9-4-10 Day After Portugal and La Rabida

Buenos Dias de Sevilla! I wanted to write this one before it got away from my memory. Yesterday we had another excursion, which I did not miss, to a place called “La Rabida.” We went several places yesterday actually. We left Sevilla yesterday morning on a charter bus and went to an old water well. The well was just not a normal water well though because it was the exact well where Christopher Columbus filled his water supplies for the last time before leaving for the Americas. After the well we got back on the bus for about 15 minutes and drove to the monastery where Columbus stayed for a while. Columbus stayed at this monastery after he had asked Spain, Portugal, and France to fun his voyage to the Americas. As Columbus was there he spoke of his ambitions to find another route to India for trade, and the more he talked the more the monks there began to believe that he might actually know what he was talking about. One of the priests at the monastery happened to be the priest who Queen Elizabeth confessed to. Finally that priest decided that he should tell the Queen about this man, Columbus, who wanted to sail. She took the advice and then decided to fund Columbus’s voyage. She provided him with one ship. She then proceeded to buy the entire town of La Rabida and offer the town two options. The town could either provide two additional ships and sailors or pay 25% tax on everything. The town obliged by providing the ships and sailors. The rest from there is history!



While at the monastery, we saw some of the first maps of the New World. It is so interesting because the first maps just had that entire part of the world as a spattering of islands not anything like the large masses of land that are actually there. I’m not sure if it was the original or not, one of our professors said he thought it was the original map, but there was one of the first maps of the Americas on buffalo hide at the monastery. I have a picture of it that I will put up on the internet soon, but I’m not sure how well you will be able to see it. On the map the New World is just a few islands, and they didn’t know about any of the rest of the land at the time. It was just something so cool I thought. There was so much history and world changing events that happened right where we were visiting. If you think about things that have changed the world the most in the last 1000 years the discovery of the Americas has to be in the top 5 without a doubt. I know that it is not universally agreed that Columbus was the first to discovery the Americas, and honestly I’m not so sure he was, but the bottom line is that it is what we are taught in schools today because there are no other definite records of other people discovering the Americas so as for now Columbus gets the credit. Whether he did or didn’t discover the New World, it was still a massive part of history, and I feel very lucky to have been there.


After the monastery, we went to a place where they had replicas of the 3 ships that Columbus was in charge of on his first voyage and discovery. We were able to walk around on the ships, and it was so cool. I have pictures of the ships that will be on the internet soon too.


We left for Portugal after ship replicas! We went to a city called Lagos. Lagos is a city on the ocean that is known for its beaches. The majority of the students in my school are actually staying there until this Sunday. I, however, along with 4 others decided to come back to Sevilla. We were only in Lagos for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, but I had enough time to go put my feet in the water. I also got some pictures that show how pretty it was there. I hope they turned out ok. It was a beautiful place.


Anyway, I just wanted to write about my experiences yesterday. I cannot believe that just yesterday I was at many of the same places as Christopher Columbus and then in Portugal! It still isn’t really registering that I’m in Europe many, many miles away from home, but I’m trying to take it all in as much as I can.