Home, At Last

Hello!!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Hello!

I’m writing this blog from the comfort of my bed, on land, able to check facebook in between paragraphs, with my lovely dog sitting next to me, and about to go cook my own food for breakfast. Seemingly normal things that still, after a week of being home, feel a bit strange.

The last stretch of time on the ship was 9 days long but it flew by in maybe a day, at most. Between finals, signing people’s maps, and probably a total of 30 hours of sleep in that 9 days, I’m exhausted.

And I should be. It’s been an exhilarating journey and as much as I miss the people, my new best friends, the sunrises, the wonderfulness of it all (I need to stop myself before I start to cry) it’s good to be able to sleep in and have no plans.

Home is a strange concept to me right now. I know this is my home, as I was born here and my family is here, but it’s when I think about how comfortable and familiar the ship got to be so quickly, how homey and perfect that environment was, I get… confused. If I’ve learned anything in the last 4 months, it’s that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling you just can’t shake. And I definitely made a home on that little ship sailing around the world.

More blogs will be coming soon about the beauty of home, starting up normal land school again, and a little more insight into SAS. For now, have a wonderful day guys.

Love,

Rebekah

Last Port, Best Port

Costa Rica is a beautiful country, and it was a great place to be the last stop of our voyage. We spent five lovely days there.

The first day wasn’t too adventurous for me. We didn’t dock until 10am, so we decided to just eat lunch on the ship and leave around 12. We walked around Puntarenas, the port city, for a bit, ate some icecream, got some souvenirs, drank a coconut. Really not that much. We went back to the ship pretty early because I had a field class that was meeting at 4:15am the next day.

Day 2 I woke up at 4am, met up with my class in the library, and we ate a quick breakfast before heading out. We drove for two hours to Manuel Antonio National Park, which is a beautiful protected area. We walked on the sloth trail and saw sloths and monkeys. Two of the park officials talked to us about animal trafficking and why we shouldn’t feed the animals and how harmful it is to them. It was really impactful. After that, we walked on the beach and through some more of the park trails, until it was time for lunch. We ate, then went on a crocodile riverboat tour and saw some crocs and the sunset over the river. It was so beautiful. Once we were done that, we just drove back to the ship.

Day 3 Danie and I left at 8 to go on a ferry her tour guide the day before had told her was super cool. It took an hour and a half to get there. We got off the ferry at Playa Naranja and there was literally nothing there. Like, it was not at all cool. We were very confused. We went to a little hotel with no one in it to get food and figure out what to do and we got these weird nachos. Did not like them. We realized it would make more sense for us to just get back on the ferry so we did and headed back. It was funny but at least the ferry ride was pretty. Once we finally got back to Puntarenas we just walked around some more. We got icecream, rode some bikes, got shoes for the Alumni Ball. We walked down the beach and I went swimming. Sunsets in Costa Rica are really beautiful. From my experience, it’s always cloudy and seems like it won’t be a good sunset, then it breaks through the clouds and it’s so lovely. After that, we went back to the ship and just hung out.

Day four we set out at 6:45am to go to a ecoadventure park. It’s a long story, but basically someone else was organizing the whole trip but backed out at the last second, but we were determined to do it ourselves. My friend Becca had a taxi friend named Pablo, so we organized our own transport with him. We were originally told the park was 2.5 hours away but turns out it’s 4, so we got there around 11, which sucked. It was fine though because it was a really great group of people so we had fun and talked a lot on the way there. When we got there, we immediately got to see crocodiles being fed. All the animals at the park were rescue animals that couldn’t be released back into the wild so it was good to see that. After my field class and learning about the hardships caged animals go through, it was good to know these ones needed help and were being taken care of. We saw a bunch of butterflies, different types of pretty birds, of course some monkeys, but best of all was a sloth. Her name was Lucy and she got burnt by some telephone wire she mistakenly grabbed on to. She has only been there for a month. She was really active when we were there, which is unusual because sloths basically spend their entire lives sleeping. She licked our hands through the bars of her caged room and it was so amazing. Love that girl.

