Fat Girl

The boat stops every hour or so. It must have almost no draught, because it parks up on the river bank, near enough for a plank to be thrown down for loading and unloading cargo and people. From the boat, I can see the riverside is made up of small quarry rocks. Apparently, it's a concrete production town. The air is full of smoke from five plumes coming from behind a long prison-like wall, atop of which, the silhouettes of some workers stand.

In the afternoon, we stop at another town, Vallemi. The boat will be here for about half an hour, so we take a walk around town. It's a little village with a supermarket shop, a pharmacy and several animal monuments. A couple of locals are making some commotion and throwing rocks. On a further look, they're trying to hit a snake. The locals are satisfied that they've scared the snake off, but we tourists give chase. It's thin green thing, about half a metre long, and it's quick. So quick that we soon lose it in the bushes. Nonetheless, we're happy with our first wild animal spot.

Photo:  globevisions.com

Photo: panoramio.com, Plaza Vallemi

Back on the boat, we're in the common area and kitchen-slash-restaurant, where the two cooks are dolling out rice and some anonymous cubed meat for the dinner service. The light above has attracted tens of moths of various sizes. I get used to them bumping into me and landing, sort of. I prefer to push the bigger boys off, but there's nothing too monstrous.

Competently Spanish speaking Vincent is on the bench talking to a couple of local girls. One of the girls is thin, quiet, and coy. The other girl is not any of those things. The more rotund of the pair is quickly starting to scare both Vincent and I. Something about this girl is exuding aggressively amorous intentions. From the conversation, Vincent confirms to me that is the case. He's holding the conversation, whilst I'm just trying not to make eye contact. But every time I do peak back on the situation, she's looking back at me with eyes like a jungle cat in heat. I think Vincent is on the receiving end of most of the lust, but he's not above trying to push her on me. We somehow escape from the situation, but I don't like the idea being trapped on the boat with that raging sex pest.