Ft. Lauderdale...

The Lovely Ladies who picked me up!

Everyone waiting to get off

 

On ship tour the night we disembarked

Pool Time at the house in FL. 

The Bro's

Alumni Ball - dinner/dance

Captains Table Spring 2010

 "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm"

 ~ The Elia Family

"Nick Tomkins Dinner Menu"

 
Before we get into my Brazil Blog,  lets talk about the "Nick Tomkins Dinner Menu" night. 
 
Yesterday, Wed. 4/28 was not only the day of our ship wide Global Studies final exam, but more importantly is was "Nick Tomkins Dinner Menu" night.
 
Remember...,  I won that in the silent auction. Well it all happened last night and it went pretty well. I was not able to get a lot of the things I wanted due to it being the end of the voyage. You know, only certain foods left in the freezer and all. But it was still 100x better than a typical dinner. 
 

At the salad bar we had Creamy Caesar and Italian dressings, and of course my favorite… Tuna-Mac Salad!  The pasta dish was Baked Ziti, Shepard's Pie as the meat. Grilled Salmon in lemon sauce with Rice Pilaf,  some Veggies and the soup was Veggie Chili.  The biggest hit of the night ~ Apple Cobbler (heated up)….it was a great meal and I received many kudos for it.


I would be remiss if I did not tell you about another fancy dinner we had Thursday. This one was to celebrate Sara‘s birthday, which gave us an excuse to have a real nice end of the voyage gathering type thingy….
 

We have "A" exams tomorrow, and "B" study day. Then "B" exam day (Sunday5/2) which is also the Alumni Ball night. Then 2 more days and we are done…..

Just under a week before this wonderful voyage they call SAS Spring 2010 is over.
 


We're only as good as our last meal.
 ~ Chef Gordon Ramsay 

Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea
Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
 
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:    http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Email me at:    Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Check out my photos as well!   http://picasaweb.google.com/nicholas.a.tomkins

The Amazon Rain Forest was SICK!

We had five SAS groups going on the Amazon River tour. Groups A thru E and we were split up on 4 riverboats, I was with Group D. We were the last of the groups to leave, most groups left at 4am, ours did not leave until 2pm. On the airplane I sat with Scottie and Danny and the three of us were 3 of 4 guys in our group of 22 SAS'ers. I didn’t really know them too well before this tour. That’s what I like about SAS trips, by the end of that plane ride we were a like brothers (LOL). We had a brief layover in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Then we made our way to Manaus by about 11pm where we met our Guide Ede. Our group leaders were George and Maggie Thomas from Hamilton, Ontario…which is really close to my home.  I was always messing with him about emigrating to Canada (haha). 

The Tropical Manaus Hotel is where we caught our riverboats. It is situated on the shores of the Rio Negro in the heart of the Amazon. Only 10km from the Manaus International Airport, and 12km from downtown Manaus.

The Tropical Manaus Hotel is the perfect starting point for visiting the rainforest. The hotel itself gives you a taste of what you will experience if you choose to go deeper into the Amazon. The hotel grounds are filled with trees full of singing birds and wild monkeys. The  marina we left from was at the hotel with the beautiful, open aired, wooden riverboats  that were to be our home for the next 3 days patiently waiting for us. It was pretty sweet and the hotel had a nice little performance featuring some native dancers and of course local Brazilian snacks to see us off.

From Manaus we pushed off and motored our way to meet up with Groups C and E. They would be our entourage for the remainder of the trip. By the time we caught up with them they were all passed out. The good news was Beau, Greg, Rob, Parisi and my boy Gram (my tug o war partner) were all now part of my group. Now our boat finally had a chance to relax. So we hung out on deck smoking some good Cubans, while talking and looking at the beautiful night sky that was absolutely full of stars.

That first night when we retired to our “comfortable” hammocks, I wasn't quite sure how to position myself correctly. So... it wasn’t the most "comfortable" thing in the world. We awoke at sunrise to watch the sun as it rose over the immense Amazon water-shed. What an incredibly beautiful sight. We off-loaded onto these little boats and rowed to shore to go on a jungle hike through the rain forest. They showed us some really cool plants many of which were poisonous ones. 

 

Along with the most dangerous ant in the world, its called the 24hr ant because for the next 24 hours it will have you crying like a baby before it kills you. Our guide Ede then showed us how to make a tree-climbing device for getting away from some of the dangerous animals and whatnot. 

