China, Japan, and Home

We had fun in China.We visited the old part of Shanghai. Our ship was docked in Shanghai. We went up the Pearl Tower and walked on a glass floor! We saw our ship from up above! We also went to the Shanghai zoo and saw red pandas and giant pandas. We  had a traditional tea tasting. Our favorite tea was the fruit tea called the kid's teas. We saw the longest underwater tunnel in the world at the aquarium and there were fish all over.
We also flew to Beijing for a quick trip and saw the Forbidden City. We visited Tienanmen Square, too. Then we went to the Great Wall of China and we tobogganed down it! It was really fun!  The Great Wall of China was gigantic!  

We loved China!!!  2 days later we were in Japan.

We docked in Kobe, Japan. We explored Kobe on the first day. Kobe was really quiet- we walked around and tried some cool food.  We even tasted horse.  It tasted better than I thought it would. The next day we took bullet train to Tokyo. The bullet train went really fast and it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to Tokyo. We checked into a hotel and had dinner.  We tried Japanese short rib beef. It was good. The next day we went on a tour. Out first stop was a temple.  Then we went to the Sky Tree Tower and took the elevator to one of the tallest points of the tower. We saw all of Tokyo. The third stop of our tour was the Pokemon center. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!  Then we had lunch. At lunch we tried Green Tea ice cream and it was kind of good.  We tried some sushi that looked like roast beef but later Papa told us it was horse!! The last stop of the tour was the Shrine. We saw old trees and I saw an elephant shape in one of the trunks.  The park was almost 100 years old.  

We liked exploring Japan. We said goodbye to Papa and traveled home.  We will miss all our friends on the ship but are excited to see all our friends in Miami again.  

Thanks for following our travels. 

Vietnam Days

We got to Vietnam on November 14.  We stayed in Ho Chi Minh City the whole time.  It is a really big city.  We've been here before.  It has gotten a lot bigger since last time.  It was hot and humid like back in Miami.  There were people on mopeds and motorcycles everywhere!

We met up with some friends of ours who sailed on Semester at Sea before.  Gary and Rebecca Oliphant.  They were really nice to us and we gave them lots of hugs.

We went up to the top of the tallest building. It was very high up and we could see the whole city.  We also tried a new flavor of ice cream up there - Young Rice Ice Cream.  It was very yummy.  Later on we tried some other new food called Pho.  It was like soup with noodles and meatballs and something called sprouts.  It was really good- especially the noodles.  We used chopsticks for the first time, too.

We went to a tailor and each of us got a suit made.  It was very inexpensive but a very nice suit.  Julian got a foot massage when Mama got a pedicure.  It looked ticklish.  That night we went to Water Puppet Theater.  It was super fun.  We got to see the people who made the puppets move at the end of the play.

On the day before we left, we got to make a video call to our classes back in Miami at the Cushman School.  It was fun to see and speak to everyone.  I got a little home sick and really miss my friends back home.  We get to go home in 2 weeks and say hi to everyone.  But Papa will stay on the ship all the way to San Diego.

Check out this VIDEO  Papa made of our time in Vietnam. 

China is next.  I am really excited about seeing the Great Wall.

Talk to you soon!

Minglabar from Myanmar

We spent a couple of days in Yangon, Myanmar. We went on a bus a visited a market in town. We bought "longyis".(The traditional  outfit of Myanmar).  It is like a long skirt. It is what most men wear here.  We visited the Shwedagon Pagoda. It is like a large temple. The pagoda is covered in gold. It is really cool.  

Most people in Myanmar believe in Buddha. One of the days we went on a train with a guide.  The train went all around the city in a big circle. We got to see what it was like to live in Yangon.   We went to a big market where they sell lots of fruits, vegetables and fish. There were lots of people and in some places it smelled really fishy. 

We also visited the zoo. We got to see see lots of animals. We saw 3 white tigers and some hippos. We got to feed some elephants.There are wild elephants living in Myanmar, but they are endangered. They say there are only 2 thousand wild elephants left. There are some people that are  trying to help them. 

Papa made a video of our time in Myanmar- you can see it by clicking HERE

Our next stop is Vietnam. We will talk to you soon. 

India and The Maldives

We docked in a place in India called Kochi. When we got off the ship we went to a ferry to take us to the city center.  We rode around in crazy cars called TukTuks.  I bought a book about Gandhi so I could do a report for school.  We walked around the city a little.  It was really busy and fun.

The next day we went to the Maldives.  Papa needed a vacation and we wanted to be in a country we had not visited before.  We took a little plane and then a sea plane.  The island was paradise.  We got to play in the water and it was warm.  There was a couple of baby sharks that lived right outside our hotel room.  They were black-tip sharks- Papa said they weren't dangerous. 

