Brazil Day

Today is the last day before we arrive in Manaus, a city in the Amazonian. In order to celebrate and get in the Brazilian spirit, instead of classes, we had sessions from the U.S. Brazilian Foreign officers about Brazil and about their careers. Two of the reps were PeaceCorps volunteers and I was very interested in learning more about the application process and just the PeaceCorps in general. Also, I had never really thought about becoming a Foreign Officer, but after learning more about what they do and all of the amazing travel and connections to be made, it is really something to consider, especially if your interested in International Relations.

We thought it would be a cool idea to see the sunrise, so a bunch of us got up at 0530 to see the sunrise, which ended up being completely covered by clouds; definitely a disappointment. However, we did see a dead vampire bat and some massive prehistoric-sized beetles and mosquitoes. Diversity doesn’t mess around in the Amazon! After the failure of a sunrise, we did Insanity, which we are now averaging about 20 people!

Tomorrow morning I’m going on a full day excursion in the rainforest and smaller tributaries to hopefully catch some piranha’s and whatever else the Amazon has in store for us! Then at midnight, I’m catching an overnight flight for Rio De Janiero. Hopefully I’ll be able to put some of my sloppy Samba moves I learned into action. Afterall, its only a few weeks until the biggest festival in the world: Carnival!
If all goes well, I’m planning on doing some skyping and adding pictures while in Rio because I’ll actually have internet access!

Sorry if I haven’t been replying to comments, I don’t have internet and cannot comment back. I do have email though, so I will try to respond!
Please keep in touch everyone, this is my new facebook and it is always great to hear how everybody back home is doing. My email is eric.hinkel.s12@semesteratsea.org

SAS Quote of the Day: “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” – Ronald E. Osborn

Rio Tomorrow!!!!

mvbrazil

big bug brazil

1 30 me sunset

sunset goup panoramic 1 30

Amazonia!

We are now officially on the Amazon River! It is extremely muddy, but that doesn’t mean that it is not clean or doesn’t have a wide biological diversity. Lining the river is thick green forests on both sides with a few villages scattered here and there. We even saw a few Amazonians canoeing. They were waving frantically and were probably just as excited to see us as we were them.
Today was the last day of classes before Brazil and I found my Global Studies class particularly interested because we really focused on the history of Brazil, and I think it will really help in understanding the culture and the demographics. Tomorrow, we will still be on the ship, but we will be having a full day celebration/information day called Brazil day, just to get us into the Brazilian spirit. Already this week, I feel like I have already been getting an introduction to Brazil through some of the clubs offered on the ship. One of the students, Gabe, who is originally from Brazil runs a Capoeletia (? On spelling) club and it is a mix between fighting and dancing. It is a really cool interpretive dance with no actual contact. The more advanced people add flips, cartwheels and other fancy moves while I am perfectly content just trying to master the basic moves (this white boy can’t dance!).
Speaking of dancing, one of my friends that I met in the Bahamas who is also from the Bahamas (Suse), and she is an amazing Zumba Instructor. Since she has been coming to Insanity 6:30am with me, it was the least I could do to go to her club. This was my first Zumba experience and I had an absolute blast. I definitely stumbled my way through and I’m pretty sure my hips were not designed to move like that! The energy in Zumba is amazing and I recommend that everyone should try it. Also, Insanity has been getting bigger, and it is really amazing to see how active and motivated the general shipboard community is to be active and healthy. It sounds corny, but there is always fitness classes going on and the gym is always packed.
After taking in the amazing sunrise and an fun dinner, we met some State Department Delegators who currently work in Brazil.
I am currently playing Apples to Apples with a bunch of friends, and this category is calling my name! I’m so excited for Brazil and Rio on Tuesday!

Keep it bubblin! (something I learned in Dominica)

capuleta

amazon panoramic

miho and jessey

1 29 dinner

Quick Update: Amazon

Good afternoon!

We are now entering the estuary of the Amazon river and will be fully in the Amazon by 8pm tonight. (It is 5:00, 3:00 eastern time) It is pretty cool to see the mixing of waters and seeing first hand what we learned in Biology class, and what I am learning in Marine Biology right now. We have one more day of classes, a Brazilian Heritage day, and then we arrive in Manaus on Tuesday.

Get your “reading” on!

Day 2 and Onward

Hey everybody!

