San Diego to RI: completing the Circumnavigation of the globe

The sun rose over Mexico like every other sunrise we had seen for the past 11 ports.  It was beautiful, but this one was different.  The hug from former colleagues, now great friends was a little tighter and meant a little more.  We were entering our last port.   The end of a journey started 110 days prior.

We could see parents, family and friends holding banners, waving, and cheering on the dock.  Welcoming us back.  Students recognizing their parents and calling them on the phone.  Emotions were high.  Everyone had tears streaming down their face.

In the days before we had packed up all of our things, we had prepared for this day.  While packing you could hear the students reminiscing of where they bought a shirt, a dress, a hat, a back scratcher.  How they haggled with the vendors.  All of their stories now memories.  We placed all of our items outside of our door and they were collected and brought down to the belly of the ship to be brought out into the customs area for us.  We would then just identify our items as we cleared customs ourselves.

Though I would remain on the ship for an additional day, when we finally departed and cleared customs, I sat there with all of my things waiting for my friend Daoud to come pick me up.  He sent a friend to collect me, we loaded all of my luggage and bags and he drove me to Daoud's apartment in San Diego.  As I left the port I could hear my heart pounding.  I thought I was going to cry again, and just like that the ship was out of view and we were in a residential area.  Within the next few hours I was doing laundry at Doud's and repacking my luggage preparing to fly back to Providence.  The time flew by.

And just like that the next morning I was in line waiting to board my Southwest flight to Providence.  I arrived to Providence on Dec 17, 2009.  120 days after I had departed from my own house.  Left behind everything that I knew and was as familiar to me as my own hand.

Now here I was back again in the home I had grown up in, and though I looked the same, everything was different.  All of a sudden the world seemed so much smaller, and I knew that I wouldn't be here for too much longer.  Because there was so much more I wanted to see and explore, and I was going to continue to do so.

the longest trip home

the answer:  2554 miles
the question: the distance we traveled in 4 days to get to San Diego, from Honolulu Hawaii

these 4 days were the 2nd longest 4 days of my life, 2nd only to the 4 days I spent in pain with my back out, in Jamaica alone after Hurricane Dean.

The voyage around the world was amazing.  The experiences were once in a life time, the friends I made of colleagues are forever.  But at this point we all just wanted to be home.  There are only so many ocean views one can take.

Diamond Head in the background as we depart Honolulu, HI

stuck in paradise

From Honolulu, we traveled to Hilo, an island I had visited before.  While in Hilo I once again visited Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes on the planet, it has been erupting since 1983.  This would be my second tour of the volcano.  I went along to see some lava tubes and hear the tour and the story of Pele, the volcano goddess once again.

We returned to the ship excited for our departure in another day, only to find out that due to tropical storms in the Pacific Ocean, our ship would return to Honolulu and sit there for about 36 hours in order to let the storms pass.

For the 2nd time in my life, I was stuck in paradise.  I know your thinking, why are you complaining, I can think of worst places to be stuck in than 86 degree Honolulu, Hawaii.  I assure you I realize that, however after 100 days on this journey and being so close to being home, it was just "I wanted to get home"!  There I said it.

My extra day in Hawaii was really uneventful.  I spent it lazily laying on the beach taking in the sun and the air and the sounds of surf boarders and I appreciated another Hawaiian sunset.  Some of the more adventurist students went to the other side of the island to witness a once in a life time competition, A legendary big wave surfing contest, the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau, was held for the first time since 2004, waves had to reach a minimum of 40 feet in order to host this competition.  They came back to the ship enthralled with what they saw.  It was all just great.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1234047/Surfs-biggest-waves-years-come-Hawaii-North-Pacific-storm.html

Next stop San Diego.

There are 2 sides to every story

Like every other morning we arrived at a new port we woke up early and went up to the 7th deck to watch the sunrise over our new destination.  Though, this was slightly different.  We were home, well almost home.  We had arrived to our first US port in 4 months of travel and though thousands of miles from our destination we were back in the US.  This morning more than the usual  community members joined us to watch our re entry.  As the sun rose we were also surrounded by an unfamiliar sound.  The sound of people chatting on their cell phones, students, staff, faculty talking to family members letting them know we were almost home.

USS Arizona/Pearl Harbor

One of the sights that I visited while in Honolulu was Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona, its the other half of the story of World War I.  The attack of Pearl Harbor and bombing of the USS Arizona is what led to the US dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The USS Arizona still lies at the bottom of the Harbor and leaks oil, some 60 plus years after its 1177 passengers were entombed there.  The site is a solemn place, reminding me of my visits to Arlington cemetery and the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. 

We arrive to the monument and had to take a small boat out to the monument, a white marble structure that was built over where the Arizona lies.  

  As you enter the monument you see the flags of the states who's name sake battle ships were also affected. On the opposite side the flags representing Hawaii, the United States of America and the branches of the military.

 

 As you walk through there is space, in the middle a hollow for one to look down and see tropical fish among the wreckage, among coral that now covers the barely visible USS Arizona,

 and then the silent yet visible reminders in form of oil droplets or black tears, that something horrible happened and that there in fact are remnants below.

