Machu Picchu

One of the wonders of the world, we went there over two days, spending the night in Aguas Calientes. Our first day we spent 3 hours there, from 3pm til 6pm, and it was sunny & beautiful. The quality of blue sky, let alone the surrounding mountains, made me think that I was in a different world. The second day, we went up at 5:30am and stayed for 8 hours. Ostensibly we went up to see the sunrise, but it was shrouded in mists and clouds, which made for a more introspective, moody, and spiritual experience. Machu Picchu is about 9,000 feet above sea level, so there was some altitude consideration walking around, but it's lower than Cusco (our "home base" for the area). Just one note about the photos: where these were taken were mainly right above the entrance overlooking the main plaza, with the peak of Huanupicchu (wainupicchu) immediately in the background. On the second misty, rainy, slippery day we hiked up to the top of Wainupicchu, which was also amazing, and muddy, and did I mention slippery? How the Incas cut the stones into the side of this mountain, and lugged other stone steps up the side of this steep mountain is truly a feat. This was an extremely steep hike; they only allow 400 people up a day; most of the way was up stone stairs, sometimes with wire cable railings. At one point, even I was moved to create a song during this hike (to the tune of simon & garfunkle's "sound of silence")--"hello cable my old friend..." I hiked up with Nate & Anne, and Tania joined us later after some muffins. It was incredible. An important side note, Nate proposed to Anne in Macchu Pichu on that misty morning, which was very sweet.

Students of Service

7/29/07 Students of Service Auction
I have now joined the halls of those SAS fanatics who bid ridiculous amounts for the privilege of doing something ship-wise. By ridiculous, I mean, it’s all going to a great cause—3 different charities in Latin America. Earlier I had tried to win the honor of blowing the ship’s horn when we arrive in San Diego, but I stopped at $100 and a friend/life-long learner topped out at $300. We moved on to the live auction at 9pm, and after a bidding war with a variety of folks, coming down to 1 student and myself, I finally won the privilege of steering the ship! I don’t fully know what that means yet, I don’t think I get to do doughnuts or anything, probably just a squiggle—maybe even over the equator! $350 is going to charity, and I’m totally excited. They have to check my driving record before I'm all cleared to do this officially though (sorry, rumor-starting tendencies starting to surface).

Turn Around

Shipboard life: we’ve turned around, our cabin faces east now, waking up with the sun. I am having a hard time though with my sense of land—I was so used to it being on the “left”, portside, and now it’s on the starboard side. I have to concentrate on this every day. I find it so disorienting! Yeah, I know, my life is a constant struggle. We had the crew talent show last night, with lots of fun dance numbers. We have 10 more days at sea and 4 countries—this is a strange, and possibly stressful combo, given that my last trip we had 11 days alone between Japan and Seattle on the way home. We’re staying on top of everything though, mainlybecausewejustspeedupallofourplanningandmakeithappenrightaway. That’s pretty much how it feels.