After the hike we were all drenched in sweat because the humidity was so intense in the rain forest. They brought us back to the boat and we went for a nice dip in the river before lunch. It was real fun, we were jumping off trees into the river and screwing around. I bet my friend Rob that he couldn't swim across the river. Too bad the guide wouldn’t let him, he said he didn’t want to lose his job because a kid got eaten by a Gator! After that we had a delicious lunch made from all natural locally harvested ingredients (so they said), and it tasted great! Go figure... We then relaxed and napped in our hammocks (the right way this time) for about an hour or so before we headed to a local village for the afternoon. There we learned a bit about how their people lived while we interacted with them at their school and homes. We playing them in a soccer match! It was pretty fun, and of course they are really good, but it was all good and we really enjoyed it! 

After that, we went back to the boat, which was pulled up on a beach. They had a great BBQ dinner set up for us! It was a lot of fun, and the food was great!  Then at about 10pm we got back in the little boats and we hunting for some Alligators… we didn’t actually see any…. but my bud Scottie almost caused me to throw this poor girl named Kate right off the boat when he scared the Hades out of me and I freaked out (hahaha). 

After that we all got back to the ship and passed out in our wonderful hammocks. We had some people get sick today, including Beau who was the worst, when we went to bed he was curled up in the fetal position puking. During the night I heard that it got so bad that they put him on a little boat and drove an hour and a half to a hospital were they put him IV…. Then he spent the next day just chilling in a nice hotel room, which he just destroyed as well. 

The next day we woke up and immediately went Piranha fishing….  Our fearless leader George caught a massive piranha…. the biggest one they have seen in a while… after lunch we started on our three hour ride to the"Meeting of the Waters". It was a pleasurable ride because it was so muggy  on the Amazon, the breeze was refreshing…. We sat out on the deck playing cards while watching the beautiful scenery go by. I don’t know how it happened... because we weren’t even in the sun for that long and I had sunscreen on…but I got really fried. I'm totally destroyed, sometimes I'm not real bright!

We passed by the "Meeting of the Waters". The Rio Negro is a darker, slower, and much heavier body of water than the Rio Solimoes. Temperature, density and velocity differences keep these two bodies of water separate for more than 6 miles before they join to form the great Amazon. Sloths, piranhas, anacondas and colorful parrots are just a few of the animals we saw on our riverboat tour. 

 

After this very active day we all headed back to the hotel. That would be the one where we first got on the riverboats. This side trip was contrived solely to have another whack at a marvelous dinner of fresh fish, pasta, and rice. and they hit the mark!

That night all four boats met up in the river and went to a park type place to have a "tour closing" party. This place reminded me of Artpark in Lewiston, NY. It had an outdoor stage, a pool, a bar… lots of fun… we stayed there until midnight. After which we had to catch a plane for a five hour red eye flight to Sao Paulo (near Eduardos hometown). After a one hour layover we continued on to Salvador where the MV Explorer was docked. During the flight almost everyone ended up getting sick, mostly from what they call the "Amazon Bug". A few SAS'ers had a little to much to drink. 


We were back on the ship by 11am where most of us napped again. I'm so happy I got all my stuff done the first day we were in Salvador, because I didn’t get a chance to go back the last day. It turned out the other boats had some people get sick as well. Group B had 21 out of 30  people sick (throwing up and pooping). 

We capped off this port of call with a shipboard BBQ. Afterward, seeing as how my back was still destroyed, I lathered up with Aloe and slept like a baby. 

Great Links: 
Amazon river - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River
24 Hour ant - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraponera
Sao Paulo - http://www.geographia.com/Brazil/saopaulo/index.htm
Manaus -  http://wikitravel.org/en/Manaus 

Meeting of the Waters - http://www.destination360.com/south-america/brazil/meeting-waters



Brazilian Qoutes:

A racing driver has to be a good driver.
  ~ Emerson Fittipaldi

 

Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea
Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010

Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Email me at: Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Check out my photos as well!:  http://picasaweb.google.com/nicholas.a.tomkins

Brazil - home to that infamous mad man ~ Eduardo Toledo

Brazil was a pretty sweet country! The official language of Brazil is Portuguese and the currency is the Brazilian Real. As usual the U.S. dollars is widely accepted.

We got off the boat about 10am. The port of Salvadore has sort of a hybrid port area….,  it wasn’t as nice as Cape Town's by any means, but it was a hundred times better than the port of Tema in Ghana.

 

Think Africa in South America, but with a Portugese flavor. Salvador's full name was "Sao Salvador de Baia de Todos Santos") and was Brazil's main seaport during the16th and 17th centuries.  Because of the active slave trade, Salvador became home to quite an African population. Everywhere you look you see the influence of African culture. 80% of the population of Salvador are direct descendants of African slaves.
 