On the far wall, the list of names of those 1177 people who's lives were lost on that day in December 68 years almost to the day that I visited the Arizona

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Hiroshima

I am writing this entry almost 2 years after I visited Hiroshima.

On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 A.M. the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on this capital city.  Devastating it and the surrounding area.


I visited this city and saw first hand some of the monuments that still stand, a tribute to a day and time that should never be relived.


I also visited the Museum, dedicated to eradicating the use of atomic/nuclear weapons.  It was quite a site to see.  The images and stories of the people captured within are forever embedded in my mind.    Which is the primary reason it has taken me this long to write this post.  When as a human being you are exposed to the atrocities that have been inflicted on other human beings, in the name of your own rights it is hard to come to terms with it.  As a resident of the United States of America, it is an inheritance that I have fully been able to benefit from yet when faced with the responsibility to understand, It has been a hard pill to swallow.  War is not easy, and seeing first hand the decimation that took place in a country half way around the world was a bit much and still all too real.


I ramble so I will stop.  Here is more information on Hiroshima. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima

Mt. Fuji

This day we would travel for about 4 hours to  Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park to visit the tallest mountain in Japan; Mt. Fuji (3776 m or 12,388 feet).  If you have never been to a snow capped mountain up close then you can not understand how majestic it is to see.  As we were driving along the route it seemed as if all of a sudden the mountain just popped up out of no where.

By tour bus we would travel up the Yoshida route to the 4^th station 2305 meters (7562.3 feet or 1.4 miles) above sea level as close to the summit as we could get for the time of year we were visiting.  Our view of the summit was gorgeous, covered in snow, with the sun over top.  A slight wind would blow the snow causing a cloud effect.  

At this location there was a restaurant and a few shops to purchase souvenirs and a Shinto temple, from this location near the summit we could also view the mountain rage across the way, referred to as the Japanese Alps by our guide, this mountain range added to the vista.

As we left Mt. Fuji we would now go to Hakone and ride a cable car into the fog to catch another view of Mt. Fuji, however due to the fog we barely could see each other never mind any views.

Of course the fog cleared as we boarded the ferry taking us to the other side of one of the five lakes that surround Mt. Fuji.  This ride on the ferry also gave us some great views of Mt. Fuji within the mountain range, during sunset.  It was breathtaking and not even the chilly 40 degree weather deterred us from enjoying being outside.

Welcome to Japan, now be quiet

We arrived to Yokohama, Japan as with most other ports I met with ED on the outer deck to watch our entry into the port.  And watch one of the most amazing sunrises of the voyage.  

Is it any wonder the Japanese refer to their homeland as the Empire of the sun.  As the sun came up, we could see the majestic Mt. Fuji with a rose colored glow as the sun reflected its rays off the snow capped mountain.  As the ship pulled in to its birth we were met with Japanese drummers, mostly women, playing on large drums.   

We enjoyed this only for a few minutes as we were aware that the clearing of the ship in Japan was going to be a unique experience.  As a member of the Living Learning Team, it was our responsibility in most ports to assist with passport distribution and distribution of other important documents necessary for our shipboard community to travel within the country we were visiting.  In India we had to ensure each of our community members had a shore pass, as was the case in Vietnam.  If these documents (shore passes) were lost, than the person who they belonged to would not be able to leave for the ship for the duration of our stay.  This actually happened to a couple of students.

 In Japan the whole process of passport distribution and preparation to disembark was different.  Prior to our arrival in Yokohama as a team we were trained by the medical team to take the temperature of each of our community members, which was a requirement of the Japanese government.  The Japanese would quarantine any member that had an above average temperature, their prevention of spreading the H1N1 virus into their country. Once we arrived to Yokohama, the Living Learning Team was dispatched into the port terminal and given assignments.  Some were to direct students through immigration, others were to hand out their passports and custom forms in the terminal (this was usually done on the ship), and I was assigned the task of informing the members of our shipboard community the following:

“behind me you will collect your passport from another team member, as usual by you ship id number, you will then form a single line facing forward only and will be directed by another LLC to get through immigration, once you clear immigration, you will walk about 20 feet and clear customs, at that point you can wait in the terminal to re board the ship or leave the terminal, this must be done in complete silence.  Any questions you might have please direct only to a terminal agent.  Please remove your hats and sunglasses and again I remind you COMPLETE SILENCE”

I must have given those instructions 100 times at least.  Of course there were some people that objected to being quiet, I would remind them that we are here as guests and if they have questions about the guidelines they should address them with the Japanese officials.  The process took a few hours and finally our ship was cleared.  

Once we were clear I along with 4 of my colleagues headed into Yokohama on foot to get our train tickets for the Shinkansen which we would take two evenings later from Tokyo to Kobe.  On our way to the train station we passed Chinatown ( I thought to myself, damn a Chinatown in Japan, now I seen it all).  After we purchased our tickets, PL and I decided to walk to the ferris wheel and possibly go for a ride to get an arial view of Yokohama.

As we got closer to the ferris wheel the sun started to go down and it got a little colder and we realized we had no cash on us so opted out.  We walked through a mall and around the amusement park and then decided to head back to the ship, having had a full day of walking.  We very much enjoyed our personal tour of the Yokohama water front.  Tomorrow we were off on a tour of Mt. Fuji