it out! It was definitely nice to know I was writing for someone, and that someone was you. And you. And you. And however many you’s there ended up being, but it was definitely you.
So Hawaii, and our return to the land of the free and the home of the lazy. We got an early Christmas present in the form of refueling in Honolulu, which meant a whole extra 24 hours of cell phone service! We had class that day, so it went back to being like a regular class at home, times 20. The lights were off and yet the room was still illuminated from cell phone screens. It would be sad if it wasn’t so great. We left Honolulu (and all the sun we’d see in Hawaii, as it turned out) around 3 pm and began the journey to Hilo. That was the night before Thanksgiving, so we were treated to Thanksgiving dinner, which actually ended up being pretty good. I’d like to make the appeal to my family that mac-n-cheese be a staple at all future turkey day meetings. The meal was made even more special by one of the best sunsets we had on the entire trip (and cell phone coverage that extended at least 4 hours longer than anyone else’s…thanks AT&T!)
We awoke the next morning in Hilo, greeted by rain and clouds. So what do you do when it’s rainy and cloudy? Go to Wal-Mart, of course! To be fair, we would have done that if it were bright and sunny, but no matter. And what follows Wal-Mart? Starbucks! And once you’ve sold your soul to corporate American giants twice in one day, that leaves only one thing left to do…MCDONALDS!!! Yes, it was that bad. We decided to work off the fat we had just spent several hours accumulating by walking back to the ship, but we got distracted by Ken’s Diner, which has won the award for USA Today’s “Best Breakfast in America” for the last ten years or so. After making a pit stop, we proceeded to Coconut Island, a small park on an island on the coast. We were relaxing when a man, stoned out of his MIND and with a bleeding leg, came up and asked us for weed. We responded that although we were, in fact, college kids, we didn’t smoke. Clearly displeased with this answer, he paused before exclaiming “you lying m-----------s.” Hawaii’s best. It was sad to leave ‘Murica, especially with 9 more days on the Pacific, but it was certainly nice to not have to exchange currency and communicate with loved ones. And eat McDonald’s.
On the 4th we arrived in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. My activities for the first day consisted of a tour of a coffee plantation up in the hills. It was fascinating and definitely worth it, even if I almost single-handedly cleaned out their gift shop. The next day we hired a taxi driver for the day in order to get a little farther away from the ship (there was next to nothing to do in Puntarenas.) Our first destination was Cararas National Park, one of the best places to see Scarlet Macaws in all of Central America. Naturally, this meant that we didn’t see any Scarlet Macaws. Not even close. But we did see some weird anteater things and a rodent that John could only describe as “like a guinea pig, but with less guinea and more pig.” We also saw a white Honduran bat and the piece de resistance, a pair of Chesnut-mandibled Toucans, some of the rarest in the area. Now the only reason we saw all of these things is because we took the least-used path and paid the price in the form of huge spiders and ants that looked like they could take us down if we looked at them the wrong way. There were also tons of huge flying beetles, so loud you could hear them coming from several yards away. We lovingly named these “Howler Beetles” after the loudest things in the jungle that day. Oh, did I also mention there were Africanized Bee hives on some of the trees? Yay!
We went back to our taxi driver and whined and complained like good Americans about how we hadn’t seen any macaws, so he drove us a short distance down the road to a tiny little town. We only drove about a minute in before, sure enough, we saw 6 or 7 Scarlet Macaws in one of the trees. After that he asked us if we wanted to see monkeys, a question that truly needed no answer. So we ended up in some Costa Rican lady’s backyard, where there was a whole family of about 20 monkeys. We paid $3 for a bowl of bananas and graham crackers and went up and got crawled on by white-faced Capuchins (think “Night at the Museum.”) There was a mother and her baby as well as one that ran onto my head to grab a cracker and then…stopping. So he just ate on my arm, no big deal. It helped that we knew Spanish because the lady kept bringing us more bananas and joking with us, so we stayed there for a long time. I guess you could say it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys! We were just monkeying around. Hey, remember what I said earlier about this blog being unbearable?
After Costa Rica we departed for our final stop, Guataduruba. Or Guatahonduba. Or Honcubala. Or basically any made-up word involving Cuba (everyone’s preferred destination), Guatemala (everyone’s least-preferred destination) and Honduras (meh.) Well it ended up being Honduras, but not really. Right before we arrived we got a warning that drug crime and violence was escalating in Central America, so our travel was strictly limited to Roatan Island. You know it was serious when I tell you that literally all there was to do there was drink. Yeah, they wanted 400 college kids to stay on an island, after they were done with finals, where all there is to do is drink. And the award for “Most Questionable Decision Ever” goes to…
Our first day there we went to West Bay Beach, which is pretty much the quintessential beach in Central America. It was great until about 2 pm, when the rain started. And this was no average rain. So now there were 399 college kids (I like to consider myself the exception) stuck on an island, where all there is to do is drink, forced into the bars and restaurants after lunch but before dinner but with a lot of money to spend…it was a recipe for disaster.
