Second day in Savador

        My second day in Salvador was as amazing as the first. The first thing that we did was go to the magnificent local market. This market was nothing like our kinds of supermarkets, for the markets in South America have a way different meaning. This one had tons of different kinds of fruits, from giant bananas to tiny green umboos. The only thing that this market had that was different from the one in Belem other than it had a roof, was that it had lots of fish. And not just fish, lots of sea animals fresh from the 32 island bay that Salvador is by, such as blue crab, octopus, shark, overgrown lobster, squid, and huge shrimp. It was an amazing array of delicious sea animals. The main reason we went to the market was that so our tour guide could show us what ingredients we would be using in our later cooking class, but we decided to buy some local fruits also. After we were done with the market, we drove in our bus to a older woman's house. We were there for a cooking class, for her son and daughter (who lived with her) were excellent cooks. After our delectable Brazilian meal of fish, salad, rice, and pumpkin, we followed the owner of the house down to her studio. She was an amazing artist, with a very interesting style of painting. She would make layers and layers of different colors of lines going every way possible. She said that she worked on these paintings on any free time she had, and I knew that was true. The whole studio was filled with paintings that she had done, and so was the house. Every single chair and table had this style of painting all over it. I was amazed at how much work she had done in this house, not to mention all the paintings she had sold to people, places, and even huge companies like Mercedes Benz! Of course everything was very expensive, so I only got a small box that she had painted. I loved going to this interesting house, and I hope I can learn how to paint that well. Today I arrive in Buzios, and I bet it will be just as cool as Salvador.

Salvodor

        I have been on the ship for twelve days now and I just finished with my second port of call: Salvador. Salvador is the third largest Brazilian city, based around the second largest bay in the world, All Saints Bay. Because of previous slavery, 78% of the whole population is African American. This makes Salvador's culture very interesting and different from most of Brazil. On our first tour, which was two days ago, we went to an African American school. This school was much different from any other schools in this poor neighborhood because all the other schools didn't focus very much at all on real academics such as math, reading, and writing. Instead, their heroes were samba dancers, drummers and futball (soccer) players, for that is what the schools mostly taught. This school tried to let students know about famous African American architects, engineers, writers, and docters. It sounded like I would want to go to the other schools at first, but then I learned the reason why the school I visited taught more academics like schools in the US; even though the kids in the other schools might be better dancers or futball players, they are the ones who usually turn out to be homeless! And trust me, that neighborhood did not need any more homeless people. The 1,500 student school that I visited still learned more music than in the US, but that is because of culture. Fortunately our tour in the school ended right as a large class of African Americans started their music class. The tour guide let us watch the wonderful show and the teacher of the class let us be in it! My brothers and I chose a drum to play. Then the kid that was playing the instrument before showed us a rhythm to play. Somehow the rest of the class adjusted to my style of playing and we played an awesome song all together! The 8-year-old who's instrument I was playing came up to me after the song and asked in his accent, "Me name is?" It took me a while to figure out what he meant, but finally I replied, "Mason". He smiled from ear to ear when he discovered he had said the words right. (Or almost right!) After I was done drumming, I got off of the stage and was given a shirt to remember the giant school by. I walked out, listening to the drummers, knowing that these students wouldn't turn in to the homeless beggers that waited outside.
        Later that day, our tour guide led us into a building and up onto the roof. There was a bunch of muscular men waiting for us. Apparently we were about to see an African American martial art, Capoeira. It was so amazing. The moves that they were doing were more advanced than in movies! They could do standing front flips and backflips, sideways one-handed handstands, cartwheels into front flip 360s, and much more. I was amazed when they asked me to come up with them and dance also. One man taught me how to do this round house kick. I wasn't at all as good as them, but I did pretty well considering my competition! Unfortunately, we had to leave eventually and go to a samba drum class. Of coarse I was already pretty pro at drumming from my earlier experience at the school, so it was really interesting and fun. The only bad thing was that by the end of the class I had bruises on my hands from hitting the drum!
        Salvador is a very interesting place to visit, just wait until I tell you what happened yesterday! I had a great time there and I hope I can go again.

Life at sea

Although you you may think that life at sea is much different then life on land, it is similar in many ways. It  does have its differences, good and bad, but that is why many people sail around the world like I am now. For example, have you ever woken up to the sound of a thousand flying fish flittering right below your balcony? I don't think so, and if you have on land you might consider yourself crazy. The last four days I have been on the ship, we have been "at sea". (Not parked at a dock.) That is a pretty long time to spend rocking in the waves. This unique ship offers a lot to do during these times, so we are not at all bored.

Morning:
In the morning we usually do schoolwork (Each day I hope my parents forget to assign anything). Every day is different, usually depending on the last tour that we did. Of course we have to do math also, which has nothing to do with the port of call. My favorite project is one that we are working on right now. A very nice and interesting man that is on the ship named Jorge gave us a magnificent book all about the gems of Brazil and South America. He is on the ship for buisness. The international marketing directer for the gem company of H. Stern is a big job. I have to take notes on each of the phenominal gems in the interesting book, and I love doing it. Most of the school work that we do on the ship is fun, and I am glad I am able to get great experiences like Jorge.

Afternoon:
The afternoon is where all the real fun starts. There are all kinds of amazing activities to do, such as pool, paddle tennis, ping pong, swimming, golf, and much more. I do all sorts of things with my two brothers, and sometimes games like pool and tennis get pretty competitive. A lot of the time somebody will come on the ship and give talks about different topics (Such as Meg Lowman). We go to all of those because they are both extremely interesting and educational.

