A Ride in the Park

2/6

This morning we assembled for our bus ride to Pituacu (Pit wa SU) Park. We passed through some amazing slums (amazing in that they were still standing and that people actually live in them). Our guide told us that the government here has no building codes or oversight over what is built, so people just build their own places, and add on or add up another level as needed. Electricity, water and sewers are definitely optional.

Pituacu Park is an ecological reserve that is part of the city. There is a 9 mile path (15 km) around a central lagoon, and it was arranged that we would ride bikes around the lagoon and study the ecology. Here was our group: a biologist to point things out in Portuguese, an interpreter to tell us what he just said, 30 or so students with a handful of professors, two armed guards on bikes riding our flanks, and a military police car with three armed soldiers bringing up the rear. From time to time the military police would jump out of their car and run to question any poor native walking along, or picking some fruit.

We saw little monkeys in the trees, red ginger, hibiscus, bananas and many flowers I cannot name, strange looking birds, and many kinds of exotic fruit trees. I have now tasted a cashew fruit (there is a big yellow fruit that grows under each nut – smells bad, but tastes very good) jackfruit, and several other little fruits that did not translate into English. Especially good was one that looked like an acorn and was mostly pit, but had a very sweet membrane that you chewed off before throwing the rest away.

So now, who has been waiting for one of Karen's famous near-death adventures? Well, today was my first in quite some time! About 12 km into the ride, (now remember, we are at the EQUATOR, it is HOT and humid, and we've been riding and stopping and riding in the BROILING SUN for several hours), yours truly goes into a very ladylike swoon (didn't actually faint, so no damage done) and has to be packed into the police car with the nice men with guns for the rest of the ride. Meanwhile, several others with more birthdays to their credit than I kept riding bravely onward… I was the only casualty of the morning…. How embarrassing!