Chapter five hundred and fifty nine fisherman Yang Bailao
The gasoline on Anaya's ship must be handed over to a businessman named Kabakacha. According to Chinese aesthetic standards, this guy is a complete villain.
He laughs and looks vicious to everyone.
After Anaya took Hong Tao and the others away from the dock of Kabakacha, he told them that this unattractive guy was the largest contractor in Barcelos, and his brother-in-law was the largest contractor in Manaus. As for
In fact, there is no big project they have contracted. They only monopolize nearly two-thirds of tropical fish fishing and export channels.
Due to its geographical location, the small city of Barcelos has basically no industry and underdeveloped commerce, and can only meet the daily needs of local residents. The biggest source of income here is fishing for tropical fish, and most of the people in the city are
Fishermen and only a very small number of citizens are government workers.
In the rainforest in the upper reaches of the Negro River, there are many kinds of tropical fish such as red-headed lanterns (traffic lights), red-headed scissors, red-eyed golden threads, swallow-tailed chessboards, red pearl short snappers, narrow-mouthed pencils, red and blue pencils, pink pencils, etc. Due to the world
There is a huge demand for these tropical fish in the world, so most of the fishermen here have given up fishing for traditional food fish, and instead fished for these beautiful water elves in order to earn higher incomes.
However, with the rise of this industry, businessmen like Kabakacha and his brother-in-law used their export channels and economic strength to start with these fishermen, grant them short-term loans, and then use tropical fish to offset their accounts, and gradually
Take control of the fishermen in your own hands.
According to Anaya, more than 50% of the fishermen in Barcelos have borrowed money from Mr. Kabakacha to buy new fishing nets, gasoline and other fishing equipment, but most of them are unable to pay them back in time.
Pay a debt, thus becoming a card
The professional tropical fish fishermen owned by Bakaca. Every year when the fishing season comes, they have to borrow money from Kabacaccia to buy gasoline, and then they go fishing for tropical fish, and then use these tropical fish to offset their debts. In the end, they don’t make any money and they have to borrow money.
, it becomes increasingly difficult to turn over.
Hong Tao must complain here. Although they are far away in Asia and South America, the oil prices in Brazil and China seem to be in harmony. The prices are similar, but Brazil is a little more expensive. Gasoline is 2.2 reals, which is almost the same as 8 yuan in RMB.
left and right, ranking first among all Latin American countries.
This price is still in a big city like Rio de Janeiro. After being transported to Manaus, which has inconvenient transportation, it rises to 3 reals per liter, and when it arrives in Barcelos, it rises again to 3.3 reals per liter. Faced with this
High oil prices. Fishing costs for fishermen here remain high, and they often work hard throughout the dry season. Not only do they not make any money, they also have to owe a lot of money for gasoline.
If you want to understand the lives of these fishermen, you can't just stay on the shore, because they don't live on the shore. Most of the fishermen don't have houses on the shore, but live on their boats. Wherever you go, it's home.
They would only come back to Barcelos when they were selling fish or supplies. They would never go to a big city like Manaus a few times in their lives. As for Rio and Sao Paulo, I guess they had only heard of it.
, maybe you don’t even know where it is.
Hong Tao and the four of them couldn't live on the fisherman's boat, but Ananya had another way. Through the Kabakacha, he found a fisherman who was planning to go sailing, and then paid 100 reais to
With the family's permission, I can go with their fishing boat and fish with them.
It's not that this family is easy to talk to and is willing to let a group of tourists disturb their fishing process, but this 100 reais is about three days of income for them. Hong Tao and others will only disturb them for two days, so in total they still have
Earn at least 1 day.
This family of fishermen is a couple with three children. The oldest boy is already 12 years old. Although the younger boy is still nursing, there is a little girl in the middle, who is about 7 or 8 years old. The family is
They live in the cabin of a small boat, use a small charcoal stove to cook, and sleep in a hammock. There is a curtain in the corner of the cabin, and inside the curtain is a sitting toilet.
"Oh, we should put a slogan on them: Want to be rich! Have fewer children and build more roads!" After seeing all the belongings of this family, Fatty Bu said a wise saying, and then hurriedly walked out of the cabin,
The smell here is so bad.
I don’t know if they were afraid that Hong Tao and the others would go back on their word and asked for 100 reais to go back. The family was going to set off by boat at around 4 o’clock in the morning. At this time, there were stars in the sky. Although it was not as dark as at night, it was 50 meters away.
Can't see anything either.
"Tell them that if we leave at 6:30, I'll pay 20 reais more!" Hong Tao caught up with the opportunity to become a rich man. He lay on the hammock without even opening his eyes and took out two coins from his pocket.
A crumpled banknote was handed to Anaya.
Sure enough, the boatman didn't bother anymore. They had already got the week's money anyway, so it would be better if they didn't sail all day, which would also save gas money.
