Day 99. Part 2. Current Events Affecting the Ship

Hey guys

In the past hours and days, many current events have had an indirect or direct on the ship.

*Guatemala Crime- Guatemala, our final port of call (we arrive on Tuesday), has had a surge of recent violence, especially towards tourists (great). ISE has let us know, repeatedly, about all of these threats and how to counter them. The ship has mandated a 2300 hours curfew while in port, whether on the ship or in town, and has advised against traveling anywhere after sunset. I am not worrying too much about it, but we'll definitely be alert.

*Swine Flu- If you're following the news, you'll know about a break-out of Swine Flu that is slowly becoming a health problem. It's epicenter is in Mexico, but cases have spread to the US, New Zealand, UK and Israel. Given its immediate proximity to Guatemala, this is a real concern to all of us. We were briefed this evening on it. Ironically, Greg Weaver, one of the UVA medical students who had joined the voyage from India to Japan had given a lecture about the very possibility of a influenza pandemic.

*Italian Cruise Ship escapes Pirates in the Gulf of Aden- For those of you who have followed the voyage from the beginning, you'll know we changed our itinerary to avoid the Gulf of Aden back in December, 2008. A cruise ship flagged in Italy just out-ran pirates who attempted to board and fired "hundreds" of rounds in the air at passengers on the deck. Everybody's safe. Good thing we avoided the area. They left Cape Town and sailed east to the Suez to go back to Italy... eerily similar to our route.

*ANC wins South Africa Election- Back in Feb., when we were in Cape Town, I had countless discussions with people about the "big election coming up" in April. The ANC has come out on top, and critics are calling the peaceful election "a great step for SA's democracy"


-

So yeah. Hopefully things will be safe and healthy in our last port of call! I'm getting back to studying for my biomedical ethics final, which is at 0800 tomorrow morning.

PS. We jumped an hour last night and are now EST -2 hours.

Talk tomorrow.

Greg