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Train to Santa Rita
This morning I was able to get the new GPS installed and working on the navigation computer. I inventoried the meat locker. Lots of tuna not much else. Hard to find canned meat. Made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and went into town.
Going to town is a daily exersize ritual. First we load all the garbage, empty water jugs and fuel jugs. Then the cart and our two backpacks. We put the oars in the hard shell dinghy. It is probably 7' long. 4 ' wide. Untie and row to Peter's dock.
Today we walk the red light district to the train depot, maybe a mile, and arrive just in time to push through the turnstyle and pay the $.50 real each.
The train cars wobble and the horn blows as we speed down the tracks. At the end of the line we disembark. A police officer points us to the schedule and we have an hour and 15 minutea to do our shopping.
Santa Rita has a farmer's market. John dickers over price and fills his backpack with onions, green peppers, apples, and a cantalope, strapping it to the cart. I carry the tomatoes and grapes in mine. Nick amd the the South Africans are in town too!
Back on the train, we get off at Joao Pessoa in search of shackles, a flame spreader for the stove, and motor parts. We had no luck with the latter. The place we bought the flame spreader was very snotty. Almost refused to sell it! John doesn't come across very well in Portuguese. Anyways, we made it to the 4:07 train and walked back on the cobblestone street full of kids amd bicycles. A few nice cars and many motorcycles. Buying more sweet bread at a little shop.
Now we fill the 5 gallon water jugs and row back across the river to the boat. John cooks more burritos and goes on in detail about celestial navigation. I am falling asleep.
