September 12, 2012
With
less sleep than it takes to muster a good wet dream, I was up at 3:45 am and off to
the airport with my compadres, nine of the lowest bred mongrels ever to cross
the seven seas; 3 South Africans, 2 Americans, 4 Canadians and one eternally happy and always-smiling Kiwi, while our boss and
his wife from Africa took another flight. I was quite hungry when we arrived
last night, but I heeded the advice of my travel guide that noted that it is
quite legal in Sao Paulo NOT to stop at red lights given the number of
robberies and car jackings that happen here.
Walking at night in Sao Paulo is also highly unadvised. Given that informational tidbit, I satisfied
myself with a quaker oat snack from my mini bar and called it a night.
We flew
out of Sao Paulo around 7 am landing briefly long enough in Brazilia to run to our waiting plane for Maraba. Breakfast consisted of four Quaker oatmeal cookies and a cup of molasses-like expresso. Lunch never happened either aside from a soggy ham and cheese bun on the plane. From Maraba, we chartered a couple of small Cessnas and flew for an hour over the last leg, my 9th hop since I left Castlegar 5 days ago! Unfortunately our luggage is coming by truck and its a 7 hour drive on a patchwork of dirt roads to get here from Maraba. For reasons I don't understand, one of my bags was left behind at Brazilia and will catch up tomorrow...
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| A nickel mine we flew over... |
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Final Destination - Ourilandia Do Norte!
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| Aiming for the runway! |
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| 35 degrees C in the shade Babeeeee! Frick ya! |
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4:00 pm With the exception that one of my bags was left behind a few thousand miles away and will arrive tomorrow, I arrived and was whisked away from the others to stay at the highest standard of accomodation in Ourilandia. I am at one hotel with the other Management staff while the operators I flew in with were taken to the other hotel in town. All I know so far is that we have to pass a medical at the local clinic tomorrow before we will be granted a pass to the smelter, and that meals are served at 7 am and 7 pm here at the hotel. My receptionist reports that the nearest produce market is several miles away. Stay tuned while I get settled... which is difficult because my luggage is on a slow moving truck driving on dirt roads in this direction... :)
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| Where I will be eating at 7 am and 7 pm for the forseeable future! |
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| Just add beer and music! |
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| Games Room |
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| My bed-and-a-half and easy-chair for rocking myself to sleep on muggy hot evenings... :) |
And that's it for now. My ears are still plugged really bad from the drop out of the skies in an unpressurized plane. The good news is I'm here, having survived five days of playing whack-a-mole with international airports across South America, and I have internet access! Life is good!
