Belem looks much as I remember it, although I don’t recall there being any high-rises here before; odd really, they must have been there. That said, it’s an hour shuttle ride from the shore-side ‘village’ into the city proper, and last season I couldn’t make it past the first street so I’ll admit I didn’t see much of anything except the poor broken shore-side shanties and the boats scattered over the shoals of the amazon waiting for the tide to come in and make them useful again.
This time I’m seeing it from a distance, as I jumped at the chance to work IPM duty today. Having been here before and found it definitively not to my taste, I have no qualms about letting the others try their luck shore-side. I should be using the time to finish my cataloguing as I still have four more sections left to complete before I can dust my hands of it, but somehow I just can’t summon up the energy. Exhaustion is lapping at the corners of my mind like the waters of the amazon outside, and as a result I’m terribly sluggish. So instead of really getting any work done (something I really shouldn’t admit, but I’m nothing if not honest), I sit and read The Time Traveler’s Wife for the second time, and listen to the hum and whir of the flagship’s engines as they keep us steady on our anchor, and occasionally look up to see the huge shore-side tender ferries making their slow tedious way across the muddy brown water to the equally muddy brown town.
The cruise feels like its already over, and despite our overall success, many of us welcome its conclusion. I’m far from the only one that this has been a difficult contract for, though we all have different reasons for that circumstance.
That said, there have been many lit-up moments, they glow against the background of inexplicable tension and politics like Christmas tree lights and ultimately make the whole thing very much worth it …