Mauritius

First day in Mauritius:
We were docked in Mauritius and had the ship cleared by 8:30! Definitely the fastest time yet! I was lucky enough to be on the first “taxi” that was going to the waterfront. Mauritius has awesome taxis! Because Mauritius is an island nation and has a large number of ships docked across from the waterfront, they have a special taxi called a “water taxi.” It’s really just a boat with the word “taxi” painted across it. They cost $2 (or 60 MAR Rupees) to ride. I’m extremely glad that I took a large stack of one dollar bills from home. The taxis were fun to ride, but they were also somewhat a pain and kind of sketchy. The drivers wanted to wait until they had a large number of people so you could be just sitting for up to half hour until they decided to leave. I also heard a number of people say their taxi would stop halfway and the driver would try to charge them more money. Luckily that never happened to me.

The first morning I just walked around and looked at the different shops and places to eat. In the afternoon I went on a service visit to the Beau Bassin children’s village where children who are abandoned or taken from their parents go to live. They are situated in families of five-seven children living with a women to be their mom. Similar to the kids in Ghana, they were fascinated with our cameras. They loved taking pictures! We only had a short time to play with them though. I wish we could have stayed longer. After the visit I decided to stay on the ship and catch up on some homework and much needed rest.

Second day:
I didn’t buy any SAS sponsored trips for Mauritius and I hadn‘t planned on buying any. However, SAS has a “donation box” where people can donate the trips if they decide to not attend. Because I didn’t feel the need to see any “big monument’ I decided to just see what popped up in the box and basically take it hour by hour. I would advise any future SASer to keep a constant eye on the box while in port. You never know when an amazing trip will show up! Despite this, I ended up buying a ticket for the “Blue/Underwater Safari” trip. The trip description just looked to amazing to pass up. The trip was worth every penny and is now my absolute favorite trip that I have done so far. First we drove to the northern beach of Grand Baie which is where a ton of SASers rented villas. We were treated to a short presentation by a few activists who are concerned with how pollution and over fishing is affecting the oceans. After that we took a boat to where a submarine was stationed. I was lucky enough to get on a five person submarine which was completely see-through. The 10 person submarine had only small port holes to look through. Riding in a submarine is a completely amazing experience! The first thing I noticed was that my red shirt now looked completely purple. This is because infrared lights don’t penetrate the water. Some of the animals we saw on our “underwater safari” included: TONS of fish, an octopus, and an eel. My favorite thing that we saw under the water was a wrecked ship called the “Star Hope.” When I was little I used to be fascinated with the story of the Titanic so it was amazing to see an actual ship on the bottom of the sea. We wandered underwater for about an hour before we headed back to the surface. After we surfaced, we were treated to drinks and were presented with a cheesy “certificate” souvenir which included our name, the date, and which submarine we had been on. The day ended with some last minute shopping and a short water taxi ride back to the ship.

Day 3
I woke up very early this morning and trekked to breakfast. The previous day I had found a ticket for a trip named “adventure park”, but I wasn’t sure if I was really going to go because I was super tired. I’m glad I forced myself to go because it turned out to be an amazing trip. We left from Port Louis and drove to the southern part of Mauritius to begin the adventure park. The first part of the obstacle course involved rope bridges similar to the canopy walk I did in Ghana. However, I have to admit that I enjoyed these bridges more. There was no large net surrounding the entire bridge so it was actually possible to fall. However, everyone was hooked onto a rope that was suspended over the bridge so you could just pull yourself back up if you fell. The first few bridges had rope handrails to hold on to if you felt like you were going to fall and had only a few of the boards missing. The last two bridges had zero handrails and a limited number of boards to stand on. This was the easy part of the park.

