Going around with Christian

14.07.2016

I had breakfast early in the morning. I never sleep longer than six hours on the new drugs, so I was already a little tired from waking up to take them.

There was a lovely rooftop terrace, so I got a nice spot in the shade and enjoyed some fresh fruit and a ham panini. Suddenly and older Colombian man sat down beside me and we began to have a surprisingly deep conversation for 7 a.m. in the morning. These are my favourite kinds of people, so I invited him to come with me for the day. I wanted to see a replica rubber plantation and he wanted to meet some colleagues at the university.

We went out to the rubber house first, which meant we took a very long bus and a boat to get there.

I had never seen anybody extract rubber before, so this whole trip was well worth it to me. Even though the workers received payment for the rubber they produced, virtually all of it went back to the company store. Does it sound familiar? What a terrible life filled with violence and uncertainty.

The workers would collect the rubber into large balls, which were smoked and surprisingly bouncy while still being surprisingly heavy. Fun to play with now, but they must've been a huge burden back then. Once again, another example of corporate slavery to keep the military complex and the comfortable middle class worldwide afloat.

My new friend Christian became friends with a random tour guide and he drove us to the beautiful beach nearby. There were more buses to get to UFAM, our next stop. By the time we got there, it was lunch. I got an "X-Tudo", which was just a bunch of processed meat and cheese on a bun and shoved into the panini maker. Delicious.

Christian went to find his colleagues, but they weren't very receptive to him. They told him to come back when they called him, but they never did. Typical, right?

Anyway, we went back and took a nap. Christian reminded me about Joshua and I realized he didn't have any references, so I thought maybe I shouldn't go into the wilderness with him. I cancelled and booked a "jungle" tour leaving the next day, with the company next to the hostel: Amazon Tarzan Tours. I should've taken a clue from the cheesy name, but it was cheap and it didn't seem to matter at the time. I paid the fee of 920 reals for five days in the forest, including airport transfer.

I met Christian again, because I thought there was another show at the theatre. It didn't' look so good when we got there, so we went for some tacos and then to bed.

Rubber plantation