We also danced a lot when they had a band playing music.  The singer said I was the best dancer on the island.  Papa went scuba diving one day and said it was amazing.  We went snorkeling and looking for Whale Sharks.  We swam with one but we couldn't see it - it was really deep.  The guide took a picture of it, though.  We will try to swim with Whale Sharks again some day. 
We did get to see lots of cool fish.  And on the last day we went on jet skis and saw a lot of dolphins.  They were swimming all around us- I got to go in the water with them- it was very cool.  We head to Myanmar next.  It used to be called Burma.  Talk to you soon!

Exploring Cape Town, South Africa

We spent 5 days in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Cape Town was really fun. We went up to the top of Table Mountain. We bought a book that taught us a lot about the animals that live on Table Mountain. There are 100 different animals that live or lived on the mountain.Sadly, many of the animals are extinct. We took a cable car to the top of the mountain. 

We docked at the waterfront. The waterfront has lots of different shops and restaurants. We went to see penguins and seals. It was fun. The penguins at Boulder Beach started coming in 1982.The South African Penguin is endangered. We went on a boat to go to Seal Island, but we had to stay on the boat because it is illegal to stand on the island. The seals ate squid and fish. 

We went and visited the townships. Before 1994 only black people lived in townships.They had no electricy before 1994. We visited the the Langa Township. We ate a restaurant there called Mzansi and people from all over the world go to eat there. We got to play the Marimba and we learned a dance called the Pata Pata. We also visited an after school program called Happy Feet in the same township. The kids taught us how to dance and clap. We also played soccer with them. 

We thought it would be cool to make a video of the stuff we did for this blog and to show our class back home.  Papa helped us with putting it together but we wrote it all up and chose the pictures.  We hope you like it.  We loved Cape Town and want to go back really soon!

HERE is the video.

Since You've Been Ghana

Hello from the Atlantic Ocean.  We just left Ghana a few days ago. Ghana was fun but hot.  We went to a hotel in a place called Akosombo which is north of where we docked, Katie, our teacher, went with us. We played baseball and soccer. We made a local friend that played soccer with us. Julian's team beat us in soccer 2-0. The local guy was really good! There was also another friend who was having a birthday and we sang to him and his group.  They really liked us and were very nice. We will see them when we come back to Ghana one day.

We liked the food, I tried fried plantains and they were yummy. Papa had some stuff called Red Red which looked like arroz y frijoles back home.  He liked it a lot and put hot sauce on it which he said made it even better.

  The hotel was right on the river, near the Akosombo Dam that powers almost all of Ghana. We drove to see the view of the dam. We also learned that the bees in Ghana are STINGLESS!  We headed back to the ship to head to the next port in Ghana, Takoradi.  There we went to have lunch in the center of town called Spikes. 


We saw, chickens, birds, cats, roosters and hens roaming around. The people in Ghana are very friendly and always smiling.  Once back at sea we crossed the Equator and the Prime Meridian. That means we were at 0 degrees longitude and 0 degrees latitude. 


We celebrated Neptune day, which is a day that we pledge to respect the ocean and become Shellbacks.  You become a shell back, by getting "fish guts" poured on you, jumping in the water, kissing a fish and kissing King Neptune's ring. My dad got to be King Neptune and my mom was the Queen. I was also part of the show with my brother. We marched around the ship to wake people up!  You can only become a shellback if you cross the equator by ship and the participate in Neptune day. So you guys are all pollywogs! 

 We will write again from South Africa. See you soon. BYE.

Spain was Great!

We had 2 stops in Spain - Barcelona and Valencia.  We went to Barcelona first.  Spain had good food and it was really fun. We tried some food we never had before.  I really liked the salty ham and croquettes.  One night for dinner we have churros and hot chocolate. In Spain you dip your churros in the hot chocolate. The hot chocolate is really thick. 


We also visited the Sagrada Familia, which is a big Catholic Church in Barcelona.  It was built by a famous artist named Gaudi. They have been building it for over 150 years!  It still doesn't look finished.

In Valencia,we saw our friend Miguel, who was an exchange student from Spain at Cushman last year.   We gave him and his sister and mom and dad a tour of the ship.  We also walked around Valencia and visited the Aquarium called Oceanografic, and saw penguins, sea lions and dolphins. They had a dance contest to choose someone to go on stage with the dolphins. Julian almost won but he was a little too young.  He was the best dancer, though.  We went to the museum of science the next day and before we left, we rowed in a boat with Papá.

We are on our way to Ghana now! Bye!  Talk to you soon.