Bristow Photos

[Dave Ed]

TIGO in Brazil 6

So, to Amapa……………..
And to refresh your memories of the basic layout........




Amapa "city", the second biggest city in the state of Amapa was to be our home for those 3 months. Note the lack of traffic as all roads that led out of town turned into dirt tracks although there was a regular bus service to and from Macapa, the nearest sizeable town 100km to the South and of course the nightmare road to the airfield.







I have no idea how many people lived in the town itself. It was never very busy but one thing we soon learnt was that hardly anyone spoke a word of English. Communication in the early days was mainly with sign language with meal ordering resembling a game of charades. We had special signs for beef, fish, and chicken!! BUT just try and order a salad with sign language Not that there were ever many vegetables or salads……..this is a strictly meat eating part of the world and the rarer the better.






The town consisted of one long main road through the centre of the town with a few other roads leading off to seemingly no-where!
It had a few small shops, a pharmacy, lots of small bars and "restaurants" an abattoir just outside town where a buffalo or two were slaughtered on a daily basis - we passed it on the way to work. Vultures lined the wooden fences as we passed by.
There was the all important hardware store which was a godsend but I was a bit disappointed with the lack of Super Puma parts.

It also had a hospital, a few small basic hotels, a night club, schools, small food shops, football field and a small stadium where regular fiestas were held.
In fact, it was a nice little town where you could get most of the things you needed for a reasonable standard of living.





On our first night we were guided to and introduced to Soraya who owned and ran one of the more popular restaurants in town. This restaurant turned out to be the hub of our social life in Amapa and was frequented by almost whole team, supporting TIGO and YEK, at some time or another. This was the first of many evenings and Sunday lunchtimes at the Sabor Tropical when we would sit, eat, drink beer, learn the language, and generally watch the small world of Amapa go by.




Those Sunday lunchtimes, with most of the team, drinking seemingly endless cold beers and watching girls on bicycles and horses amble by was one of the highlights of the week. Simple pleasures J
















.........and if you were desperate for a beer and couldn't make it as far as Soraya's there was this cosy little restaurant complete with semi open air toilet where you could watch the world go by.





..........and a picture taken from this bar of one of the busy road junctions during evening rush hour....... most of these pics must have been from my second six week tour as it all looks a lot less wet!