Rio by Sunrise

This post is all pictures, few words. I woke up early again to see us arrive in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and it was absolutely worth it. This is what I saw:

Totally incredible and a sign of good things to come!!

Home sweet home...Argentina!

 After Cape Town we had a 13 day crossing to get to South America. It actually went much faster and smoother than we expected. I don't think either of us was really feeling cooped up at all, at least until the night before we docked in Buenos Aires when we finally saw land (Uruguay) for the first time in almost two weeks!

The morning we were supposed to dock in Argentina I was up super early to see us arrive. I was so excited that I was bouncing off the walls and all the other people up early on the ship were teasing me. It was worth getting up early because the last bit into port was beautiful! We got a wonderful sunrise...

 And figured out why the Rio de la Plata (River of Silver) is called by that name.

 The city looked particularly pretty with the early morning light bouncing off the buildings.

 I don't have a lot of pictures from our first two days in Argentina. On day one I had a field lab with my class. A field lab is essentially a class day in port, so I was in charge of leading my 20 students for 8 educational hours. We met up with Mempo Giardinelli, a very famous Argentine author and friend I met through UVA at the famous Cafe Tortoni. Then we took a city tour and had a wonderful tango class. My students were awesome and it was a very fun day.

The second night I set up a date night for Jason and I. A very popular thing in Buenos Aires these days is "puertas cerradas" - restaurants in someone's house. You make a reservation and then they give you an address and a time to show up. I made us a reservation at Casa Felix, and we had to be there at 9:30 on Wednesday night. It was way out in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and when we got to the address there was no sign or anything. We knocked and were let in to a beautiful courtyard and garden.

 This particular restaurant specialized in pescatarian and vegetarian food. Our first course was ceviche (raw fish) for Jason and the same dish made out of mushrooms for me. All of the courses were incredible, with flavor combinations we'd never tried before.

Blanc de Malbec wine

Gazpacho soup, northern Argentine indigenous people style

Mint and melon sorbet as a palate cleanser

Our main course - I had eggplant, Jason had fish

 Another highlight of our time in Buenos Aires was returning to our favorite pizza restaurant. They have great food and there are tons of cute old men having lunch together.

Future cute old man

 On the fourth day we gathered a group of faculty and staff and headed out of the city into the country. We visited the small town of San Antonio de Areco, the center of Argentine gaucho culture. The gauchos are sort of like American cowboys. We took a tour of the town and then headed to a ranch for our own day of being like gauchos.

Old-style bar and restaurant

Silversmith's workshop

Traditional gaucho hat - boina. I'm not sure it's really Jason's style

The church in San Antonio

When we headed to the ranch we were immediately taken to the horses and we all got to take a very nice ride. I don't have many pictures as my camera battery died, but trust me that it was absolutely gorgeous and the horses were very nice. Somehow Jason got put on pretty much the smallest horse they had while the little kids were on even bigger ones!

Cowboy Jason

After the riding we had a huge lunch with more meat than anyone could ever possibly finish. Everything was absolutely delicious and the company was also wonderful. After lunch we heard traditional gaucho music and saw a gaucho-horse whisperer work his magic.

Our wonderful group

Argentina was just as great as it has been in the past, and we didn't really want to leave. But it was time to head to Brazil!

Raptors, cheetahs, and Desmond Tutu

 Finally, our last day in Cape Town! I've tried to post this a hundred times but the internet on the ship hasn't been very good and every time I uploaded the pictures they wouldn't save. So here we go, almost a month later.

Our last day in Cape Town we signed up for a SAS trip called Animal Whispers. Our first stop was the Spier wine estate to check out the wild bird rescue and do some wine tasting.

The beautiful Spier estate

 The wild birds were even cooler than we imagined. The trainer had kites, buzzards, owls, and other birds of prey that had been injured. Some could be released later into the wild and others never would be released. The birds flew around, came when called, and landed right near us.

We got to hold Glory the owl.

No photos, please.

 They also had some dancing owls! When you played music near them they swayed back and forth to the beat. It was so cute!

Dancing owls!

 They also had some baby owls. This one was cute....

 And this one was terrifying!!

Demon owl!

 Jason's favorite bird was Goliath, who was in fact really big.

 Birds of prey rely a lot on sight, so if their eyes are closed it's as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. So that the nervous birds didn't freak out they make them tiny little helmets that cover their eyes. Then they stay totally calm, even when surrounded by many people.

Tiny bird helmet!

 The next stop was at the Cheetah Outreach, where we learned about cheetahs and got to pet one! They purr just like house cats and they shed like them too. It really was like petting Ricky or Lucy, but much bigger.

 After our program ended we headed back to the ship to meet our very special guest, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu!! He's a big supporter of Semester at Sea and has sailed with the program before. Faculty and staff got to meet him at a private reception before he talked to the students. He was incredibly inspiring but also really funny. His laugh was amazing!

Me and Desmond Tutu

Jason and Desi :)

South Africa was absolutely amazing. Next came 13 days of crossing the Atlantic!

Penguins at the End of the World

Days 3 and 4 in Cape Town were great ones. One of our friends on the ship rented a beach house in Fish Hoek, a small town about an hour from central Cape Town by train. We spent a fun day and night there swimming at the beach, hanging out, and taking advantage of having good wifi! The house was a palace and had absolutely gorgeous views.

View from the house during a moment of clouds and fog

The next morning we were lucky enough to go with another friend who had rented a car on a crazy adventure. First we heading south towards Boulder Beach, home of the African penguins.

There were a series of boardwalks that led you to the penguins. We got really excited a first when we saw one or two penguins in the bushes or a bit further away.

There are some tiny penguins in those bushes. And a great view behind Jason.

But we quickly realized that they were just the warmup for the main attraction. Further down there were dozens and dozens of the little critters! They were adorable, sleeping, waddling around, going for a swim, and grooming each other. It was pretty clear that penguins mate for life because they were all hanging out in twos.

Our best penguin impression.

After enjoying the penguins we continued to head south to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We stopped to take some pictures and met a baboon ranger. Baboons are a huge problem in the region because they desperately want human food, are very smart, and can get aggressive. They can open car door and will climb in through windows.

We enjoyed the views....

And learned baboon avoidance tips

We finally made it to Cape Point, the most southwest part of Africa. It's really only about the latitude of Buenos Aires, but it is the end of that continent.

We walked all over, climbed up to the lighthouse, and took lots of pictures.

The next two pictures were at Jason's favorite spot.

We also saw a family of baby dassies, the little creatures I saw on Table Mountain a few days before. It was a packed wildlife day!

Our last wildlife encounter of the day involved those baboons. On our way back north we stopped on the side of the road to look at the ostriches on an ostrich farm. I never realized how dinosaur-like they are up close!

 We're taking pictures of the ostriches and all of a sudden Jason yells "Baboon, get in the car, get in the car!"

 Megan and I have no idea how close the baboon is so we run to the car, jump in, and she's got it in drive before I'm all the way in. We then realize the baboon is all the way across the field. So we take some pictures, giggle uncontrollably, and now have a terrible fear of baboons.

Baboon and ostrich

 We then had a (nervous) lunch on the beach surrounded by signs warning us of baboons, went wine tasting, and headed back to the ship. It was an amazing day!