The Last Day of 2010

I woke up this morning, rolled over on my bunk and peered out of the porthole to my left. The sun was rising, the clouds pink. I’m on the Sørlandet, the ship that has been my home for the last 4 months. I was deep in reflection on my year of 2010 even before breakfast at 0730.

This year has been crazy. It started with my resolution to better myself as a person. I began setting goals about working out every day and eating healthy. I began reading more books on natural medicine. I saw a naturopath and changed my outlook on health and wellbeing. I became a vegetarian. I started to see my friends more often, and became aware of the importance of staying in touch with people who are important to me. I let people know that I cared about them.

I had resolved last year that my goal would be to work aboard a ship with the program Class Afloat. Then on February 17^th, the day before my birthday, the Concordia, Class Afloat’s flagship, sank off the coast of Brazil unexpectedly. To everyone’s shock and amazement, all 64 passengers were alive. The stories that came out of it on the news encouraged me further to be a part of the program. Not knowing whether the program would continue or not, my itch for something new was far too great to wait.

So, Richard and I planned a 2 month excursion to South America. A couple weeks prior to departure, I received an email asking if I was still interested in being a part of Class Afloat. They had just found a new ship and were preparing to start sailing and beginning a new school year in September. After about an hour’s telephone interview and a week’s worth of waiting, I was told I got the job. I was to be the Medical Officer onboard the Sørlandet starting at the end of August. I headed back to my work, spoke with my boss, and added 5 more months to my leave of absence.

Richard’s and my adventure began on the 6^th of July.
started in Cusco, Peru where we volunteered for a few weeks with an organization called Globalteer. We worked with orphanages teaching the kids there about general knowledge on geography, Canada, and feminine hygiene (the highlight there was that I taught them how to put on a condom – using fresh plantain bananas from the jungle). The struggle lay in translation as none of the kids could speak English, and I certainly cannot speak Spanish. We’d take the kids on hikes up to the temple of the moon, an Incan Ruin based on the top of a mountain in the middle of the Andes. We’d spend afternoons there, participating in a yoga retreat, and baking traditional potatoes in a stone oven we made out of clay rocks we found around the site. One day we went to a small village called Ccorca, about an hour’s drive into the middle of nowhere. There was a school there. We spent our day working with 7 year olds who were learning Spanish and speaking the ancient language of the Incas. We taught them how to use computers. They began with the basics; how to use a mouse. They played shooting games to improve their hand-eye coordination and get the feel of moving the mouse around the screen. After they had their fill, they would go back outside to chase after the chickens. Then they would move on to their next lesson: practicing their marching for the upcoming marching competition at Plaza De Armas – the centre square of Cuzco.

After our Glabalteer adventure, we took a few days away and retreated into the Jungle. We flew to a small town called Mauldonado where we were picked up by a bus that drove us for about an hour to the edge of the Tambopata River. There we boarded a river boat which guided us through the murky water past several other riverboats overloaded with bananas and mangos and pineapples. We spent three nights in the Jungle. We took a night walk into the woods and saw some creepy crawlies that only come out after sunset. We hiked long distances to lakes that were quickly drying up – ones that in 50 years will be a part of the jungle, absorbed by vegetation.

Then we flew back to Cuzco for one last hurrah with our friendly volunteer companions and our ‘house mother’ Mila. We then met up with a group of about 15 people from around the globe (mostly England) to embark on our 26 day Gap adventure tour of Inca Ruins such as Sacsayhuaman and Machu Picchu. We also saw ruins of a whole different civilization named the Tiahuanaco.
This site was still under excavation, and standing there, where so much was being revealed about these people who had been alive and prosperous for longer than the Incas, was incredible!

We traveled by bus through Peru, we walked the Lares Trek to Machu Picchu and drove through the Sacred Valley. We entered Bolivia, spent some time in La Paz, biked down Death Road, navigated the waters of Lake Titicaca and stood on the reed islands there. Then we headed to Chile. Now, the story gets interesting here because our route was actually supposed to take us through Pototsi and then to the Bolivian Salt Mines. But, at the time, there was civil unrest due to unfair pensions and union benefits to the Silver and Salt miners. The unrest made it difficult for tourists to enter Pototsi; there was violence. Food wasn’t being brought into the town either, the traffic was backed up for miles, tourist buses were being pummelled by stones and some tourists and drivers hadn’t eaten in days. So, our tour group decided to go a different way. We headed to the west coast of Chile. We took a night bus to Iquique,dipped our toes in the Pacific, and had a big barbeque at our hostel. That night, we heard the riots in Pototsi had resolved and we had been cleared to head back to Bolivia.

Eventually we got to the Salt flats. We drove through the Atacama Desert, slept in a salt hotel and took some wild photos of us on the salt flats of Bolivia. Then we continued on our journey to San Pedro De Atacama, a small town in Chile where we sand boarded down the dunes there. Then we continued driving and got to Salta, Argentina. We did a few wine tours, stayed in a nice hotel and continued to Buenos Aires, our last stop in South America. After attending a Traditional Tango show, we slept well before our long journey back to Victoria.

We landed in Victoria where I spent about 10 hours visiting with family and friends, doing laundry and re-packing, and then I boarded a plane to Germany the next morning.

And now I live on this ship. We started in Norway, sailed the North Sea to France, traveled to Portugal, docked in Spain, sailed the med to Italy, arrived safely in Morocco, spent 10 days volunteering with an organization called the west Africa initiative in Senegal, re-fuelled in Cabo Verde and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reached Trinidad, spent Christmas anchored off the coast of Tobago and now we sail again, on our way to Columbia.

But wait! Here I am. On the last day of 2010 – I woke up, rolled over to look out of my port hole to the vast Caribbean Sea, went down to eat freshly fried plantains for breakfast and there was Chantalle, she said “Christina, I need to show you something on deck”. I followed her to the main deck and she pointed into the distance, and burst out laughing. I followed her outstreched arm and looked in the direction she was pointing and in the far distance I could see a shape… It is a lighthouse… we have anchored near it. Our plan for the day?

Swim and beach call on a deserted island. Come back aboard to have freezies on the main deck, dress fancy, start a dance party in the Banjer at 10, and drink tang on the main deck at midnight. What a fantastic way to end an unbelievable year!