I’ve been on the ship for a little over a week now, and everything is going great! Since we left Puerto Rico the waves have gotten bigger, the ships been rocking more, and I’ve never read more for my classes in my life! But its all been lots of fun, and you most definitely can’t beat reading the books for classes while laying outside surrounded by the ocean. So since I’ve been so busy and haven’t had a chance to write on this blog at all here is a recap of my favorite times in Puerto Rico…

Day 1: We had the amazing opportunity to have the Governor of Puerto Rico speak to us before we got off the ship. There was a huge press crew there but I’m guessing it was mostly because of Desmond Tutu. The Governor spoke of the Puerto Ricans pride in their cultural heritage and while they appreciated the aid the United States gave them, they proudly viewed themselves as Puerto Ricans, rather than Puerto Rican Americans. That theme continued throughout our many encounters with Puerto Ricans.

Old San Juan: After we went through immigration me, Lindsay, and this guy Mike (from Wisconsin) took a taxi to the fort El Morro. El Morro was an ancient fort built in the 15th century I believe, and it was gorgeous! We left and started to find a place for lunch. The streets of Old San Juan were much cleaner than I had expected. The little apartments reminded me of my favorite Alexandria townhouses, only painted in Bahamian Blue, Pink and Yellow. The second floor apartment balconies had overflowing flower boxes, they were beautiful, Lindsay and I found a small quaint restaurant for lunch. We sampled the local beer, Medalla Light, ate fried plantains (fried bananas) and listened to the resident musician strum away on his “Quatro” (a mix between a guitar and a mandolin).

The Welcome Reception: About 80 of us took a chartered bus to Caribbean University, a private university in Puerto Rico. As we pulled into the driveway we were greeted with the whole university singing, dancing and playing African drums for us. We watched a short video describing the University’s purpose, and then walked outside to enjoy the festivities. They had truly prepared a party for us. We were treated to a sampling of great Puerto Rican food, traditional dances, and AMAZING music. If you were caught standing still, the students would quickly pull you into the middle of the dancing, and make sure that you danced the whole night. I of course am not a huge dancer, but I loved it, and the music was great. It seemed like the whole community made a showing at the reception, kids of all ages were dancing, along with all of the teachers and even the security guards. After the Welcome reception I wanted to live in Puerto Rico, the people have such an amazing passion for life, always happy and so in love with their homeland.

Even though we were so tired from the Welcome Reception we went out to a small Salsa Bar and danced some more. It was a long night, but a great start to my Semester at Sea.

Day 2: We spent the day at a quaint beach lined with palm trees. We swam in the crystal clear water, and watched the surfers ride the ginormous waves. It was a great relaxing day.

At night I went on a SAS Sponsored trip to the Bioluminescent Bay. We went through a Eco Tour Company that is doing everything they can to preserve the Bioluminescence of the Bay. There are only four Bioluminescent places in the world, three are in Puerto Rico. Though one of the ones in Puerto Rico has already been destroyed because of visiting motor boats to the area.

Day 3: I had signed up for a Rainforest Hike followed by a trip to ‘Luquillo Beach” in pre-sale and I am so glad I did. We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, and the food was the best authentic Puerto Rican food I’d had yet. They gave us heaping spoonfuls of yellow rice, beans, chicken, and amazing fried plantains, and I easily swiped by plate clean. The beach was beautiful, in the distance you could see the mountains of ‘El Yunque’ (the rainforest).


Shipboard Life: Today (February 14) we crossed the equator!! And I got sunburned. Again. Joy. I’m staying out of the sun for a few days. We are three days away from Brazil, and I’m getting pretty excited. I keep on renting the Lonely Planet Brazil book from the library trying to figure out everything I can about Salvador. City of God is playing tonight, I’m gonna try and watch it. I am learning about all different aspects of Brazilian culture and history in my classes. I really like how the system is structured so that we enter the port with a strong understanding of the challenges they are facing economically, culturally, environmentally and politically. It’s very interesting. Well I have a meeting for the environmental group at 7 (now we are 3 hours ahead of Va) and then a Valentines Day Dance at 9. But I will try to write more often so everyone can hear how I’m doing! I miss you all, and when I logged onto the Virginia Tech website I saw the campus covered in snow…beautiful!