Dateline – Ensenada 14 Junio 2007

Dateline – Ensenada 14 Junio 2007

The other day I met a great guy on-board, Ryan Skaife (see photo).

He is, unfortunately for us, not sailing the entire voyage because his not-for-profit (Hope in Tanzania Foundation http://www.hopeintanzania.org/) is now at a critical point in its work with the Tanzanian government. The foundation is working to create sustainable development partnerships with the owners of a large game preserve in south-central Tanzania which also encompasses the abandoned infrastructure of a huge rice and corn farm and facility. They plan to restore the farm and facility to operating status, and employ and train local Tanzanians to fill staff positions at all levels. They will also be creating educational and healthcare infrastructure for the residents of the area.

Ryan was inspired to drop his career as a video journalist to pursue this venture after he met the owners of the preserve on his last Semester at Sea voyage in Spring 2003. This is the type of amazing life-changing occurrence that makes S@S so incredible.

On Thursday (the 14th), Ryan and I set out in the afternoon to explore Ensenada. We were mainly scouting out restaurants for dinner. So, thinking of Dawn, we found a vegetarian restaurant (still VERY rare in Mexico, I think) called La Sonrisa (The Smile). There I met the owner Ruth (on the far right in the photo) and a local artist Yolanda Valdes who does art projects focused on enriching the lives of girls and young women. She has lived in Portland, and has a show opening in the Fairfax, VA – DC area in July. We of course won’t be able to catch it, but maybe some of y’all can. Yolanda was wonderful, and warned me that if I was going to be her friend it had to be for life.

To try to preview her current show we set off to find the Centro de Convenciones (formerly the Hotel Riviera) where she was setting up later that day. On the way there we found an abandoned building with a set of mattress springs functioning as a door and barbed-wire filling the windows. Made for some funky photos…

Across the street we saw a great angel statue silhouetted by the setting sun.

Sadly, by the time we found the Convention Center, Yolanda had left, but I did get some more good photos, including a shot of the Hotel’s tower, the absolutely huge flag (approx 150 by 90 feet) that flies over Ensenada, and three generations of a family’s women visiting the gardens.

On the way back to the ship, Ryan and I took pictures of each other with the Explorer in the background so you can see the ship (there will undoubtedly be many more photos – but you can also take the tour of the ship at http://www.semesteratsea.com/).

Finally, if you’ve ever sailed you’ll know that ships require almost constant maintenance, and the Explorer’s crew are always hard at work. Here are a couple of shots of them painting the hull.

I suspect I will have one more entry from here in Ensenada before we sail out on Sunday. Until then,

Namaste,
Tim.