Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
But cruise ships were his bread and butter. During the season, ships packed with hun-
dreds of tourists made their way from the mouth of the river up to Manaus, stopping for the
day in Santarém.
“Cruise ship industry, this is a beautiful industry,” Gil said. 'Cause they come here,
they're all old, and they're
loaded.
But they're cool—they're really cool.
Anyone
who
comes to the Amazon is cool.”
I had noticed a few tour-boat tourists turning circles on the waterfront, binoculars in
hand. Cruise boats can ruin a town; in Juneau, where my father lives, the entire downtown
area has become overrun with cruise ship passengers and the insipid economies that spring
up around them. But that hadn't happened here yet.
Gil put down his beer. “I love whorehouses!” he cried.
I couldn't quite remember how we had come to this part of the conversation, but here
we were.
He became serious for a moment: “I mean, the way we treat women in this country
is
terrible.
Really.” Then he brightened. “But still. There is this one whorehouse in
Manaus…”
Was I supposed to nod?
Oh, yeah…Whorehouses!
Our host went on, oblivious to our discomfort. He said you could get a girl for twenty
reals—about ten dollars. Here was another form of exploitation in the Amazon, one Gil
didn't mind participating in.
A pair of young women crossed into the park, strolling arm in arm. Gil assured us that
the girls who walked by his house were the most beautiful girls in the world. “You're going
to love the girls here,” he said. “They're amazing.” Concerned that he would start making
introductions, we hastened to let him know that we both had girlfriends. Somehow, even
for me, this remained true. For reasons unclear, I still lived with the Doctor.
It was dark. The park had filled with young couples, and families, and bands of teen-
agers. Children tumbled through the playground. A soccer game scuffled on the basketball
court. Gil had turned philosophical. He felt so lucky to be alive, he told us. His sense of
gratitude was oddly specific, though. He was grateful, first, for his carbon fiber windsurf-
ing board. This was an amazing piece of technology.
“My first board weighed a ton, but this one is only like ten or fifteen kilos,” he said.
“I'm so grateful for that. And I'm so grateful that I'm forty-six and can get lots of little blue
pills that can give me an incredible erection.”
Adam choked on his beer.
