Southern Seas pt. 2
I receive the opportunity very rarely to actually sit down and collect thoughts about whats gone on in the days since the last time I wrote about this deployment. Even while writing this blog entry and future ones, I’m in transit to yet another port on this cruise, most likely weeks after the last port I recalled in the prior posting. As of this entry I’m a third of the way through the first at-sea period thats greater than 5 days, one of the few to be exact.
Ports so far:
St. Lucia, East Caribbeans
Fortaleza, Brasil
Salvador, Brasil
Boy was Uruguay a relief from Brasil. After a short transit into the port of Montevideo, we did just what we normally do: take on all the stores we need, take out all of our trash, and take on fuel. Normally pulling in requires not only a few hours of navigation, but after we moor it also takes all hands to get everything done as quickly and safely as possibly so everyone can get out on liberty. This port we expected our second reception which went without a hitch. Coming down here as part of UNITAS, you find that a lot of very important people from all different branches and countries will pop out of the woodwork…its quite surprising that right now there are hundreds of just American personnel working hand in hand with countries you’d never even consider, just to make sure we not only understand each other’s future goals, but to work hand in hand to ensure peace and hospitality throughout our nations. At the end of the night we received many warm welcomes from brand new O-5’s from the Brazilian, French, Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, and even Coastie’s. Shaping up to be much cleaner than Brasil we took off straight from the gate in the typical government-rented vehicle to a spot not more than 15 minutes from the pier, in a nice little area filled with typical medium-sized commerce. My buddies and I stopped in a few internet cafes while meandering through the city, walking into little mom & pop shops looking to test the local goodies and pick up on some more conversational spanish lessons for free (?cuanto es?) . Much more similar to an American flea market than the one in Fortaleza, Uruguay had quite an amazing bizarre not more than 2 miles from the drop-off point. It was gigantic and wandered through a sloping area surrounding a school and within a pentagonal-gap park smack in the middle of high-rise housing. This place had commercial goods, baked goods, poultry, farms, and hand made items. Being that when I do get a change to get home, I like to do a few celebratory shots but there’s never a shot glass for us when I get home. Lo and behold I fold a really neat hand-made box about 6×5x4” box with a thin sheet of engraved metal on the top, inside were regular-sized shot glasses with a small wrapping of the same metal around the base with more awesome engravings. I also managed to find a ‘golfing hat’ much like old people and Irishmen wear. After taking another trip back to the boat, we regrouped and went back out, this time to sit and chat at home while enjoying the local produce. On the way back to the boat I passed by a Kensington store where a Ireland Premium jersey caught my eye, which I splurged for and spent around $100 usd. If I recall correctly the conversion rate was $1 usd = $20 pesos.
Punta Ignacio White was the resolution to a big problem our ship had. We originally were supposed to pull into an actual military base but had some kind of issue (way above my pay grade, I suppose). Punta (port, bay) Ignacio White is located a few dozen miles north of Buenos Aires in a place called Bahia Blanca which from our long transit through the channel into the actual bay (which took almost 12 hours) you could tell that while this area may not be a bustling center like you’d imagine most ports, I could place a lot of money on the level of importance on this place. From the smell you can definitely assume that large live stock were imported/exported there, as well as all types of foreign goods related to the agriculture industry. Since Argentina is known for their agriculture, more specifically their meats (I was unaware of this until we were actually mooring), my buddies and I decided that the first thing we’d do was find a steak house. Again our reliance on American culture (or the lack of culture, therefor being our culture) led us to believe you could just order a simple t-bone or sirloin. Nope. As we sat and waited for the gastogne we noticed that everyone in the building that was dining had ordered a buffet that started with a simple Ponderosa-type deal at the front of the building and ended with the hostess bringing a medium-sized fillet plate out filled with all sorts of cuts of different animals. For $13 (converted to American for ya), a buffet and about 4 pounds of meat to share with 4 people for $13 a head isn’t bad, so we of course dug in. We were able to decipher that there was blood sausage (apparently which is a delicacy down there), intestines from a really small animal, shoulder cuts, and testicles. I of course was daring enough to try the testicles (yes, yes I did) as well as the intestines and everything else. After the testicles I’ve yet to receive anymore dares, they just know I will.
The city was a gigantic layout much like the Flatts used to be in Cleveland. Everything revolved around a gigantic square that had numerous monuments, swingset areas, and vendors selling handmade goods. The city just seemed to carry on block after block, you’d could imagine downtown Cleveland and all the little bustling areas (or whats left of them) and take out all the residential and industrial sections inbetween…thats how I’d explain this area. Whats really neat about the way this area was is that the commercial sections weren’t littered and there was no large chunk separating the commercial from the residential save a random mom & pop. My liberty buddy Biggs and I had a blast walking around the city doing our normal mingling with the locals, we even taught a few of the people english at a sportswear store that I got my brother and myself matching Argentinian jerseys from. The second day of our liberty we made the cliché trip to the mall where I managed upon the Yerba Matte (a type of tea they drink thats really good, drank from a small gourd typically, or a more stable aluminum or wooden gourd-shaped bowl with a long metallic straw), and a Venado tactical blade to add to my accidental collection.
Leaving this port was a bit more of a drag than leaving the others. This port we really started to have fun and a few people managed to fuck up everything for us by getting into quite a load of trouble with the locals. Our future liberty is at a risk of being secured and the morale drained completely because of some assholes. Time is definitely flying by though while we’re at to sea, pulling into ports is putting quite a strain on people, and the general consensus is that even though its a blast while you’re on liberty in these ports we just want to move on and get our time done. Before I started writing the paragraph prior to this paragraph I received an email with a screenshot someone took of a counter they’d made using Microsoft Excel, we’ve officially passed 25% as of the 20th! With almost two weeks straight at sea, the crew is ready to push on and get to the Pacific (I’ll refer to it further on as Pac) side already.