The only Nuts in Brasil?

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Similar, but less intense than my disappointment at finding no small dogs in Chihuahua is the lack of those big nuts in Brasil...tempered by the fact that I like small dogs and those nuts are only fillers in the mixed nut collections!...however, too early to digress!
And this is the 2nd attempt as the fcuking computer just bombed and dropped a few pages of gems!...ahh cést la bloody vie!
So, reflections of Manaus I´ll publish later, suffice to say a great intro to brasil..so the boat ride..the fabulous Amazon Star...3 levels of fun and excitement...after 12 hours wondering if I´ll survive the endless re-run of re-runs of the jungle banked scenery and apart from getting bogged on a sandbar for most of the first night..not much happening!
But then you get into the way of life at sea...everyone´s friendly, people to meet, cold beer, appropriately named Skol!...up on the top deck we have cabins, 2 bunks with baño....up front next to the bridge,,,just enough room on the deck outside to sit back and prop the feet on the rail....also on the top deck, a big open area, with bar, and down the back, around the stern railing, 6 big showers that run from 10 - 12 and 4 - 6 or whenever else they turn them on...so you can just stand, or sit, under a torrent of fresh river water, piranha filters intact, keeping a finger over the beercan opening, watching your fellow bathers...swimwear material is very expensive!. some of the girls can only afford little bits and dental floss...
The second level has a couple of hundred hammock dwellers but in air-con1..the bottom level has several hundred in a morass of hamacas..real cattle class..but they are able to wander about and some make it up to the top.
The opps are certainly there for your classic sea board romance..but many of the eligible chicas have ineligible mamas close at hand..need to perfect the technique of chatting the mamas(and buying them beers!)in order to get close to the chicas...while avoiding the entrapments of the mamas!.....and like cream, some specials rise out of the bottom level and make it to the top...aahhh...but to consumate any relationship would take real flair...hamacas improbable. bunks impossible..anywhere private, with space, vaguely comfortable non-existant!
Sat up on the last night with some travellers and the troupe of hippies from the 3rd level who make bead jewellry to flog as they move around...and good musicians..so we sang into the night, drank beer...reminded me of the hippy days in Maroc in the 70´s...singing some reggae rounds with chorus then one by one singing some words of some songs...under pressure, mind you, I gave them some reggae Waltzin M which seemed to go down well!...

Bedlam in Belem
So, got to Belem late so we got the bikes off but stayed the night...cheap accom!..in the morning a frustrated guard took out his ire on us...had to hang around and get our friends on board to sort it out...finally out...back on the road...
Pull up next to cars, trucks, bikes at the lights, call out the name of where we´re going...get directions as we go..everyone pretty friendly...
Now out on the open....again very dry brown, reddish dust also..reminds me of the NW of Oz around the Keep river where I spent a couple of years opening up the wide brown...
Road starts to deteriorate and potholes getting bigger and wider and more frequent...just get up to speed and have to brake again....off to the side the occasonal burnt out truck thet went over...Off to the side I see a fairly tall tree, no foliage but spectacular yellow flowers, really stands out in the red/brown dryness...over the next 200 kms I only see 2 more like this!...and the v occasional burst of colour from a bouganvillea sort of bush..in the middle of nowhere, one little shitbox dirt hut with one mighty branch of intense colour!
One lttle town has a 50 m high statue of what looks suspiciously like Betty Boo!
This is white cattle country...mobs of beautiful brahmin type cattle, some used with carts, others just grazing....mostly sleek and weel fed but the occasional cow with those absurd anglular bones, jutting out on all the odd angles..a Picassoesque cubist-cow...
A big, peaceful, bovinely-laid-back cow strolls back to the pasture beside the road, following after is her calf, what a prince, noble little head held high, royalty written all over him...high stepping, knows he´ll be king of the Amazon herds...bred from the finest Pasteur institue of Calcutta, frozen semen flown in by sweating airmen, turkey baster and Bob´s your uncle....bovine royalty..or maybe the second coming!..what a religious dilema if the second coming is manifested as a Brahmin bull?.......
or more likely, his little testicles will be rolling on the floor tomorrow and a few shots of cow-quick-grow hormonically powered spurts later, he´ll be hamburger by Xmas!!...
Oh, and while we´re about it...halfway down the river, at Santarem we discoverd the big vegetarian secret!...land clearing of your protected Amazon, irreplaceable rain forest...to grow flaming soy beans!!

The road is getting more tricky, glances off to the side are risky, this requires the hand/eye co-ordination of a 13 year old gameboy champion...the car in front, slowing, speeding, dodging, no indications of nothing (excuse the syntax)...approaching vehicles doing likewise, potholes appearing out of nowhere...(you could almost buy a pothole and set up a B&B in the bottom...huge, lose-a-car size)..then 30 or 40 kms of straight dirt, better somewhat than the pothole studded pseudo bitumen..
Cattle on the road...at the skirts of a little pueblo a cow is suckling her calf...right in the middle of the road!...further on I´m about to second guess a truckie and make my move when he pulls out suddenly..we all brake and swerve..wandering down the road afcuking huge pig!...the mother of all pigs you could say..an enormous sow...just been across the road for a wallow...now trcking mud down the middle of the highway!
Get to a small town to stop the night in...indescribably non-descript place but pleasant enough...wide main street with service lanes...every second shop a pharmacy!!...next to our hotel a coffin maker...stays open nearly all night!..bored?...directlry opposite our hotel a 65 metre, off-white statue of a woman...some religious influence here...she´s holding a plate with 2 big blue eyeballs on it..the other hand holds a giant feather like a quill pen...held in the retard grip of the ill-educated...the bottom part of the quill sticks out between her little and ring fingers like the end of a gigantic spliff, held in the classic one-hand-chillum hold favoured by many of the drug-trail-hippies of the 70´s.

The gang´s ready to rol so I gotta run....just a bit about Sao Luis..what a picturesque little town...tiles everywhere, you´ll see the photos, first colonised by the French but hardly a croissant crumb left so show their passing..then the Portuguese who coverd all the buildings in tiles..against the damp/heat?...so its like a giant Reece bathroom display with contrasting, and sometimes conflicting, tile styles...

But the old part, and all these places have an ´old part´...is fabulous, big wide cobbled street, no cars allowed, restaurants, bars, lots of music, crap junk trinkets, made in China. authentic local crap touristy stuff..but très cool...and great tucker...BIG night Monday....met some locals who showed us around..then yesterday was dead as a maggot..appropriately the Day of the Dead...and thats another story altogether..
So there!...got it done to here and gotta run to there...hope you´re all well and enjoyed the 5 day break for the Cup...who won?..don´t, I´ll check the Age.....chau

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