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Published: June 14th 2017
Abasto market feeds millions
It's hard to grasp the sheer immensity of this market where all Guadalajara shops. Geo: -3.0616, -60.0516
The nights sleep was not spectacular! The ac unit sounded like a steam engine which by 2am was cold! Then once we had turned that off... It was the noise of the road outside! Norfolk is so quiet!
We got up early as we were awake, repacked our lives so we only had what we needed for the jungle in our small bags, the rest could be locked away in the hotel. The shower had the power cable for the tv running over the top of it.... Prayers that I didn't end up fried were def said!!
Breakfast consisted of bread and fruit! Can't complain at a free breakfast, although not sure the butter was actually edible! But it was then time to leave! We were joined by the Lo family from Hong Kong! He (johnny!!) could speak reasonable English, his wife, Ling, could understand more than she spoke. They had taken early retirement and had been traveling around South America for the last few months!
We were dropped off at the port and introduced to Gilmar, our guide and 2 girls from rio that were joining is for the day! We were dressed for the jungle... They a
beach party!! Gilmar also had noticed the skimpy shorts and proceeded to drool over them until they left us!
We all climbed aboard a low slung boat with filled up with other randomers.... This may not have been the seclusion we were expecting! We got stopped by harbour police for us not having our life vests on... We were then on our way.... All 15 of us! We drove past the industrial shipping yards and oil refineries of the ever growing Manaus empire and then out to where the white and black rivers meet! The white comes from the rocks of the Peruvian Andes, the black the columbian/,Brazilian rainforest! Due to the temperature (noticeable difference when you have your hand In the water across the divide!) and speed irregularities the two just do not mix! It truly is a bizarre sight.
We proceeded down river the a little shack where we could hold Cayman (which James nearly let escape!) and a sloth... What they call a lazy monkey! I fell in love with her.... So cute!
A little further down the river there were some lovely water lilies and a huge tree which is/was used for hitting for jungle communication if a
member of the party was lost or needed help! Very clever! Lunch on the floating restaurant next door provided good sustenance... Lots of fish, rice, stew and potatoes and of course jungle fruit for afters! We seemed to be there for an eternity but the boat headed back for Manaus?! Confusing?! The 4 of us ( the Lo's and us) were told to get onto another boat. This was a locals ferry, back with people looking at us gringos, thinking we didn't belong! At the other end we were put into taxis to go and meet our next boat! This car barely could be called a car! You think mine is bad! The gear stick was a mass of gaffa tape, the oil light was constantly on, you could see daylight though the boot and the diver had not seen soap in a while! It was time again to pray!
Surprisingly the taxi got us to the right location, where we jumped on a little boat.... Now this is what we expected!! Jaqueri was our new captain! A very round man. With wise wrinkles and a large laughs! A lovely guy who turns out to be married to the lady that
Granada China or Chinese pomegranate
Cut it open and scoop out the sweet flesh with a spoon. It's heavenly with the slight crunch of the seeds. ran the lodge! We did our community duty of delivering beer to one of his friends en route and then headed for our home for 3 nights! It was numb bums all round after sitting on a wooden bench for 3 hours but we made it! The views for the 3 hours were spectacular though. And the Chinese even took more photos than me! And I took ALOT!
On arrival at the lodge we were shown to our rooms, again basic but would soon become home before long. Gilmar then took us for a walk in the neighbouring community to show us the houses and the school. We were followed by a very friendly dog who liked to jump up and get us muddy..... Ling was rather scared of him! We also saw some beautiful yellow birds with most interesting nests (photo uploaded when home!) next on the tour was the football pitch in the middle of the field, where children, men and women were all enjoying a kick around on the waterlogged 'pitch' after a while James got changed into some shorts and on the flood lit pitch proceeded to score a goal with his first moves.... The kids
thought he was amazing! He thoroughly enjoyed himself!
After dinner of what we believe to be an endangered fish, we all retired to our mosi nets for a sleep before our early get up to see sunrise in the morning!
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