Days 3-6...?

Although it doesn’t seen like it, we’ve actually spent the last 3 days sailing. I feel like I’m in a floating time warp and I can’t really remember what happened on Monday. The other day (or was it today?) a man asked me, in all seriousness, what month it was. I actually had to stop and think…here I am on vacation, wearing a bathing suit, it cannot possibly January. The only time I’m concerned with is making it to the Lido before they stop serving breakfast, which I have yet to do anyway. I mean, 10am is not a time teenagers are familiar with if they have any say in what’s going on.

Tuesday however, I remember because we traveled through the Panama Canal, which was an interesting experience. Now it’s time for another Claire history lesson, meaning it will be no more than several sentences. Anyway, the Panama Canal is a man-made shortcut connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The French started building it in 1880, but sold it to America in 1904 because they suffered many deaths due to yellow fever and malaria. Back then, they believed malaria was caused by bugs climbing up the bedposts and into the beds at night. To avoid this, the workers put buckets of water under their bedposts. Today, we are aware that stagnant pools of water attract mosquitoes, which spread malaria, so the buckets of water only created a bigger problem.

The Americans were faced with a pretty tough project when they continued working on the canal. They thought of this pretty sweet idea of digging a passage from either ocean to a central lake (Gatun Lake) and creating a series of locks that would raise ships into the lake and then eventually lower them back into the ocean. All together, the water in the locks raises and lowers 85 feet. This is done by damming water within the locks and using the power of gravity to transfer it. The canal was a success and it opened in 1914, hooray!

I witnessed the ship moving from the Pedro Miguel Locks to the Miraflores Locks. I was hoping it would be kind of like Splash Mountain in Disney World when we dropped into the next lock, but it only appeared so for a few minutes. Then the water lowers to match the water in the next lock so there is a smooth transition.

I also went a lecture on Tuesday. The man, Hallam Murray, talked about how he biked from LA all the way down the coast of South America to Tierra del Fuego, about 17,000 miles! He managed to score some Kevlar tires from the government, which took him through the tough conditions of the Andes. He said his most valuable possession beside food and shelter was a bottle of flea powder for when he stayed with the locals.

Wednesday….yesterday. I went to another interesting lecture called “Adopted by my Father’s Killer”. Steve Saint, the man giving the lecture, grew up in Ecuador where his parents were missionaries. Saint’s father and 4 other missionaries were killed by the native Waodani Indians. Saint and his mother were later invited to live with the Indians as an apology. A book and a movie called “End of the Spear” were made from his experiences. When the movie premiered in NYC, Saint took one of his Waodani friends. The best part was when he showed footage of them in Central Park with their 9-foot blowguns trying to shoot squirrels.

Ok, who was the anonymous jokester that wants me to write more about my mother?! This blog is clearly for those wanting to know where I am. This is not ‘Where’s Claire’s Mom?’ Haha, well I guess I could give you a little update on her and my dad too. At the unheard of hour of 8am they both wake up and go to yoga and then go swimming after that. They tired calling me a few times to join them, but I think they gave up on that. “What? Where am I? No, I don’t want to go swimming, it’s barely light out yet.” I do meet them for breakfast occasionally and sometimes lay out on the deck with my mother, but she likes to bother me so the time spent there depends on how fast she falls asleep.

My dad has been pretty busy with his class. He had 30 people sign up and they’re all very eager to start writing. The class was scheduled to be once a week, but his ‘students’ insisted they have it more often. A few people already turned some of their work into my dad and so far he says it looks promising. My dad and I are also taking a French class so I see him everyday at 3 and then him and my mom walk like a million and a half laps around the deck but I usually just go to the gym. Then I don’t see them again until dinner, I think they nap.

Today we are once again at sea, we actually just crossed the equator. I think there is an equator-crossing party going on up on deck right now. We pretty much have parties for everything around here, it’s basically one big party. Prep for college, I suppose ;) Tomorrow we will dock in Guayaquil, Ecuador and stay there overnight. I’m finally caught up on my blog, this calls for a party!