Poor Amazonians living in the rich jungle | Report – Amazon Series: Decisive Combat (III)

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One day after leaving Tabatinga, the Sacred Heart of Jesus sounded its deep trumpet again and again to announce the good news to a remote town along the Solimões River. At the Santo Antônio do Ica pier, people and families are excited by the proximity of the boat. Porters line up endless batches of cargo to be taken aboard or left on the floor — bunches of bananas, giant Styrofoam boxes of ice and perhaps fish, suitcases, acai bags, a refrigerator, fans, speakers. Inside the boat, two middle-aged men who had come from Minas Gerais to sell taps and things like that had already dismantled the hammocks they had slept in the night before and were waiting for the moment to emerge into the damp, stifling heat of the morning. On board the ship, amid the angry scream of a column playing country music, the passengers looked on curiously at the hustle and bustle that broke their hours-long travel routine on an earth-coloured river flanked by two endless walls of trees.