120 Miles North of Sao Luis, Brazil

18 November 2012

We’re now just 30 miles south of the equator, heading west toward the mouth of the Amazon, which sits directly on the equator. So between now and Tuesday morning, when we enter the Amazon and start the trek to Manaus, we’ll essentially be skimming along the mid point of the globe.

It feels like we’re on the equator. Very warm and muggy today. Again, I’m taking advantage of the weather by sitting out on the balcony, catching up on e-mail, reviewing sports scores (UM beat Iowa 42-17 yesterday; OSU topped Wisconsin; AFA won; S.Carolina beat Wofford [Wofford?!]; Stanford beat Oregon and Kansas State lost, moving Notre Dame into the #1 poll spot [No!]), and reading the electronic version of the NYTimes on the iPad app (Israel on the verge of a ground assault into Gaza; sounds of bi-partisanship around avoiding the fiscal cliff). Today is what’s called a study day—the closest thing we have to a weekend during the 4-month voyage. It gives me an opportunity to do as little as possible that’s productive, a terrific feeling. I think it’s fair to say we all miss weekends.

Last night was the shipboard auction, a money-raising opportunity for SAS to build its scholarship endowment. Most of the items contributed were ship-related: a captain’s hat autographed by the captain, a chance to raise the flag on the day we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale, a chance to blow the ship’s horn, the privilege of being first off the ship in Florida (a very big deal!), packing services by one of the resident directors, a bubble bath in one of the dean’s cabins (single only), milk and cookies served on a starry night on the 8^th deck.

The auction item that went for the most money was a map of the voyage that has been posted near the purser’s desk since Boston. The map shows not only our route but also information about the waters we’ve been crossing and noon locations each day of the voyage. It’s an interesting guide, one we all look at almost daily. Final auction price: $2,600, purchased by a student. I’m sure her parents will enjoy the tax deduction.

With Bob Smith, geography professor from Georgetown and the US State Dept, I split the cost of a round of golf at Keswick Club, Charlottesville VA. Our playing partners will be Jim Cooper & Bob Chapel. Jim made the contribution: greens fees for 2 plus lunch. And Bob and I prevailed in the auction for a price of $125. Given that guest fees at Keswick are over $100 and lunch can be pricy, Bob Smith and I will have the pleasure of superb golf, a fine lunch, and a tap into the Jim Cooper fortune. I don’t think I can take the tax deduction.

I’m also splitting the cost with Cooper of 2 weeks in a Tucson AZ home any time in April, May, or June. A 3-BR, 2100 square ft home on a golf course for $225 each. Not bad.

Tonight is the crew talent show, which, 3 years ago, was a surprisingly entertaining evening. Global talent in abundance.

Iguaçu Falls

My flight to Puebla Iguaçu from Buenos Aires on Saturday 3 November took about 90 minutes, the terrain below becoming greener and more lush the farther north we flew. The falls sit at the apex of a 180-degree turn in the Iguaçu River, where the river forms a peninsula that defines the border between Argentina and Brazil. The border with Paraguay is just 10 miles west of the falls, so the area is truly a tri-border junction. It all sits in the middle of the South American rain forest, surrounded by coffee plantations and what look like abandoned rubber-tree plantations.

The falls extend south to north from the bottom of the 180-degree bend to almost a mile down river on the Argentine side. They’re shaped kind of like a massive fish, with the head on the south end formed by what’s called Garganta de Diablo: the Devil’s mouth. This horseshoe-shaped falls is the Niagara end: an enormous torrent of water that pours over a cliff and thunders down 400 to 500 feet. The movie The Mission was filmed near Iguazu, and the falls play a prominent role, including a couple of scenes where hapless colonials fall screaming to their deaths into the open maw.

Extending north from the head of the fish are the ribs: ¾ mile of one cascade after another, falling down between the rocks, trees, and outcroppings, some sections arresting the fall temporarily on a small plateau, other sections falling straight down the high cliffs to the rapids of the lower Iguaçu River below.

At the advice of Jim and Shamim, who had visited the falls during their Argentine stay a few years ago, I had reserved a room in the Sheraton Iguaçu, the only hotel in the Argentine national park. Though the room wasn’t cheap—no surprise there—it was worth every Argentine peso.