Anyways, after that we went to the zip lining place. We did a LOT of ziplines and it was so cool. There was one where we had to lay down like superman and it was a whole minute long (a mile.) There was a baby free fall jump thing, where you jump and feel like you’re actually falling for a couple of seconds and then it catches you. There was a wobbly bridge where you walk over crocodiles. Then, of course, there were like 4 or 5 other ziplines we did. Once we finished zipping, we got lunch/dinner/ and got back in our van to head back. We had wanted to do more but it was raining and it was already getting kind of late considering we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us so that was basically it. It was worth it though. On the way back we stopped at the Costa Rica version of Walmart which was interesting. It seemed more like a Costco kind of, but also less nice. We finally got back to the ship at like 9ish. We unpacked and packed what we needed for the next night super fast and headed back out right away. We got in a taxi to Jaco, which was about an hour away. We got there, checked into our airbnb, then walked around the town for a while. It was a really cute little town, very hipster and beachy and surfer. I liked it a lot. We walked to the beach, then we went back to the airbnb and ate and played cards and talked a lot and tried to watch a show but the internet wasn’t working. We didn’t go to sleep until 3:30/4, then we woke up at 5 to see the sunrise.

We walked to the beach and sadly, it wasn’t that great because of the clouds, but the company was amazing 🙂 After that, we walked around the town some more, got breakfast and some souvenirs, went back to the beach and saw some dogs. We had wanted to surf but the tides were way too low in the morning so we didn’t get the chance to, but we still had a lot of fun. We caught the bus back to Puntarenas at 11 with basically all the rest of SAS. We got to the port at like 1 and Becca and I sat on the beach finishing up our snacks and talking for a bit, then we got in the security line at about 1:45. It took us until 2:45 to get on the ship. On ship time was at 3 and everyone was pushing it super close. But then again, it was the last time we’ll be on foreign land for a indefinite amount of time. We deserve to push it close.

Only 9 more days left, so I’ll see all of you soon…

Pura vida!

Rebekah

All You Need is Ecuador!

They say that Ecuador is very diverse of a country and has a little bit of everything, and after spending four days there I know that’s true.
Day one in Ecuador was my second field class, this time for photography. It was the coolest “school day.” I literally just spent the day walking around the streets of Guayaquil and in the botanical gardens, taking pictures. My professor brought us all icecream and it was so nice. It was homemade, and I know the doctor lady on board our ship would have told us not to eat it, but it was so good. After my field class we went back to the ship and I had an hour to get ready to go to the airport to go to Quito with some of my friends. Quito is the capital city, in the mountains, and that’s about all I knew about it beforehand. We didn’t land until 10, and we didn’t get settled in the hostel until nearly midnight, so we didn’t really do or see anything that first night.

Day two we didn’t end up heading out until 10 ish. We had breakfast at our hostel and it was delicious. I really liked our little place. Anyways, we went to this place called La Mitad del Mundo, meaning the middle of the world. It’s where the equator is, and there’s a little area around it with a planetarium, a monument, and other attractions. We chilled out there for a while, walked on the equator, no big deal. After that, we were ready for lunch. It was a struggle to find. We wanted to stay by that area, but the taxi drivers told us it was best to go back to the main Quito city in the historical district. So, we drove down some windy streets and got there. We ate at a little place that was very local. I had plantain and rice and avocado, which doesn’t sound that great but I was happy. Mom, I hope you stock up on avocados for when I get home. After lunch we walked around for a bit, then it started to rain. A lot. We came back to the hostel until it lightened up, then walked to this little cute hip restaraunt area and ate some food. Yum yum.

The third day we woke up and had breakfast, then headed to a park to go to the founding of the city parade, a 51 year old tradition. It was so cool. I got a cool umbrella hat and some cotton candy. There was dancing and music and marching bands. After that, we went to the cable car and went up that. It was super long, and took us to 13,000 feet above sea level. When we first got to the top, it was super foggy because we were in a cloud, but then it cleared up nicely. There were some local people selling hot chocolate up there so we got some, it was kinda weirdly spiced but it was super cold up in the mountain so I was happy with it. Anyways, after that we got on some horses to ride them for a bit. It was fun for a while, until we started heading back and the horses got crazy. One guy fell off, another horse and mine started fighting, then my horse started running down the hill. It was pretty scary man.

Anyways, once we were done with that, we went down the cable car and hung out in this little amusement park/ fair type thing for a bit. We went on a sketchy rollercoaster and played some arcade games. Then, we went for dinner and dessert and a cute little place near to the park we were at for the parade. It was pouring but we wanted to hang out near there until 6pm, when a concert was supposed to begin. Luckily, the rain lightened up a bit so we went over to the concert. It was so good! There were four bands playing but we only stayed for the first two. It was full of locals, super jam packed, and we actually knew a lot of the songs which was cool. After that we went back to the hostel to sleep.

The last day we had brunch and then packed up and went to the airport. Not super eventful but still a good last day. The ride to the airport was beautiful. We went through the mountains on little windy streets and I loooved it. Once we got back to Guayaquil we walked around for a little bit, then headed back to the ship.

All in all, it was a really good trip. One more port! 😦