After finishing with the rope bridges you went on to a second course. The first leg consisted of a few boards suspended every few feet with no hand rails. To get across you had to use a rope to swing from board to board. The second task was by far the hardest. This leg consisted of two large rope nets on either side of you, but nothing below you. To get across you had to place one foot on each side of the rope (which never stayed steady) and slowly pull yourself across. It may not sound difficult, but because the ropes wouldn’t stay steady you had to rely on mostly upper body strength to pull yourself across. The third leg consisted of “swings” (which were really small logs) that you had to stand on and swing/jump to the next log to reach the end. Next was a short zip line which was awesome. I only wish that the zipline would have lasted longer. The last leg consisted of literally two ropes (nothing more!) above and below you that you had to balance on and try to walk across. It was hard, but super fun. I have bad rope burn/bruises all over my arms and legs, but it was worth it. I’m posting this a week and half later and my upper body is still extremely sore!

After our tough workout we headed to Flic-en-Flac beach which is said to be the most beautiful beach in Mauritius. We stayed there for about an hour. During that time I mostly laid out and ate. The food in Mauritius is exceptionally cheap. I got some of the best pineapple for 15 rupees (30 rupees=$1), a bag of cotton candy for 10 rupees, and a big ice cream cone for 25 rupees. Three days was not enough time in Mauritius, but I suppose all “spring breaks” must come to an end.

Neptune Day!!

Today I was woken up at 8 AM by the crew, who were all wearing different costumes, playing drums and cymbals and whistles. After a good breakfast (with some new type of yummy yogurt!) everyone met on the top deck for the Neptune Ceremony. For those that don’t know, the Neptune Ceremony is performed whenever a ship crosses the equator. A person who have never crossed the equator while traveling on a ship is called a slimy “Pollywog.” The purpose of the Neptune ceremony is to prove that you have become a seasoned sailor with the nickname “Shellback.” To complete the Neptune ceremony a person must swear to honor and respect King Neptune and his ocean domain. In addition, to show him that you are a true sailor you must have fish guts, or whatever else the crew manages to cook up, poured on you and you must kiss a dead fish. After that Neptune is pleased and you are able to be called a trusty “Shellback.”

Another optional aspect of Neptune day is shaving your head. Although I did not shave my head, a surprising number of people did. At least 15 girls shaved their heads today. The rest of the day was free to work on homework and hang out.

Sorry these are late and not as well written. My schedule on the ship has become increasingly hectic.

Last day in Ghana

My final tour in Ghana was originally scheduled to leave in the afternoon but because the traffic is so intense and the drive was longer than expected, we had to leave at 6 AM. I managed to grab a muffin from the dining hall at 5:30 and headed for the bus. The ride to Kakum national park took about 3 ½ hours. After that we took a short 5-10 minute hike into the forest to get to their famous canopy walk ways which hang 40 meters above the rainforest. The seven canopy bridges are surrounded by a net so it was impossible to fall even though I felt like I was going to the entire time. After completing the walkways we had time to browse the local gift shop. I really wanted to buy a shirt that said “I survived the walkway” but all they had was XS and XL. No larges or mediums.

We then drove about an hour to Elmina slave Castle which is situated in Cape Coast. The castle was built by the Portuguese in the 1400’s to house slaves that were going to be sold in the Atlantic Slave trade. It was the first European structure built in Sub-Saharan Africa and is also the place were President Obama spoke during his visit to Ghana. Despite the areas horrific past, Cape Coast contains some of the most beautiful beaches and scenery in Ghana.

Something I haven’t mentioned about Ghana is the street vendors. I’m not talking about people who set up shop on the side of the road (although they have plenty of those!) Traffic is crazy and often a 20 minute drive takes around an hour or more so Ghana has people that actually walk up and down the middle of the road selling items. Most of the items are food like Plantain chips, chocolate, bread, water, etc. However, they also sell really obscure stuff like ironing boards, binoculars, phone cards, ties, etc. Multiple times our tour guide would leave the bus and buy things. At first I wasn’t sure to think about this, but by the last day I decided it was wonderfully convenient! By the last day all of us were buying items! I bought two bags of plantain chips and three authentic Ghanaian chocolate bars. I wanted to buy my dad an ugly tie for Christmas, but I didn’t see any people selling them except on the first day when I didn’t have enough money.

This is the first port were I experienced true major culture shock. In Ghana, especially in Torgorme village, I was truly a minority being a Caucasian. Children would often stop and stare as if I were an alien. They would also point and say the word for “white person” (I’m not sure how to spell it.) This is also the first port where I really wish we had more time