To check into the hotel, one stands at the reception desk looking out a large window, across about a mile of jungle, to the full expanse of the falls. But my room on the hotel’s top floor offered even a better view. I could stand on my balcony (balconies are good things, I’m convinced) and see from the Garganta end all the way to the fish’s tail. The view was nothing short of spectacular. And the sound, even over a mile away, was still thunderous. They say the best view of the falls is from the Brazil side of the river, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Better still, I could walk to the edge of the nearest cascade in 10 minutes. From Brazil, only a boat or a wicked swim across white-water rapids would get you there.

From the Sheraton, one can take one of three routes to the falls. A train run by the national park (think the Disneyland train) runs every 15 minutes from the park headquarters to a trailhead that leads to the top of Garganta. Another trail, requiring only the ability to follow sign directions, leads via bridges and man-made walkways along the top of the fish’s spine. This is called the “high trail.” A third trail—the “low trail”—descends by steps and switchbacks down to the base of the fish’s tail then along a path to a boat ramp where zodiacs unload passengers from rides to and under the base of several falls.

I took all three trails and the boat ride during my 2-day stay in the national park. I can’t describe the feeling of staring down into the Devil’s mouth, walking along the top of the ribs, or walking down alongside the fish-tail cascade. And I certainly can’t describe the exhilaration of riding in a zodiac up the Iguaçu rapids and into—literally into—the falling waters of a rib. But I took many pictures, and though they can’t fully capture the experience either, they at least show the magnificence, the majesty, the beauty, the power of the place. My two days were filled with sounds, sights, and smells that I’ll never forget.

I also had a couple of nice meals with others from the ship who were either staying at or passing through the park—Dwight and Jane Alison and their two sons; Larry Silver, art history professor from Penn; Colin and Sandra White; Ann McDonald, our 93-year-old lifelong learner, oldest member of the community. I enjoyed watching the monkeys and coatimundis (ring-tailed cats) that roam almost tame around the park. And I managed to spend a few hours sitting at the Sheraton pool, where I enjoyed a couple of caipirinhas, the Brazilian answer to a margarita and surely the world’s greatest mixed drink. The internet at the hotel even extended to the pool, enabling me to have Skype calls with Haley and Corey, who just happened to be online. It also gave them a chance to wish me happy birthday on my 68^th. It’s true that life gets better past 40 and better still past 60.

I returned to Buenos Aires on what was supposed to have been a 9:30am flight Monday morning. The flight was 5 hours late due to some mechanical problems. I could have returned to the hotel to take advantage of the comforts and the internet, but the cost of the taxi and readmission to the national park—around $30, as I recall—made me resolve to stick out the wait at the airport. I got some reading done, including the entire Sunday NYTimes. Can’t remember when I’ve done that last.

I made it back to BA by 4pm and taxied to my hotel, the Pulitizer, in BA’s centro region. I had chosen it because of its location, its price, and, most of all, its free internet. The latter allowed me to spend the night of the 6^th—election night in the US—watching streaming coverage of returns on NBC while CNN Espanol was giving me the Spanish version on the hotel TV. Anne Lloyd was also online via Skype from her hotel room in Seattle, and she was watching CNN in English . . . of course. So between the hotel TV, the streaming NBC coverage, and Anne’s narration from Seattle, I enjoyed probably the best election night coverage I’ve experienced.

Of course, Obama’s reelection made the evening even better.

I spent Wednesday walking around BA, including a very interesting walking tour led by an Argentine guide who was both interesting and very informative. We went back to the Recoleta area, where the guide told us the history of some of the Victorian-era mansions built during the rubber boom and Argentina’s economic heydays in the early 20^th century. Most of these are now museums, condos, or embassies. But they’re still magnificent.

Wednesday evening, I took a 3-hour ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Montevideo, where the MV Explorer had arrived on Monday. My stay in Montevideo was unremarkable except for the 18 holes Jim and I played on the Alistair MacKenzie-designed Golf Club of Uruguay. Beautiful course; a few good shots; lots of fun.

We sailed away from Montevideo Thursday evening, with 2 days of classes facing us before our arrival in Rio de Janeiro.