Wow...I have alot to catch up on! The past 3 days in Salvador have been great; skydiving on Itaparica Island, futebol, a local guided tour, a Brazilian steakhouse, street food, coconuts and flip flops! I'm not even sure where to start. Day 3 - Feb 7, 2008 - KP and I decided to head back over to Itaparica and check out the dropzone there to go skydiving. We left the ship at 8:45am and after another crazy ferry boat terminal experience, we finally got on a boat an...

Day 2 - Itaparica Island: Misadventures in Language and Ferry Boats! We decided to head out to Itaparica Island today, which is on the other side of the Bay from Salvador. No real plan in mind, we set out for the ferry, but our group had conflicting information on the ferries and after a walk through some shady part of town, we ended up at the 'wrong' one; the car ferry that goes to a different part of Itaparica, instead of the passenger ferry to the part of the ...

Carneval in Salvador de Bahia is the largest street festival on the planet...and Semester at Sea is there to catch the last day of it. We arrived in Salvador early this morning and it was very nice to get off of the ship for the first time in 7 days! Armed wth nothing but a money belt (no Brazilian money), a small map, and a green sheet, we set out to check out the old city. We didn't really know what to expect since today is the last day of Carnaval but it was r...

We're about to cross the Equator! Our ship's current location is approximately 0'42" N, 38' W so in just a very short time, we'll be in the Southern hemisphere. I learned at Maritime that sailors who have crossed the Equator are called Shellbacks. The ship does an official Neptune Day ceremony but it won't take place until after we leave Brazil, and everyone is looking foward to that. Today is a No Class day so pretty much everyone on ship is still sleeping...

Life at Sea! We left Puerto Rico on 28 January are are currently on our way to Salvador, Brazil. We sailed down through the Carribean and are now somewhere way off the coast of South America. We should be crossing the Equator anyday now as well, although our official Neptune Day ceremony won't be until after we leave Brazil. Things have been pretty good on board and we're definately keeping busy. Right now, I'm sitting up in the Faculty/Staff Lounge on Deck 7 Fo...