The main sights in Salvador are easily visited  on foot. The city is broken into two sections.

The lower section is the commercial development, or "new" section and the upper section is the unique "Historic District". From what we were told, the elevator that gets you to the upper city is somewhere through the rear of market  near a Square. Built over 100 years ago it climbs the 225 feet in about 15 seconds. The elevator costs approximately US$.02.

My entourage today was the usual suspects:  Eli, Greg, Adam, Kyle, Sara, Jenny. We got off the ship and walked to another part of the waterfront were there was a fairly large open-air market called the Mercado Modela. We spent about an hour walking around, then we did lunch at this quaint restaurant on top of the market overlooking the waterfront. We were in the middle of a great meal when the skies opened up and it started to pour. Naturally we were sitting outside, so when we moved in, Kyle, Sara and Jenny left ... they had a plane to catch to Rio. So the rest of us decided to just wait it out. We really didn’t have anything to do other than shopping until dinner. Which was a well planned affair where we were all going out for Beau’s Birthday. We chilled at this restaurant for about 4 hours, From 11am till 3pm eating and drinking like we meant it. The place was filled with locals and SASers alike and we had a great time.

By 3pm the rain lightened up a bit so we decided to head back to the ship and hang loose till dinner. We barely made it up the gangplank when it started to pour again. I felt a nap was now justified so down I went till I had to get dressed for dinner. It wasn’t Beau’s birthday until midnight came around, but we decided to go out this night because everyone else was fanning out all over Brazil the next morning.

When dinnertime rolled around, we all headed out to this AMAZING Brazilian Steakhouse called "Boi Preto Grill". Excellent service, and the Maitre' de Claudio was very professional. Just watch yourself when ordering drinks, especially Caipirinhas (Brazil's national cocktail) and desserts, as the prices were outrageous! There was a good forty of us, not to mention the other fifty or so SAS'ers already there. You know it is one of the better Steakhouses around cause even Dean White was there with his family. Anyway, back to the food, it was like heaven on earth (sound familiar?). 

For those of you who haven’t experienced a Brazilian Steakhouse (and I actually have ~ in Ft. Lauderdale, thanks to Uncle Al). 

Here is how it operates:

First there is a beautiful salad bar, with a wide range of Greens, Vegetables and Sides. It even had Sushi. Now for the meat…. they give you this chip(plate) to set in front of you, and if you had the green side up that tells the servers you want whatever gorgeous slab of beef that they are carrying around with them. So sweet! 

 


We stayed there for a couple of hours, then went to a local bar, were we hung out to watch a Brazilian Soccer match on the tube. A lot of locals were there rooting and carrying on, so we had some fun with them. As much fun as one can have when it's concerning a soccer match. But I digress. 

Most SAS'ers had to be up at 4am for their trips. We headed in fairly early (2ish) and called it a night. I didn’t have to be in the Union until 2pm, so I got to sleep in a bit before I headed out into the Amazon…., but that's another story!

Great Links:
Salvador, Brazil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Bahia
Brazil's national drink - http://www.maria-brazil.org/caipirinha.htm

Boi Preto Grill - http://www.churrascariaboipreto.com.br/
Mercado Modela - http://www.southamericaportreviews.com/SalvadorBrazil.htm
Brazil soccer history - http://www.soccer-fans-info.com/history-of-soccer-in-brazil.html
 

Qoutes:

The Amazon was incredible, but it pales in comparison to a night of partying in Rio!
~ Nicky T  


Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea
Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
 
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:   http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Email me at:   Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Check out my Photos as well:   http://picasaweb.google.com/home

 

The Atlantic Ocean - the end is near...

 
Well the last 6 days of Africa have been quite crazy. Of course the first day back on the ship everyone just slept, then we dragged ourselves to class followed by some more of doing nothing. This routine has pretty much been the norm after the particularly arduous ports of call. 

The second day really got things cranking. The running of the SOS Auction made for a fun filled day…, well for me anyway. As a member of the committee I was required to work it all day. Not that I minded, it went very smoothly. First there was the silent auction and raffles in the Timitz from 11am – 7pm. We raised over $4000 in the raffle alone. Selling raffle tickets, lots of raffle tickets was not a problem, they sold like hotcakes.

8:00pm - this is when the FUN really begins... the LIVE AUCTION!  You know this is my bag, my stomping ground, a place were a person (me) could be on an extreme high from the adrenaline rush…sheer unadulterated craziness, the thrill of the hunt. Thanks Mom....

I made a Power Point presentation that had photos and descriptions of all the Live Items. This was shown in the Student Union during the live portion of the auction. The first half was a little boring for me because the items that I wanted were in the middle to latter end of the event.

