Saturday, November 28, 2009

71. The Amazon River


71.


The Amazon River:

By faint starlight and a hint of moon, I make out a fleet of houseboats on what seems to be a lagoon with a broad sheet of water lying beyond.

The Mighty Amazon River?! Oh, my!


I think I might be able to sleep on a wet grassy knoll near the water, but I hear and faintly see some tough looking hombres cruising the area. The only lights I can see are a couple of range-lights on some riverboat in the distance. The town itself is absolutely dark. Maybe electricity hasn’t been invented here yet?

I strike out for the range-lights. They are on a husky-looking Petro Peru Tugboat tied up at a pier with a lot of smaller nondescript boats. The crews are evidently all asleep or ashore. It starts to rain again so I crawl under a big truck parked near the pier and sleep til dawn.


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