So, I have been getting behind on blogging already, so I am going to try to at least catch up. So, I know a lot of people have perceptions that Semester at Sea is this big vacation or something with no cares in the world, or that it is some sort of 4-month floating beer pong party; this is not true. Although this is an extremely fun and amazing opportunity, Semester at Sea is just as busy, if not busier than a normal Institution. The MV Explorer (our ship) has most everything that a normal institution would have. ie.. Registrar, Financial Aid, RD’s , Phychologists, Student Activities, clubs and organizations

Day 2 and Onward

Day 2 in Dominica was a little less eventful, but still amazing. I signed up for a hiking trip with SAS to Middleham falls, which like most of the country, is in the mountains and rainforest. The rainforest in Dominica is diverse, and nothing we are used to in the United States, but I am so excited to see the Amazon Rainforest in a few days! Because we were in a rainforest, there were plenty of banana trees, mango trees, vines to swing like Tarzan, and trees supposedly bigger than the ones in California (??)
At the turnaround point was Middleham falls, a beautiful waterfall, with deep water ideal for cliff jumping. There was a 40’ ledge over the waterfall that our guide showed us, and I made sure that I did not miss this! I promised myself that this semester I would do things that I would otherwise never dream of, and jumping off a ledge into a waterfall in the middle of the rainforest definitely qualifies. The hike itself was good, but there were over 50 people and we had to stop every few minutes to wait for the rest of the group. We ended up arriving back at the ship an hour and a half after we were supposed to originally be back. I ended up missing my other trip because we got back so late, and SAS has a no refund policy, even if it is their fault.
We had a few hours before we had to be back on the boat, so a few of us took a cab down to the post office to deliver some postcards and walk downtown. We stopped at a local fruit market, and I made sure to get another coconut. We got back on the ship, and sadly watched Dominica fade away. Hopefully I’ll get into a better system for blogging and do it on a daily basis.

Until next time!

banans

middleham falls

vine swing

middleham

Day 2 and Onward

t

Day 1 Dominica

Finally, I am done with classes and delaying no more on this blog so that I do not forget anything. I am relaxing, hanging out with Jesse and Miho on the top deck just casually watching the sunset, while swaying gently from the rocking of the boat. I am definitely getting used to this

To say the least, I was extremely impressed and surprised by my overall experience on Dominica. Dominica, (pronounce dah-men-eeka) probably one of the least known islands in the Caribbean (at least Ive never heard of it) and is one of the only remaining islands that is relatively undeveloped and full just so green and full of life. The whole Island is mountainous and with rainforests, waterfalls, rivers, and about 7 “active” volcanoes (they have not had an eruption for a while now) This makes for amazing views, natural hot springs from the volcanoes, top snorkeling locations in the world and more. Compared to the other Caribbean Islands, Dominica is not quite as touristy, mainly because the airport is really small and you have to take multiple small planes to get there. Their main tourists come from cruise ships, although I don’t think it is a major cruise ship destination. There was one German cruise ship while we were there.

On the morning we arrived in Dominica, I went up to breakfast around 6:30am to meet some people and watch Dominica come into view. Even though Dominica is small on the map compared to some of the other islands, it is still considerably large being 12 miles long, and 9 miles wide. It aslo is very mountainous like I said and if there were not houses spread throughout on the mountain, I would have believed it to be somewhat uninhabitable. As we got closer to Dominica, more people were awaking and just taking in the beauty of the island. At 8:00 we were allowed to depart and I decided to walk around town with some people I met the previous night. A few of us had a snorkeling trip later on, so we couldn’t go for that long. We took a $2 shuttle into town, and just headed for the closest mountain because we all wanted to get in some hiking. After about a half an hour of some uphills and just taking in all of the scenery, we ran into a local artist who was sitting out on his front steps, welcoming us. We admired his work, and he invited us into his house. A lot of Dominica is in poverty, or at least the houses are in desperate need of repair. Most Americans would consider this country a third world country, and by many standards they are. The painters name was Greg and he live is a hut like concrete building that had no type of electricity. There was a mattress in the middle with all of his possessions strewn about and then he had a small area to work on his paintings. His paintings were mostly acrylic and just very natural and beautiful. Also, his work has the Bob Marley “be happy” type feel, which is the overall attitude of the Caribbeans. Oh and I’m pretty sure a drug deal went on while we were looking at his work. He was so relaxed and just happy that we liked his work. Unfortunately, we never did purchase any. As we were getting ready to leave Gregs, another local was walking by and started talking to us, asking where we were from and just being friendly. We started talking and he got into about how amazing Dominica is and how proud he is to live there, and things along those lines. This was also the same for many of the locals we talked to. I don’t know many Americans that have so much pride in the state or town they live in and could tell everything they know about it, with so much enthusiasm. We ended up mentioning that we wanted to do some hiking and visit the natural hot springs. The locals name was Timothy, but everyone calls him Drizzle. I am so glad we met Drizzle; he made my experience in Dominica. We got in a bus and headed up to the hot springs in the mountains, while learning more about Drizzle and Dominica. We eventually got up there and started hiking the Waitukubili National trail. The springs are sulfur, so the whole area smells like rotten eggs, which I really didn’t mind that much. We hiked up to an amazing view, then went back down and “bathed” in the natural sulfur hot springs. After that, we got back in the taxi, and drove to Scott’s head, a famous place for diving because there is a huge dropoff. We wanted to drink some coconut milk, so one of the islanders climbed the tree, loving all of the attention and showing off. They cut the coconuts for us to drink and when we were finished, they sliced them open and peeled the coconut meat for us. Fast warding to make things shorter, we got back to ship just in time for my FDP. For my FDP, we were able to go to Champagne Reef with our marine biology class. The snorkeling was much better than the Bahamas and there were so many different species of fish. We even saw an octopus, and some people saw a few sea turtles. It is sad though that coral reefs are getting endangered because of overfishing, pollution, and other factors. Unique to Champagne reef and to go with the name. There are hundreds of bubbles that rise from the ocean floor that are created from the volcanoes on the island. They are warm and its fun to swim through. We got back around dinner time, and then I went with a few friends downtown to one of the local bars to try to fix everything with our computers with wifi connection because we don’t really have internet on the ship, except for our emails. Sorry for the kind of boring monologue of my day. It is much more exciting in person. Day 2 to come tomorrow.