Night:
At night is when we usually go out to the wonderful restaraunts on the ship. There are strict rules of dress code. No flipflops! No shorts at night! Women must wear dresses at night! Men must wear nice jacketsat night! See, those rules are even worse then school! The ship's library has over a thousand movies to pick from, and sometimes the crew members will even show it in the movie theater. They only can do this because there are only 39 guests on the 300 guest ship, so not many people want to watch any movies.

Guama river expedition

On the second day that we were at Belem,we went on a river expedition in the Guama river. The Guama is a tributary off of the Amazon river. As we sailed down,we could see many native Indian houses right by the river. All of the houses had stilts to hold them up from high tide. We pulled up at a dock eventually, and went exploring in the rain forest. There were many kinds of plants and fruits throughout the rain forest like a rubber tree, a leaf that felt like plastic (Indians used it as tin foil for cooking.), giant frawns, and much more. We got to see how the natives made charcoal, by putting two holes in a termite mound and sticking wood inside. They would then burn the wood but the hole in the top would prevent it from turning to ash. They also used termite farms for ovens the same way. The rain forest is a very interesting place where any living things thrive. I was so lucky to be able to see such a famous one, and I hope that more people will come and see the amazing phenomenon. Then they will maybe stop and think what they are destroying and ruining.

Belem, Brazil

Yesterday we travelled to the amazing, beautiful city of Bele on the east coast of Brazil. The interesting authentic architecture placed among the giant city is very different and interesting, (The population is about 2.5 million people.) and surrounding rain forest is truly breathtaking. There are many amazing tourist sites that attract people of all ages. On our tour, we visited the market place, the "zoo", the bird aviary, the butterfly habitat, and the very old church. The unique market place is one of the biggest in the world, and you can find almost anything there. I would guess at least 100 different kinds of fruits are there, and many kinds of natural soaps, medicines, and perfumes from the rain forest. It smells wonderful, all these different fruits, nuts, grasses, leaves, vegetables and other substances, packed in one place. Some fruits were tart, like the cherry-like fruit that has 20 times the vitamin C of an orange. The sweet mango I tasted was only one of the 25 species of mango in the Amazon rain forest. The zoo we visited was very interesting.lack It was set up like a rain forest, and it had all kinds of exotic trees and plants right over the walkway. Rain forest animals such as crocodiles, a sloth, turtles, jaguars, monkeys, and more were spread out all over the zoo. It really gave me an idea of what the rain forest looked, smelled and felt like in real life.The bird aviary was phenominal. It had rain forest birds of all different colors, shapes, and sizes. There was one bird that depending on the amount of crab they ate, the more red the beautiful birds were. Some of these birds were a deep shade of blood red, but some were almost white. A kind of duck had a black and white polka dotted head. At the butterfly habitat, there were many kinds of colorful butterflies, flitting around and occationally landing on you. The last place we went to in Bele was the old church built a very long time ago. (See picture.) As you can see, Bele is a very interesting city with many things to see and do.

Margaret Lowman (Rainforest scientist)

        I have been on the ship for three days, and other then some minor sea sickness, it has been fun and interesting. Once in a while a scientist or explorer will come and give lectures (talks) to the passengers. The scientist this time was Margaret (Meg) Lowman. She was the first scientist/explorer in the world to study the canopies of rain forests. This interesting woman specializes in the study of leaves and how bugs eat them. Since leaves can't run away from bugs that are eating them, leaves have chemicals in them that bugs don't like. Meg looks for certain leaves that haven't been eaten by bugs, and when she finds them, that means that that certain kind of leaf has strong chemicals to keep bugs away. Those chemicals can be processed and turned into medicines and other products.
        Another thing she does is help native tribes and people to understand the great importance of rain forests. Her association has built over 25 bridges/walkways around the world in the canopies of rain forests so that people can go up there and study and learn about their forests. Almost nobody has taken the time and money to learn about the rain forest. In fact, humans know more about the soil on the moon than the soil in rain forests! That is what the Tree Foundation (Margaret Lowman's association) is trying to improve.
        We missed her first lecture because of a weird time change, but she was nice enough to give us a private talk! It was very interesting and fun to learn about. Did you know that more than 50% of all living things live and thrive in canopies? Its completely true. Anyway, she talked a lot about deforestation and the causes of it all over the world. People think that they can cut down these beautiful and important forests, but that is a huge mistake. About 80% of original forests are gone, and that huge number is rapidly rising. 32 million acres of forest are cut down every year, and less than half of that is planted back. Madagascar has lost 95% of their forests, and West Africa has lost 90% of their forests due to illegal logging. In fact, illegal logging isn't just a problem in Africa, the percentage of lost rain forests is both sad and disappointing: 90% in Cambodia, 75% in Indonesia, 80% in Bolivia, and even more in some places.
        Some people wonder what is so good about rain forests, and there are a million things that rain forests do for us. Rain forests can provide many ecosystem services to us, such as medicines, climate control, energy, oxygen, carbon storage that offsets air pollution, building materials, homes to many people and animals, water cycles, soil conservation, and much more. On top of all that, the carbon dioxide level all over the world is rising rapidly due to lack of oxygen, because of deforestation. (Trees provide oxygen, so the more trees that get cut down, the less oxygen we have!)

Meg's Websites:
www.canopymeg.com
www.jason.org
www.neoninc.org