Archive for the ‘life’ Category
Southern Seas 2010
So far this deployment has gone without a hitch, and with only a few minor setbacks. We embarked April 5th on a 6 month deployment to carry out a mission to bring together the countries and territories within South America with us in the attempt to help each other strive for peace with our areas of responsibility throughout the world.
So far on this deployment we’ve stopped in St. Lucia, part of the East Carribeans, who welcomed us warmly and shared with us freely what others pay thousands of dollars to see. The island is absolutely beautiful from a few miles out while the lines were being prepared to moor, you can see all the upper-class cottages and resorts littered all over the mountain range as well as the bustling city center that lined the harbor we moored to. At the time of our visit the tourism season was over, which meant a lot of the resort-areas were in repair or construction and the shops that most of us sailors were looking for (wifi shops, local food markets, bars) were closed down. In countries like these, the service isn’t anywhere like the service in America. Here the service is for the people that own the shops, not the consumer. You grab your own menu, food, and bring up your own check. Surprisingly so the exchange rate here was around $EC 2.00 = $1.00 USD, everything was dirt cheap and came in large portions than they normally would back home.
Our second stop was Fortaleza, Brasil. Even when the radar has only just recently picked up the shore, we’re on deck with our lines watching as the shoreline grew and grew. The area reminds me a lot like Washington, D.C. In which the buildings are limited to a certain height, in Fortaleza the buildings are still relatively tall but they all seemed to max out around 12 stories. The population according to the government there was only about 3 million, but the size of the city could easily hold 3 times that much. This area had a very sharp line where the high-level of commerce snapped into the slums (only took a single city block), although it seemed as though all classes mingled freely in all areas. Directly off the beach before the main strip there was a large bizarre that carried on after sunset, much like something you’d see at any flea market. At a certain time you could see dozens of vendors with their pull-carts (think of the same thing you’d see a donkey pull, without the donkey) start all merging into there little plots on the boardwalk, its an interesting way these people make and break each day.
Salvador, Brasil was our third port, and it was damn sure interesting. The tide was low and the weather was beautiful, no clouds at all. The weather is an interesting thing when you’re this close to the equator, regardless of how much cloud cover you have the sun’s rays still can burn you in a matter of minutes and the rain is as random as can be. This port was scheduled as a working port leaving us quite a bit low in morale, but a little ass busting gets anything done in a timely manner. I managed to get my liberty Thursday and enjoyed every minute of it. The ice cream so far in these countries is phenomenal, its truly interesting to see how all these different places to things so differently yet the idea is all the same. The exchange rate here, as was in Fortaleza, was $R 1.47 = $1.00 USD, allowing us to spend a little bit more than back in St. Lucia. This being a very high-crimed area, we were advised to stay where ever our ship-sponsored transport took us, and not to wander far. Fortunately on the way to these spots are normally always a wifi shop and the price is normally decent (here its $R 4.00).
Gearing up for a night on the trail
After an failed attempt at using my old flint stick while I was at the Black Creek Conservation Area, I decided to restock with a more competent stick that I found at Black Creek Outfitters (yeah, its come to be my favorite place to go and peruse around – the women working there are all adorable and the stuff is really useful).
Given how long it took me to chisel the mud and re-polish my boots, I decided to get a more comfortable pair of actual hiking boots (and not my bdu boots) for the trail. Timberland had a nice deal at dick’s on their Conway Trail Mids, they’re comfortable and keep you warm and dry, which is all a guy can ask for.
In regards to the most epic show ever played at the Hampton Coliseum, I managed to locate the show on the ever-so useful Internet Archive, I recommend taking a gander at the darkstar and scarlet begonias.
Black Creek Ravines
Awesome little place to hike. Took me a while to locate the place thanks to a few misguiding directions provided by google. Florida isn’t like Virginia when it comes to hiking, everything is either sandy/marshy/desert with the guaranteed bonus of absolutely not serious grade of elevation. I managed to pack lighter than I was hoping, and left my water supply back in my car (didn’t realize it until about 4 miles into the hike). The path had a very nice sand-covered path with a bit of marshland towards the camp site area, and the path switched back and forth between clear and covered which allowed you to not freeze and stay away from over heating.
Me being from the north I’m definitely not familiar with anything other than the random armadillo I saw casually strolling about on my return hike, so the vegetation was something that kept my mind wandering. The camp site was extremely secluded, with only one path to get to and from it made it exceptionally peaceful while I sparked a fire and relaxed.