dominica 104h

dominica 068drizzle

dominica 093coconuts

Amazed by Dominica

We are now back on this ship, heading to Brazil after 2 days in Dominica, an amazing, relatively unknown volcanic/rainforest island with amazing natural beauty and attractions. I am too busy tonight doing readings for class tomorrow, but I will try to go into details tomorrow when I have some time. Needless to say, I had an absolute blast, and to be honest, I really thought that I was not going to like it that much because I thought it would be similiar to other carribean islands like the Bahamas. The people, landscape and culture are extremely different and I could easily spend months here immersing myself into the Dominican lifestyle. Sadly, the ship continues, but I am excited to be able to go to Rio in about a week!

SAS Quote of the Day: “Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

My email is now eric.hinkel.s12@semesterats

Testing in Dominica

Trying to straighten out the email/blog issues in Dominica!

En Route to Dominica

Tomorrow, we will be at our first port for the voyage: Dominica (pronounced Doh-men-eee-ka) with special emphasis on the eeeka for more fun! I also had my second full day of classes and today I had Global Studies and Global Management. Global studies is a lecture course that everyone has to take and I thought it was going to be really boring. To my surprise, it is one of most favorite classes so far. Our teacher, professor Nalbach has so much energy and put so much time into his presentations that really help to understand the message. In this class, along with the others, there is special focus on Dominica, or the port we will be heading and all of the information that we need to know about that country in order to better understand the culture, the environment, economics, languages, and other topics related to my classes. Also, as part of my classes, I have to write field reports, talking about specific experiences or observations about the economy, culture, languages, ect… To me, this is experiential learning at its best, and I’m so excited to have this opportunity to study with Semester at Sea. Also, today, I finalized my work study schedule where I am the Academic Success Assistant. I will be helping organize the peer writing center, distributing “study bucks” occasionally to students that are studying (these “study bucks” will be used to win prizes later on) and help run Explorer Seminars, especially language workshops for visiting students from port country universities that will be teaching us some of the local language. I also had a meeting with the wellness RD about finalizing the Insanity club. We had the most signups at 156 students, so it is a challenge finding enough space(es) and times. Hopefully that will be figured out shortly and we should be able to start a few days after Dominica. I’m also getting back into a better workout routine. I have been doing a “100” workout with some friends as well as putting some miles on the treadmill and elipticals. It is kind of strange running on a treadmill when you are swaying back and forth. As for seasickness, most everybody has been fine. There have been a few people that got sick, but for the most part, the waters have been fairly smooth. However, the boat does sway a lot, and its just part of the experience to stumble/sway when you walk from place to place. I could go on and on, but I am getting up early tomorrow to see the sunrise and get ready for Dominica. We will be here for two days and I will be snorkeling at Champagne Reef the first day for my Marine Biology Class, and I will also be doing some hiking and water tubing/ whatever else I can find. I’m not sure if this blog is posting to my facebook. But if it is, please comment back on the blog or email me at eric.hinkel.s12@semesteratsea.org. This is my only real contact with people back home and I would appreciate hearing from everybody.

Thanks!