Valparaiso--photographer's dream

7/22/07 Valparaiso
Valparaiso was one of the home cities of Pablo Neruda, and one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. Chile is better off financially than many of it’s neighbors, for a variety of reasons, including their copper mines as well as a 20 year dictatorship mixed with some economic experiments that paid off (google Chicago Gang). There are those who are of a mind that it was worth it (even though the dictatorship broke more than 100 years of democracy). There are those who remember the disappearances and people killed in the local futbol stadium, and do not think that it was worth it. Chile—well Valparaiso & Santiago at least, is a very European South American country. It is winter there—a mild winter by the coast. I stayed in Valpo the whole time—I was duty dean for two days, and I just wrapped Valparaiso around me like a warm alpaca shawl. It’s a great place for photography, a great place for food and wine, and a great place for reflection. It smelled of cinnamon, incense, and dog poop—there were dogs everywhere. I tried to do a Chile Dog photo series, but really only got one cooperative dog. I also did a little bit of shopping here, as many of you will find out. The currency is basically 550 pesos to a dollar, so math skills were required. The city is known as San Pancho, a nick-name for little San Francisco, since it reminds many of San Francisco—but unlike SF, Valparaiso has a number of cool rickety funiculars all over the city which you can take for 200 pesos up or down. It also has a very modern & clean metro, and a banking street pre-Wall Street.
Our first day there was a national holiday, which didn’t impact our city tour but certainly impacted our dinner plans as we (Tania, myself, & Anna one of the faculty) found out the hard way, wandering around dark streets looking for any open restaurant anywhere. After several failed attempts and several warnings of “peligroso” we finally decided to ask a Chilean family (father, mother & teenage daughter) for a recommendation for a restaurant, tipico Chilean, pizza, Chinese--whatever. They consulted for a while and finally put us on a bus. Then they talked to the bus driver. Then they got on the bus with us. We went about 4 blocks and got off. The street we were on was a main street, but also closed up. They lead us to a tiny dark ally between two big buildings—at the end of this ally was one sign only—J. Cruz Casino. “After you” they said, and so we went, and they followed us in. We opened the door to a small, funky restaurant with antiques and photographs all over the walls, locals at many of the tables, and graffiti on all the tablecloths and open wall spaces. This was a local “club” (aka casino), it was a group of people that got together to eat/provide good food. I believe they were the creators of chorilleno, a typical Valparaiso dish that consisted of a layer of fried potatoes, a layer of sautéed onions & eggs, and a layer of chopped steak, which was served family-style (one large plate, 4 forks). There was also picante sauce—good stuff. Ali & Joel—it was like the Chilean version of McClard’s “spread”. We ended up eating dinner with Jorge, Elienana and their daughter, carrying on our best conversation in Spanish. This is definitely a highlight of the trip. None of us had our cameras though since we were just going out for a quick bite to eat. In the middle of dinner a news clip came on the tv of the ship & the program, which was ridiculously synchronicitous in the best possible way.

I will, as my default, let some of the pictures speak to my experience. One other note on food though: warm street churros (cinnamon covered fried dough), filled with dulce de leche. Yum!


Ode to Salt
Pablo Neruda

This salt
in the salt cellar
I once saw in the salt mines.
I knowyou won'tbelieve me
but it sings
salt sings, the skin of the salt mines
sings with a mouth smothered by the earth.
I shivered in those solitudes when I heard
the voice of the salt in the desert.
Near Antofagasta the nitrous pampare sounds:
a broken voice,
a mournful song.
In its caves the salt moans,
mountain of buried light,
translucent cathedral, crystal of the sea, oblivionof the waves.
And then on every table in the world,salt,
we see your piquant powder sprinkling vital light upon our food.
Preserverof the ancient holds of ships,
discoverer on the high seas,
earliest sailor of the unknown,
shifting byways of the foam.
Dust of the sea,
in you the tongue receives a kiss from ocean night:
taste imparts to every seasoned dish your ocean essence;
the smallest, miniature wave from the saltcellar reveals to us more than domestic whiteness;
in it, we taste finitude.
Pablo Neruda