At around 7 o'clock in the morning, the two boats finally set off one after another. The one in front was a small broken boat owned by a fishing family, and there were two canoes with pointed ends tied to the stern. Their two children climbed on
At the stern of the ship, I looked curiously at the wealthy people on the ship behind me who were said to be from distant China.
"You'd better tie up the cuffs of your clothes and put on your hat. We will enter the real rainforest later. There is a small bug in there. If it bites your skin, it will be very, very itchy. Also, don't make a loud noise.
Talk and see anything strange
Xi, don’t touch it easily. If you don’t understand anything, you must ask me first.” While sailing the boat, Anaya gave Hong Tao and others a rainforest safety lesson, which made Hong Tao and others extremely nervous. Regardless of whether it was effective or not, he sent them
I brought insect repellent ointment and smeared it on my face and hands.
The two boats sailed upstream. After driving for more than 2 hours, they turned into a narrower tributary. After driving for more than half an hour, they turned into an even narrower stream again. Repeatedly, they turned 5,
After 6 times, the waves could no longer distinguish between the east, west and north. At this time, the water depth of the river became shallower and shallower. Standing on the boat, you could see the fallen trees on the bottom of the water.
"Why did you stop the boat? Have you arrived?" After driving for a while, Hong Tao saw the boat in front of him slowly stopping. The boss of the boat and his son walked away with a large net and two buckets.
When we got to the stern of the boat, we were untying the canoe that was tied to the stern.
"The water in front is not deep enough. The big boat can't pass. If you need to change to a smaller boat, let's go to the speedboat. Take all your belongings with you. Remember what I just said. The rainforest is full of dangers for strangers."
Ananya repeated what she just said, then jumped off the boat first and landed on the speedboat at the stern.
Just like when they came, the father and son of the boatman rowed a canoe in front, and Ananya followed behind in a speedboat at a low speed, continuing to sail upstream of the river. The river here is not so much a river as it is called a forest submerged by the river.
, in most places it is impossible to tell where the river bank is, the deep places are only more than 1 meter, and the shallow places are less than half a meter.
The boatman's father and son's canoe now showed its advantage of being small, flexible and shallow in draft. Anaya's speedboat was a bit laborious. Many times they had to lift the stern propeller to prevent the propeller from being hit by hard objects underwater.
Shang walked forward for another ten minutes. The water became shallower and shallower, and more and more tree trunks were submerged under the water. The engine was no longer usable. Hong Tao had no choice but to pick up the oar and paddle forward with Ananya.
The two boats slowly went deep into the rainforest. Although the sun was officially blazing outside, the inside of the rainforest was always cloudy, wet and damp, and water droplets fell from time to time, like a light drizzle. These
Some of the water droplets are water vapor condensed on the leaves, and some are the excrement of insects, birds and animals on the trees. No wonder Anaya told everyone to wear hats.
"Look at the kid in front, is he catching a snake?" Fatty Bu was sitting on the bow of the boat with a wider field of vision. At this time, he pointed to the canoe in front and asked Anaya.
Hong Tao looked in the direction Fatty Bu was pointing and saw the little boy sitting in front of the canoe using a paddle to throw a long object far away. After the object fell into the water, he immediately unfolded his body and used
In a snake-like manner, it swam far away in a few strokes and disappeared on the water.
Although Hong Tao didn't see clearly what that thing looked like, I'm afraid no other animal except a snake can do that swimming posture. And the position where the little boy caught the snake was right above his head, across the distance.
Not far away, there will be some branches blocking the view in mid-air, and you need to use paddles or something to push them away.
"It's okay, those snakes can't hurt you, they will clean them up for us." Anaya didn't care.
"Old Hong, let me help you row the boat. I'm afraid of those slippery things. Let alone catching them, my whole body goes weak when I see them." Fatty Bu was really scared this time, and he didn't care whether Hong Tao agreed or not.
I agreed and hid directly in the back of the speedboat, never to return until I died.
"Don't be anxious, change slowly, slowly. If you capsize the boat, we all have to feed the snakes!" The speedboat made Fatty Bu do this, and the bow of the boat immediately tilted up, and Hong Tao hurriedly came to the rolling runway.
The bow of the ship is used as a ballast stone.
"Give me the harpoon and I'll help you pry the leaves apart." Although Hong Tao is not afraid of snakes, he doesn't want to have close contact with these branches and leaves with his hands or face. Fortunately, there is a sharp fish in the cabin.
A fork can be used to push these branches apart.
The water depth is getting shallower and shallower. Now the rowing oars are almost not paddling through the water, but are moving forward along the bottom of the water. It is estimated that if we go further, we should reach the upper reaches of this tributary. The waves are pulling at the leaves.
Think about it, what does the upper reaches of this river look like? A clear stream? Or a spring? (To be continued...)
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