There were items such as:
A bottle of Pepto signed by Dr. Mort 
Raising the Ship's flag in Ft. Lauderdale
A weeks stay at a family farm of a Faculty member
Hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley
Paintings by the children on the ship
Private movie/snacks for you and your friends in the Student Union
A week stay in Germany
Round trip ticket on Delta for standby to anywhere in the world
Dinner for four with Don Gogniat
Mountain cottage - week stay
Pie-ing the Admin Team 
Beach house for a weekend
Bubble bath in the Dean's office bathroom (hahaha)
Direct admission to the Amazing Race (but you need to be 21). 
 
Then we got to the “Big Ticket Items”.  My first win was in the silent auction,  I won “choose the dinner menu for the night” which I and the rest of the ship are really pumped up about! Lots of feedback on this one. Then in the raffle I won a season’s pass to Six Flags, which should work out well this summer! Then..., drum roll please... for the live auction …first I won the “~Voice~ on the ship's PA that clears the passengers to depart when in Ft. Lauderdale", which I am extremely pumped about!  Then while they were auctioning "a seat at the Captains table for the Alumni Ball",  I spontaneously decided to join in on the bidding… well my bid ignited a war and I just couldn’t back it down (haha). So being the bully that I am, I proceeded to crush that poor young lady. Then it was on to the really big item that my mother has for months been bugging me to get, "The Ships Nautical Map ~ signed by the Captain". So instead of stealing it like she suggested (LOL)  I formulated a plan with Ethan's help to procure it legally. Naturally there was a ton of people who wanted it. But for once listening to my old friend panned out. Simply put, I was to let everyone else duke it out and then jump in at the end and take the prize. Well after much spirited bidding by a half a dozen of my peers,  the Auctioneer called $650 going once, $650 going twice…, I stood up and calmly placed my bid….$675.  I just stood there with my arms folded and my hugely intimidating stare (LOL). Neither of the two dudes who were still in the bidding were up to the challenge (wimps).   ~  So, I won it !!! ~   It was a great night…a lot of fun and we raised a ton of money,  all for the benefit of the future SASers.

Lately our days have been jam packed with projects and papers that caught most of us trying like hell to finish up. On April 17th we had a “Bro Dinner”, just a little celebration to compliment Eli and my-self's status as roommates for the past three months.. It was pretty much an excuse for all our "Brothers" to have a  “special occasion dinner” together. The food and company was great, just goes to show that SAS can make great food when they want to. We even had an ice cream cake(LOL), and a fun night was had by all.

Today is Brazil Day(4/20), a no class day. Where they have seminars on Brazil all day. Gives us time to work on those darn projects that are coming due in our classes. We had our last Muster Drill at 9am this morning. A little sad... but yes, Brazil is almost here. Which in our minds signals the beginning of the end.  Beau’s birthday falls on the first day of Brazil. So all of the us are going out for dinner that night. We haven't settled on a particular restaurant yet but I'm sure it will be a Brazilian Steak House. 

And then in the morning I am off to the gi-normous Amazon River! It’s sad that it is our last port, but we are not done yet!   It's not over till the ___ Lady sings. This is going to be a fun port! But then again show me a port that wasn't!
 

 
Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea
Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
 
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:   http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Email me at:   Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Check out my Photos as well:   http://picasaweb.google.com/home

So this is Ghana …

Facts about Ghana
Location: Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote d'Ivoire and Togo
Population: 23 million
Languages: English, African languages including Akan and Ewe
Climate: Tropical
Religions: Christianity, Islam and indigenous beliefs
Government: Constitutional democracy
Economy: Largely agricultural. Exports include cocoa, gold and timber, metals and diamonds.
Famous people: Soccer star ~ Freddie Adu


Ghana was a very interesting country…and I now understand why they wanted us to go there.

Our visit was surely in part to show us a country with an emerging international economy but still struggling with a slew of social, educational and technological issues. You can tell when your there in the middle of it all that they have the resources to compete on the global level. They are held back by their subsistence economy which doesn't create enough goods for their own day to day consumption (I read that somewhere).



The MV Explorer was again docked in a industrial port area, This time we were in the city of Tema. We had to walk about a half a mile to get to the front gate and ultimately the Taxies. It was an interesting set up to say the least. At the gate there was this scary looking Army type guy, who looked just like General Juma in "24" (hahaha). For those who don't know, "24" is my favorite TV show.