Star-gazing in Galapagos

Tania gave me the Galapagos for my birthday this year! We went on a 4 day tour (not enough time) by "yacht". Our boat was the Estrella del Mar (you could do a google search on her for more pics). It was really great to be out in nature for 4 days, it gave me time to process all sorts of things, and time to reflect on little Jeremy's passing. It is really an amazing place--the landscape is different than one might think--sort of desert-y, with cacti & low-lying shrubs, but it also varied dramatically from island to island--there were some forests, covered in hanging moss, and there were definitely micro-climates, from bay up to top of volcano. Most of the places that we went did have some sugary tan sand beaches with lots and lots of dark dramatic volcanic rock. It was "winter" there, which meant is was about 65-75 degrees, which was quite pleasant, mainly overcast with some segments of bright, bright equator sun. The boat & crew & guide were great--a 3 deck wooden boat with motorized rubber dinghies that brought us to shore for wet & dry landings. There was one bumpy night (we toured/hiked during the day, and sailed/motored to the next place overnight) when I stuck my head outside to watch the ocean--overcast with no moon or stars, but bright bioluminscent waves in our wake. I was trip leader for this amazing group of 16 people--a mixture of students, staff/faculty & life-long learners (besides myself and Tania, we had Joe the security officer & his wife Susie, and Nurse Jane with her kids. We were probably the most prepared group of people). I enjoy getting to know folks in that setting. The last night was mainly cloudless, with no moon, and being out in the middle of the ocean with no lights was the most spectactular star-viewing I've been blessed to see--including a bright Venus that cast shadows, and the amazing site of the southern cross, as well as actually getting to see the big dipper vertically dipping into the inky ocean. One of those infinity-inducing moments that are always filled with awe for me. It's funny how as trip leader you become the expert on everything--I was happy to pretend. I think I'm going to let the pics do most of the talking now, although I will add the Galapagos is the kind of place where you would have to play the game "where are there NO animals/marine life", because everywhere you look there were sea lions, iguanas, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, lizards, coromorants, seagulls, fish, sea turtles, finches, stingrays, red-throated frigates, sharks, sand-dollars, sea-urchins, and Sally light-footed crabs. Ok, ok one more thing: I got to snorkel with baby sea lions! And sea turtles! And stingrays! It was so amazing. We had wetsuits & snorkel equipment on board--we snorkeled twice, for about an hour each time. The water where we were was crystal clear--and underwater is full of noises--little beings eating, the water crackling with life, the sea lions blowing bubbles and chasing them, as well as playing the game "how close can I get to you without actually touching you oops I just bumped your mask, ha ha ha." I loved being checked out by the sea lions, one little guy just floated on his back underwater looking at me--upside down only applies to those of us on feet on land. The sea lions were a highlight and were a blast--you could tell they had a sense of humor--they out-pixied me. And, after snorkeling for an hour, we got our to find the crew with hot-milk chocolate for us...! It couldn't have been any better. The last day a couple of us got stung by invisible jelly-fish, but even that only lasted an hour. Oh, and the fruit on the ship--sooooo good, with fresh juices every morning, including mora juice (like a raspberry), and something else that was a cross between a pear and a pineapple (my favorite). I love the variety of fruit in the world that I don't even know about.

Panama Part 2--Connections

The story of Balboa to Isla Grande, aka everything you ever wished in a Caribbean Latin American hotel resort, without any hotel/transportation reservations whatsoever:
Connections—5 people meeting up without phones in the center of Balboa (and with plans made 24 hours earlier)—check (Mario, Anne, Nate, Tania & myself).
Change out of wet clothes (from Embera village visit & waterfall swimming) at fancy mall bathroom—check.
Finding a hotel in Balboa on the first try—check.
Finding the most amazing restaurant and having the most amazing 13 course meal (with Balboa beer & fresh pineapple juice)—check.
Going to the train station at 6:30am on Sunday to catch a train to the Caribbean—X (buzz)—not quite, even though 4 people and a guidebook said it ran every day—making it to the bus station to catch a bus to the Caribbean by 7:30am—check.
Transferring buses at the right stop—check—deciding not to crowd on one of the old converted school buses (known as the “red devils” b/c they are often painted red) with 70 people on it and get a cab for $20 instead—check.
Note on cabs—5 of us and a cab driver = 6 people. Thank you to Mario & Anne for doubling up (up to an hour!!!).
Getting to Portabella, finding out that the boat ride from Portabella to Isla Grande was $50/person—X (buzz).
Having an awesome cab driver who will drive us the additional 25 minutes for 10$--check (ps—this was the bumpiest road in Panama. Boob bumps, although that might have been just my special issue).
Reading the description in our travel book of the possible hotels on Isla Grande on the bumpy road, including the following advice: “take a left at the rooster”—check.Getting to Guiera and finding a boat for $2/person to Isla Grande—check
Rounding the island, & slowing down as we get to the ocean side swells and the 8 year old boy in front starts to pass out life jackets…and as we realize that our driver is actually a 12 year old boy—check
Watch said boys fish from the boat & also land us safely—check.
Get to Bananas Resort and actually get two sweet rooms next to one another—check.

