4th February 1986 : Shopping, Writing, Chatting

Published on 4 February 2026 at 19:25

Food shopped in town with Bob after initial panic about Kel’s money - not sure what’s going on with trip funds.

 

Really enjoyed the market and the sour old ladies making us feel like they’d been hard done by until I smiled broadly. They smiled back, acknowledging that their leading us around by the hand from stall to stall and us bargaining down the prices is all just a game. So much less hassle than I'd expected that we had to haul a monstrous bag of goodies back to the truck.

 

Walked to the artisan market but the black statuettes I'd seen yesterday were gone and the brown ones increased in price. Spotted a huge, woven wad of spider's web strung between two trees. Bought a Granny Smith apple and four cartons of yoghurt from the supermarket and several butterfly wing pictures of native women from a stall.

 

Back to camp where I finished Annie’s letter in the bar, the smell from the toilets speeding up my writing.

 

After cooking a dinner of plantains, headed over to the EO truck where Vicki and I made chocolate cake. EO's oven was a bit hot, so the outside was black before the rest cooked, but in the end the cakes rose out of the pans to meet us. We noisily devoured still-hot cake smothered with Chris’s hand-beaten mocha cream spread as the rest of the camp slept. We put a slice outside Geoff’s tent for his 5.30 am guarding shift and sat up late talking and drinking coffee. Tentatively ate offered manioc after Vicki declared it “pretty good” but I wasn't impressed at all.

 

Much cooler than last night.

 

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