Another deck, another day

I never took much notice at the diversity of men on this deck back in 77. Ulrich St. Paul, Peter Bayley and myself, were one with the native deckhands aboard the Amazon National Research Institute's fisheries research vessel for a week or so, as we collected fish from tributaries upstream of Manaus.The stories were great, the food average, but the dessert was my favorite... Cans of preserved bacuri an Anacadriaceae typical of the Amazon, looking like a mango, tasting somewhat like a litchi, but more pronounced. 

Here in these 'abundant' freshwarers, I knew I had made the right choice back in Fortaleza, despite the close encounter with the sharptoothed-sandpaper-skinned kind,  in full strength seawater...Fish by day, mosquito by night... Still it was fantastic to see close up, piranhas, arowanas, arapaimas and croaking fish. During stops I could wander through forest trails and see the logging, the native inhabitants, their homes and problems with local parasitic species and lack of medical attention. All new to me. I hauled back home, boxes of fish samples and orchids collected from felled trees.