On the first day we took the SAS provided shuttle into Accra, it was about a 45 min drive. TIA (this is Africa), none of this fake Africa stuff like in Capetown. The roads were the worst we'd seen in all of the countries we have been to so far! When we got to Accra we realized that since it was a Sunday there wasn’t really anything open, except for the Central Market. So there we went to cruised around for a while.The dusty roads that lead into Central Accra are lined with open-fronted shacks and stands selling everything from cooked foods, clothing, electrical goods, cast iron gates and services like haircuts. Most have colorful signboards advertising the names of their shops. Women sit at the road side with their babies strapped to their backs and basins of oranges, yams and plantains for sale in front of them. This is how most people who live in the shanty towns make a living. The central Makola Market is very big and very busy. Market women sit under huge straw hats, with babies strapped to their backs, behind piles of tomatoes, yams, beans, plantains, peanuts and rice and basins of dried fish and meat. The residential areas are to the north and west of Accra. In the afternoon we checked into the hotel we were going to stay that night called the La Palm Royal Beach. We had lunch and hung out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Since there was nothing open that night, we all went to the Bar/Casino at the hotel. Okay..., so maybe this semester has turned into a big party. So what..., at least I went to bed reasonably early that night... I had Habitat for Humanity in the morning.

Our Habitat crew
 

In the morning I headed out on my habitat trip with my buddy Greg. Our 2.5 bus ride turned into 4 hours because of traffic and the really poor condition of the roads. It was SOOOO HOTTT!  I fried and there was nothing I could do about it. All the sunscreen in the world wouldn't have helped. Every bit I put on just sweated off ... instantly! I probably lost 20 lbs of water weight and my pants were falling off at the end of the day (hahahah). We mainly moved these 30lbs cement blocks to where they were going to be laid. I Personally moved 100+ of those bad boys and then we wheelbarrow-ed dirt to fill inside the foundation to level out the floors. Sunk into the mud in the rooms were these huge boulders that we had to excavate out of there. There was even a tree growing in the back bedroom floor (lol).  Griffen the lucky dog got to chop it down with a  machete.
 

HFHG homeowners are mostly farmers who own small plots, which they cultivate by hand. Even with a good harvest, these farmers don't earn more than US$50 a month, and they struggle to care for their families. However, the farmers are able to afford a mortgage with HFHG, which is never more than 20 percent of their monthly income.

A typical  house is made up of two bedrooms and a hall, with an external johnny and washroom. Walls are made of sun-dried earthen blocks, plastered with cement and built onto the concrete foundation and cement floor. The houses typically have an aluminum roof.


I walked out of there soaked in sweat and beyond dirty, but feeling great and very proud of what we accomplished! So there you have it..., I was happy and that's all that counts. (LOL) Everyone of us went to bed early that night.


Definitely one of the hottest places I have ever been to! But... all in all it was a great day!


The next day Kyle, Sara, Jenny, Rob, Greg, and I went to Volta lake. The largest largest man-made lake in the world in terms of surface area. The Akosombo Dam and the associated hydroelectric system consist of a rock-fill dam and spill way and a powerhouse.  Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the then President of Ghana commissioned the first phase of construction, on January 22, 1966.  The dam is 433 feet high and 2165 feet long.  It has created a reservoir of water, of about 301 square miles of surface area.


Hydroelectric power from this dam is key to Ghana’s development, producing energy for domestic consumers as well as for export.  The construction of the Akosombo Dam resulted in the formation of the Volta lake.  It stretches practically along the entire length of Ghana.

We had a great lunch of fresh fish (bones and all) at a restaurant overlooking the lake and dam. The view was priceless and lunch was followed by a boat ride on the lake. After lunch we headed back to the ship for more food (dinner) and waited for some friends who still hadn't come back from a SAS trip. Afterward we went out for the night… again... just a little party... we hit up the casino bar … and then we all headed to this rather large purple building were there was a much larger SAS'r party……


The last day we slept in after which we walked around Tema for a little bit and had lunch and chilled at a bar for a while, went to a “post office” and got back on the ship a little early. Overall it was an interesting experience to see a country developing and trying hard to do it right …I appreciated coming here because from now on whenever Ghana in the news…its not going to be some no named little African country that has no meaning to me, I will turn up the volume and be interested because I was there and I know what it is like….and someday it's going to have a pretty decent economy….and I can say that  I have been there before!

“You can't do anything to help your team win when you don't play.”

 Freddy Adu quote

Great Links:
Port of Tema, Ghana
Habitat for Humanity Ghana
La Palm Royal Beach - Accra
Accra, Ghana - Wiki
Central Makola Market - youtube video
Akosombo dam 

 

Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea
Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
 

Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Email me at Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Check out my photos as well! http://picasaweb.google.com/nicholas.a.tomkins