Our second and last day in Honduras I woke up to…wait for it…rain! And 40 mph wind! I wasn’t even sure I was going to leave my bed, but then my friend Brittany came back to the ship and said she had found a place where we could eat iguana. And how could I pass that up?! (Sorry Sara…did I say iguana? I don’t remember saying iguana…) After that we trudged back through the rain and mud to the ship, a quiet last moment in port. But after the adventures I’ve had, that may have been the most appropriate ending…
And now, some stats! And lists!
Stats
24 time zones passed through
11 flights taken
15 countries and 1 Special Administrative Region visited
129 episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” watched
3 bottles of cough syrup consumed
7.87 GB worth of pictures taken
28,000 nautical miles traveled (approximate)
110 days traveled
20 pages of papers written
82 oz. of Starburts eaten
27-25 score of the volleyball game during Sea Olympics (we won)
96 number of tons of fuel used each day at sea
$4.6 million total cost of fuel for the voyage
0 number of whales hit…I think
28 pounds of peanut butter consumed per day
220 emails exchanged with Laurel (approximate)
TOP 5’s
Awesom-uhh, dangerous places to cross the street
1. Vietnam
2. Morocco
3. India
4. China
5. Honduras
Most beautiful places
1. Lion’s Head in Cape Town at Sunset
2. Kek Lok Si Temple, Malaysia
3. Wli Waterfall, Ghana
4. Taj Mahal at Sunrise, Agra, India
5. Deck 5 aft at sunset
“Dong” jokes (the official currency of Vietnam)
1. “You can’t just pull your dong out in front of everyone.”
2. “If you go waving your dong around, someone is going to run by and grab it.”
3. “So I just slapped my dong on the table. It must have been enough because he took it.”
4. “Don’t worry guys, I have enough dong for everyone.”
5. “You never want someone to know just how much dong you have.”
Top 5 Most Beautiful Cityscapes
1. Hong Kong
2. Cape Town, South Africa
3. Penang, Malaysia
4. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
5. Tokyo, Japan
Top 5 Biggest Disappointments
1. The postcards made it seem like you could see Mt. Fuji from anywhere in Japan.
2. “The Lion King” was a fictional story. Monkeys and lions don’t hang out.
3. Angkor Wat was undergoing construction for the first time since the 12th century.
4. “Hygiene” isn’t a word in some languages.
5. Neither is “toilet.”
Top 5 Most Delicious Foods
1. Kobe beef.
2. Pigeon pie (minus the food poisoning).
3. McDonalds (seriously you guys…)
4. South African braai (barbecue)
5. Costa Rican casado
Top 5 Landmarks You Should See If You Get the Chance
1. Taj Mahal
2. The Great Wall
3. Angkor Wat
4. The Forbidden City
5. Table Mountain
Top 5 Local Beers
1. Tiger (SE Asia)
2. Salva Vida (Honduras)
3. Kingfisher (India)
4. Imperial (Costa Rica)
5. Star (Ghana)
Top 5 Tips for Haggling at the Market
1. Whatever it is, you don’t want it.
2. Whatever their price is, it’s 90% too high.
3. Whenever they don’t budge, walk away.
4. Did they call you back? Good! Continue bargaining.
5. Wait they let you go? Oops…screwed that one up.
Top 5 Card Games on the Ship
1. Euchre
2. Solitaire
3. Hearts
4. Spades
5. Uno
Top 5 Advantages to Traveling by Ship
1. No bummer jetlag.
2. Duty free ports x 14.
3. Actual beds, not just reclining seats.
4. Airline food.
5. A pool!
Top 5 Terrifying Experiences
1. Taking a 3 hour cab ride from Fez to Casablanca at midnight with a cab driver’s teenage son and his best friend.
2. The first time crossing the street in Veitnam.
3. An angry herd of elephants when you’re in an open-air vehicle.
4. Your first “negotiation” in the market.
5. Almost stepping on the blackest, giantest scorpion you’ve ever seen.
Top 5 “Bang for your Buck” Experiences
1. The Saigon Zoo ($0.60 plus $0.10 to feed the elephants)
2. Feeding Costa Rican monkeys ($3)
3. The Penang Botanic Gardens and Penang Hill Hike ($2)
4. A taxi ride, anywhere in India ($2)
5. Kek Lok Si Temple in Malaysia ($0)
Top 5 Things I’m Going to Do When I Get Home
1. Meet Laurel at the airport.
2. Kiss the ground.
3. Run around outside no matter the temperature.
4. Go snowboarding.
5. Go to Chipotle.
Well that’s about all I’ve got. We’re about to set sail out of Honduras, next stop: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida! Thank you again for reading, your support has been unbelievable throughout this entire trip. See you all soon!