Bananas Resort was beautiful—wonderful pool by the ocean, free snorkeling equipment & reef-protected swimming/snorkeling area, free kayaks, beautiful coconut trees, large air-conditioned rooms with gorgeous views, and private balconies with our own hammock. They had fresh coconut juice on the menu, and on Sunday they said they had ran out & that they’d have some the next day. On Monday I asked again, and 3 guys with machetes headed out to get some fresh ones—well, of course. Definitely a gringo-pampered moment. On Sunday at 3pm, everyone else left b/c it was the end of the weekend, so we had our resort entirely to ourselves. We also decided to call a driver that Anne had met earlier in the week, who came to get us on Sunday—we planned to meet him at 3pm, but we headed over earlier—we literally had just stepped off of our boat when Pedro’s van pulled up to meet us at about 2:15. I had met Pedro’s daughter earlier (she speaks English very well) just hanging out by the ship’s tenders. Pedro’s daughter’s name: Yeremi (pronounced Jeremy). Amazing synchronicity. Garrett calls them omens.
It all worked out beautifully.

Sea Olympics

I'm playing catch-up, today is the sea-olympics. I will try to post more before Chile (and there is a lot to post), in the meantime, please enjoy my friends' & staff's blogs (Mario has a great entry on our time in Panama). BTW, I love my staff--they are amazing, and I'm so blessed to be on this journey with them!
much love,
lisa
http://www.boyonabigblueboat.blogspot.com/ Doug RD blog
http://www.marioandthesea.blogspot.com/ Mario RD blog
http://www.amdatsea.blogspot.com/ Anne Assistant Director Student Life blog
http://www.rasavella.blogspot.com/ Rasa Administrative Assistant blog

Another Goodbye

My Grandma, Flo Slavid, passed away on 7/11/07. She lived a full life, and was a woman full of love & spirit, and, just for the record, extremely fashionable & stylish. Her funeral was today, 7/13/07, and it was also Shabbat (our first Friday night) on the ship, which was helpful for me to have a space in which to say Kiddush and say my goodbyes. I loved her dearly, and I'll carry her in my heart. It has been the voyage of a lifetime in many ways, and this past week has seen two souls important to me in my life move to another place. I am thankful to those in my family who are in Florida to pay respects to Grandma--
much love,
lisa

Already I'm running out of adjectives for this trip and my experiences. This is not an official entry, I'm writing it as we do the dock-time/missing passenger countdown. We're back from the Galapagos, which were amazing (ergo the adjective comment, so much has been amazing). Thanks to Ro, Cindy, Ally & Yasmine for cards & letters--super sweet! And thank you to many for your kind comments & memories of Jeremy. It's been a bit surreal with the ups and downs, but I am able to take the time to process--under a starry starry night on a boat in the Galapagos helped. I had my first dream in Spanish too (nothing exciting, I was trying to explain Quickbooks to someone in spanish).
mucho amor--
lisa

Jeremy 1987-2007

Our beloved little guy passed away yesterday on July 4th. As Tania said, it was a day for crossings. We crossed the equator, I crossed from 38 to 39, and Jeremy crossed over. Our dear friend Pema let us know that he was winding down and it was clear that it was time--he remained bright-eyed and purry until the end. He was a sweet, loving little guy who filled our lives with light, a bright soul and loving spirit, I will miss him for the rest of my life, but I know that he lived a long full life here too. I am thankful for our wonderful Santa Barbara friends (Britt, Chris, Henry, Geoff, Pema & Janice) who helped Jeremy make this transition yesterday evening and surrounded him with love--we were doing the same from afar.

Last night was pre-port before Ecuador, and the first thing that happened for that meeting was one of the music teachers warmed us up to sing songs for our hosts (since during many of our visits folks sing songs for us, it's only polite to reciprocate). The song that we practiced/sang was "You Are My Sunshine", which was a favorite of Jeremy's (and Ali's & Lisa's & Susan's). I like to think that all 400 of us sang it to little guy.

