Sun, Sweat and a bit more sweat!

---

This place is like a bloody oven! The temperature floats around 37 degrees, but it's the humidity that is unrelenting! From sunrise to sunrise the intensity is unreal. We have found the retreat of the shopping centre a huge relief and I have made 3 visits to the place and I'm due for a follow up dose tomorrow. It reminds me of the Fishergate Centre in Preston. I know it's so tragic to nest near to one of the great wonders of the natural world and spend my time in the epitome of western consumerism, but the air conditioning feels soooooo good! My gringo body is struggling to cope with such massive water loss and considering that 20 degrees is considered warm in my far flung corner of Northern England, then I hope you can accept my apology for descending into such self smothering. The gauntlet of crazy bus drivers, children begging for a few dollars and the 20 minuites of the heat I have just been describing, makes me feel a little less guilty about entering such a place. Please know that I have bought nothing in there save a Chinese meal. Apart from these shocking antics we have actually done some constructive things although it seems like some external force is against us sometimes. My 36 hour trip from Salvador wasn't as hellish as I thought it would be; Louise and I couldn't sit together as we got our ticket too late, but it did mean I ended up next to a rather pleasant 21 year old, Brazilian girl! The fact that I woke at some early hour with her hand planted on my chest on the first night should have been a plus, but I think it was unfortunately unintentional. We chatted in my broken Portuguese for most of the next day. I think it's important to point out that I spoke in broken Portuguese as her english was non-existant and considering that I decided a long time ago I had given up on learning any Portuguese, because ¨what's the point when I'm back in a Spanish speaking country soon?¨ I think I did a damn good job. I desiphered that she was a medical student who had never been out of Brazil, she thought I was crazy, she thought England used the $ Dollar and finally the news I didn't need to hear; she had a loving boyfriend. Damn that wasted 36 hours, I might as well have sat next to the smelly granny at the front of the bus! No, she was in fact a very nice girl and she helped us enourmously when we arrived in Belem at 4am with nowhere to go, no hostel booked and a bus station full of very odd people who stared at us non stop for at least 20 minuites and made me very uncomfortable, plus in a city that from all accounts was quite dangerous. Eventually we made it to a hostel that is an accident waiting to happen; the whole place is made almost entirely of chipwood and it's not a no-smoking hostel!!! It's clean though and the mosquitos aren't biting too much. Belem is a huge city sat not quite at the mouth of the Amazon River and is the gateway to the vast Amazon interior. Again, some beautiful Portuguese colonial churches and buildings, but most are crumbling away and this appartently once very prosperous city is now home to a growing, poverty stricken population. As always though, everyone is extremely friendly, and trying to chat to them is very entertaining as, unlike the south, they don't speak any English at all. The population here really is almost completely African though there is definately a big hint of the indigenous indians in many people's faces. They are also tiny! Louise is a giant compared to most of them, never mind me! We have done the usual churches which are very beautiful here. Interestingly they claim this is the most catholic place in the world. I wonder what the Vatican would say about that?! As always though, it's wandering the streets doing simple tasks, like picking up washing or going to get some BBQ beef noodles that prove to be the most interesting times, watching the locals going around they're daily, frantic tasks and the occasional one trying to speak to us whities from a far off land, though they all know Manchester suprisingly enough. If it's not the most catholic place in the world it's certainly high up there as the most football obsessed! Football is certainly the language of the world, I think the language of love left Brazil along time ago. Enough ranting. This place is merely a stop off to our venture up the river I have dreamed about since my schoolboy days. I remember learning about it in Geography and seeing it in pics snake into the horizon through the imposing rainforest and wanting to be floating down it in a canoe. It's lush green borders and black, silty waters. The sound of a thousand animals and insect singing to each other on the shores or hidden in the canopies. I have loved this river for over a decade and now I am actually going to fight against it as we head to Peru. This really is a special moment for me and though I am travelling up in a barge boat carryig about 300 other people (not quite my canoe and me!) it feels like I'm on the verge of kissing my wife for the first time. That sounds really sad I know, but I don't care!!! Lot's of love. Dave

---

Comments

[Kate Clarke]

You have the Amazon, we have Autumn
Hey Dave, I am so envious of your 37 degree temperatures. No matter how terrible you make it out to be I would love the opportunity to winge about it being too hot instead or not hot enough. Over here I have accepted that Summer has come to an end, what summer there was. Although today is quite sunny and pretty it's not warm and the trees are starting to lose their leaves now. But, I should remember that nearly this time last year on the 6th of September we had gorgeous red hot weather so it could get better. And it was also nearly a year ago I was in Belem too under the hot sun, although that was Belem in Portugal. Like you, when we were in Lisbon, I loved just watching the local people going about their lives. We stayed in the old part of town called Alfama and all the houses were tiled and there would be washing hanging down from the apartments above the restaurants where we ate outside. I must be very different from where you are now but it was things like that, that I really enjoyed seeing. I'm really excited for you starting your journey down the amazon. I saw an advert last night for a new tv series on bbc 2 about some adverture/survival dude travelling down the amazon, so I'm planning on watching it so i can see where you've been / are going. Better get back to work now, this is meant to be a 'comment' not an 'essay'. Take Care, Try not to get eaten by any exotic animals or killed by killers. Love Kate