Puerto Rico, Brazil and Neptune Day...

So much has happened in the last few weeks I’m not sure where to begin or how to summarize it all. After three days exploring Puerto Rico we had our first long stretch at sea (seven days) before reaching Salvador, Brazil on the second day of Carnaval. I guess I’ll start with Puerto Rico…

Our highlight in PR happened upon arrival when the governor of Puerto Rico came aboard to welcome us. He was quite an amusing guy and there was a certain amount of fanfare over his presence. The most interesting part of his visit has to do with what we learned after he left: that the main reason he came aboard was to meet with Archbishop Tutu in order to ask the Archbishop to write a letter to President Bush asking for the release of two Puerto Ricans who have been imprisoned for thirty plus years over their advocacy of Puerto Rican independence back in the 70s. The archbishop was apparently happy to write the letter. Now we can wait to hear what the response will be…

As for life on the ship, there is never a dull moment, especially for Simon who has quite a busy schedule with eight o’clock classes every morning and frequent 23-hour days. (Since we are traveling east, we advance our clocks forward every few days to get us adjusted to the time zone of the upcoming port – and each time this is announced over the intercom groans can be heard throughout the ship). As for me, I’m finding the days slipping by all too quickly. I’ve been attending several classes, going to the gym nearly every day at sea, doing some yoga and Pilates, working on my dissertation, and having great conversations with the wonderful people on the ship (not in that order, exactly).

One thing that kept me occupied in the first few days between Puerto Rico and Brazil was organizing a surprise party for Simon’s 31^st birthday. Somehow all 75 people who attended this party managed to keep mum about it despite the close quarters we live in and when Simon walked into the faculty lounge the night before his birthday the whole adult shipboard community was there to yell “surprise”! The doctor on board even got into the ship’s kitchen (which, he discovered, has an escalator!) to make Simon an exploding volcano cake, having hunted around Old San Juan for some dry ice a few days earlier. It was a great party and the first of the semester.

(A funny story on the party planning: Initially I was planning the party just for Simon but soon found out that the husbands of two other women on the ship were having birthdays as well so it turned into a party for the three of them. So we placed an order for cakes to be served in the faculty/staff lounge and one of the other women said she would look into whether we could have the ship divide the total bill in three and put it on our accounts separately. Later on that day I was in class when this women came in, and leaning over two of the lifelong learners (non-students – usually in their sixties and onwards), said to me: “I checked with Solomon (the hotel director) and the threeway thing is going to work out fine.” Needless to say, the look on the faces of the two life-long learners was pretty amusing!)

In Brazil Simon and I did Carnaval for just one evening before flying out to the Amazon to spend some time with our good friend Eve who has been living in the Amazon for over a year, working with indigenous people to protect their access to the forest in which they live. We flew to a city called Belem in the northern part of Brazil and from there took a fishing boat to an island about an hour away from the city that just got electricity two years ago and where the only choices for public transportation are either a donkey-cart or a tractor-pulled farm cart. We chose the farm cart, which took us to a Pousada (a rest house) where we were the only foreigners that had been there in months from the sounds of things. Thankfully Eve speaks perfect Portuguese because we don’t speak a lick of Portuguese and the people there did not speak a lick of English.

The best part about this Pousada was their pet monkey that ran around during the day stealing food off of people’s plates, sticking his hands into the sugar bowls and licking his little fingers clean. We took some great photos of him in his cage which we’ll post as soon as we get to South Africa (we can’t post them until then because of bandwidth limitations on the ship). It was difficult to get photos of him at any other time because he ran around at top speed each time he had his freedom, climbing over people as they ate and leaping from table to table, usually trying to get away from the screaming kids who spent their time chasing after him.

On one of the days there we took a walk through the rainforest and encountered two boys (pictured to the right) whose father still does rubber tapping. Rubber tapping has pretty much died out in Brazil now that rubber is produced synthetically. But we passed by a tree that still had the rubber tapping markings on it (shallow V-shaped cuts around the trunk of the tree) right by where the two little boys were playing in the river.

And finally (back on the ship now), today was Neptune Day – the day we celebrate the crossing of the equator (although we crossed it before arriving in Brazil). This is a long standing tradition. Whenever a sailor crosses the equator for the first time, they must go through a special ceremony. This was the first time crossing the equator for probably 90% of the people aboard, so a very big event. At 8:30, King Neptune (the Ship’s Captain), Queen Minerva (the Executive Dean – a man) and the Royal Guard (the crew) marched around all the decks banging on drums, pots and pans, waking everyone up as it was time to start the festivities.

Before going through the ceremony, we are known as “worthless pollywogs” and after the ceremony; we are all promoted to “trusty shellbacks”. The ceremony goes as follows: first, the royal announcer introduces the king and queen, they take a seat, and then the royal announcer reads the “vows to the sea”, if you agree, then you may begin the induction. Next, you get fish guts poured on your head. Then you jump into the pool to “cleanse the soul and spirit, this pleases King Neptune”. (The key is to be among the first twenty people or so to do this since the pool quickly gets as disgusting as the bucket of fish guts – which truly stinks.) Next, you kiss the fish, promising to “respect the sea and all that is in it.” Then you kiss King Neptune’s ring, since he is king of the sea. And lastly, you get your head shaved, to represent a new beginning, and a new you. Simon had actually auctioned the chance to shave his head for charity and so found himself at the mercy of another professor and his wife who decided that simply shaving his head would be much too boring so they proceeded to sculpt his hair, resulting in the following sexy do:

I couldn’t work up the courage to shave my head (although I did think about it for a few whole seconds). Maybe next time I’ll be a bit braver.

More after South Africa… all our best to everyone!

Pictured to the right are most of the people who participated in the ceremony all the way to the shaved heads...