Goodnight little bear--

goodnight all--

love lisa

Panama

Panama—
I was on duty the first day, and I did get several phone calls—two staff members had been detained by Panamanian police b/c their passports were not stamped…and we had an intoxicated student come back on board at 2am that I followed up on. This was also the day that we were tendering, which was quite an ordeal as large swells came and went with no pattern. I began my next day (Saturday June 30th) a bit sleep-deprived. Tania and I were going on a S * A * S sponsored trip to the Embera native people’s village, and I was a bus leader for the trip, which really means that I just take people’s names as they get on the bus and make sure they come back with us. Theoretically our trip was supposed to end at 4pm, at which point we were supposed to meet up with friends at the mall to travel across Panama to the Carribean side, so we had to pack for three days. This trip was amazing—it was definitely a peak experience. We drove to one of the national parks where the Embera live, we boarded 20-25 foot dug-out canoes (with motorboats), steered by the Embera. The male Embera basically wore loincloths adorned with beaded belts. We were driven up a beautiful river in an open valley with hills & jungle-y forest on both sides, and it was cool (in the temperature sense of the word). We passed by several villages on either side of the river, and saw lots of kids playing in the water & moms doing laundry in the river. Along the way we saw several bright blue & black iridescent butterflies fluttering by—they were the size of a large hand. We stopped a ways up, and then went for a gorgeous sun spackled muddy & wet hike to a large powerful waterfall. I am continuing to appreciate my new Teva shoes, which are good for hiking and designed to be water shoes as well. The first stream we crossed was only about ankle deep, and I just strode in—others carefully took off their shoes and we helped them across. The second stream was a bit higher, between ankles & knees, and so we stopped and rolled up our shorts/pants and then crossed. Oscar, Jill, Emma & Kyla were on the trip and we occasionally passed Emma up and over some of the larger rocks, and finally we got to the waterfall, at which point pretty much everyone jumped in the water in various states of dress (which was funny since for the first 30 minutes we were all being so careful about not getting wet). Unfortunately, I had left my bathing suit on the trip bus, but I was not necessarily going to be at a waterfall in a Panamanian jungle any time again soon, so I just went in because clothes do dry eventually—this is why I am wet in all the pics of me afterwards..

Afterwards we went to the actual village, where we were welcomed by a group of Emberan men playing a variety of instruments (including turtle-shell). The Embera are great weavers & bead-makers, and they had several stalls set out to sell their work. There was also a little nine year old girl (the daughter of Riquierdo, the man in the photo) who was doing Embera henna tattoos on people’s arms, which were beautifully geometric designs. The Embera also cooked us lunch—fried tilapia fish with plantains, served in banana leaf cups—best fried fish I’ve ever had! There were large wooden bowls filled with water & herbs (mint & others) to wash our hands afterwards. Throughout the course of the afternoon I was just really drawn to Riquierdo—he and I had a connection—I had bought some things from his wife, and I met his son & daughter. I gave him the photo of Tania, Jeremy & myself—my line on this is since I take so many pictures I also like to give a picture as well (yo tomo fotografias, y entonces me gusta dar una fotografia—still working out the best translation). We got to talk a bit and tell one another about each others’ families, and Riquierdo asked if I’d come back someday. As we were leaving, one of the life long learners (Gail) was really touched by the whole experience, and so she just started hugging people, and one of the women gave Gail her woven hibiscus head piece, which started Gail crying, and I teared up too, and then one of Riquierdo’s daughters gave me a hibiscus head piece, and then Tania & Jill got one as well. We were the last 4 to leave the village to get back on the canoes, and there was much to be thankful & wonder-filled for.

We had a damp bus-ride back, stopped briefly at a supermarket, handed off some of our purchases & cameras to Jill and Oscar, and then Tania and I jumped into a taxi to try to meet up with Anne, her partner Nate, and Mario at the mall to begin a journey to an idyllic beach (in our minds) on an island in the Caribbean. Amazingly enough, we were dropped off at the mall, and within a minute we found each other—meeting up without phones and with 24 hours between plans is always a minor miracle. We figured out that we shouldn’t try to head to the Caribbean at night without knowing where we were going, so we spent the night in Panama city. We went to the casca Viejo, the old colonial area of the city, and wandered around the waterfront for a while. Nate had brought a guidebook, and we found a restaurant recommendation—Manolo Carcuso (might need to change that later, basically it’s Manolo’s spiral shell). This was one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life. It was a set menu with 13 courses, and it was all fresh food artistically presented. My two favorite dishes were the sashimi on a pineapple slice with a sprinkle of passion-fruit sauce, and the inverted ravioli with thin slices of roast beef wrapped around a type of heart of palm. Mario took pics of all of the courses and took notes, so I will link to his blog too. Ok, I’m going to end here so I can get this chapter posted. The next post will be about our Caribbean adventures. Much love, Lisa