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| Location of Ourilandia do Norte, one hour flight south west of Maraba |
Time for another weekly installment on the Life n Times. I have to say, that for a national holiday, the Day of the Dead, is, well kinda dead. There were no evening activities related to the dead that I could find. I went out with my compadres yesterday evening but didn't see anything related to the holiday at all.
No matter, I was able to get into the outdoor kitchen at the Muiraquita and bake some pizzas, drink some beer and have a few laughs.
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| Kev's loaded bacon, ham, tomatoes, oregano and egg pizza! |
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| Less than 2 minutes and it's baked! |
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| Yours truly and the Kiwi |
This morning I managed to borrow a truck for the day so I went into town, bought a machete, drove about 25 km north of town on dirt roads, and hiked into the jungle on what I think was the Xirin Indian reserve. I followed various game trails, many of which were from cows and I crossed a small river. It wasn't the jungle undergrowth that stopped me but a swampy bottom in the valley I walked into.
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| Pale White Canadian Alert! Seconds after I took this pic (using a termite mound) a giant Amazonian Death Cockroach flew at me and I dispatched it with a two handed blow from my machete! |
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| Amazonian Death Cockroach (3"+) |
It was very hot and I was covered in sweat, a swarm of annoying mosquitos for company. Its winter here so the forest floor is dry with crunchy leaves and its far from silent with the wind rattling dry palm leaves, songbirds and lizards scurrying every which way. Now and again, larger animals would flee in front of me crashing through the undergrowth, though I didn't get to see them. I came on to piles of what I would describe as "elk shit"... no idea what animal would produce elk-like pellets down here...
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| No idea what these were but they were fun to chop! |
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| Wild Amazonian Death Turtle |
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| Amazonian Death Thorns |
And that's about all I got. Progress is steady and slow on the job but we are over 50% done Furnace 1 with visas expiring in early to mid December. Its anyone's guess how we will get Furnace 2 done and fit Christmas into the schedule too. Rumours abound but what will be will be. Que Sera, Sera. :)
