FishNet Explore 97 - Saturday, July 26, 1997

[William Vannerson <William_Vannerson@ama-assn.org>]

Saturday, July 26, 1997
 
 Today was my first effort at locating some fish.  I got up
around 8 pm and returned to Tec Toy.  Since I was unable to
solve my connection problem(s) on Friday, I thought it would
be best to start there.
 
 On my first effort I was able with an alternate account to
send all of the photos from Friday.  I even managed to post
my journals from Thursday and Friday.
 
 Around 9 am the folks from Tec Toy came by to check on
me. Due to some of our communications problems they
arranged for a local translator to spend the day with me as
well as hopefully help me find the spark plug for the portable
generator.
 
 I was next introduced to Marcos.  He teaches English to the
management at Tec Toy.  He is fluent in several languages. 
He has also worked as a jungle "guide" taking folks on
multi-day trips into the jungle.  He has  escorted Tom Cruise
and Dolf Lundren to mention a two.
 
 Having been tagged with the nickname "Indiana John"
(mostly do to my hat) Marcos and I headed south to visit
Turky's Aquarium.  I was not disappointed.
 
 Turky's Aquarium is the largest collector/exporter of tropical
fish in South America and ship fish all over the world.  The
business was founded many years ago by Willi Schwartz
(yes there are a few fish named after him) and his brother. 
 
 I observed several hundred holding vats including some
special tile ones used to house discus.  They use mostly
water pumped (and filtered) from a local tributary. All fish are
wild caught.  They are painstakingly quarantined before any
are shipped. 
 
 I saw several boxes of fish that were collected only
yesterday and transported to Turky's earlier this morning.  
 
 All of the fish were extremely healthy.  In fact, I did not see a
SINGLE dead fish while I was there. 
 
 In a given year this facility processes between 4-5 million
cardinal tetras.  
 
 Since this is the "dry" season they had very few discus. 
They had lots and lots and lots of catfishes.  While I struggle
to identify a single corydoras species, my host Shimon could
look down at a vat with a few thousand corys and
immediately tell me what species and river system they
came from.
 
 I saw all sorts of extremely rare species of catfish, both large
and small sizes in each.  
 
 Interestingly, Turky's uses Amquel.  
 
 The facility employs about 20-30 folks during the off season
and about twice this many during the peak season.  They are
open 365 days a year. 
 
 I took several pictures and I'll get more when I return as I
believe they are going to handle the shipping of any species
we collect.  
 
 If anyone has a specific request  for a picture of a specific
catfish, please let me know about it this week.  
 
 After a couple of hours at Turky's, Marcos and I returned to
Tec Toy.  We checked further on the spark plug and located
a company in the downtown area that probably had the spark
plug we needed.  We grabbed a taxi and off we went.
 
 When I noted a few "Coleman" boxes when we walked in, I
was confident that this was the place...and it was.  They
helped me learn that, contrary to the instructions with the
generator, there was already a spark plug installed.  They
sold me an extra one, some oil to mix with the gasoline and
even tested the  unit.  They were extremely impressed with
how small this unit was.  The manager even negotiated with
me to buy it when I return to Manaus.  
 
 Marcos and I next located a car rental company and rented a
vehicle for the rest of Saturday and Sunday.  With our own
transportation, we went right to the "mall" to locate an
exchange center for my currency.  If you ignored the names
of the stores, this mall - about six (6) years old - looked like
any mall in the U.S.  
 
 I exchanged some currency and then Marcos and I stopped
by the mall's food court and got lunch.  While Marcos was in
one line, I opted for a "Bob's Burger" place where I merely
pointed at a picture and held up a finger to indicate I wanted
"one" of them. 
 
 From the mall we returned to Tec Toy where I spent a couple
of hours processing the photos from Turky's and posting my
daily logs.   We then headed to the Tropical hotel.  This is
where I'll meet up with Heiko and Paola tomorrow.
 
 The Tropical was fascinating. It is located on the Amazon
river.  It is a resort-like complex with tennis courts, wave pool,
and even its own mini-zoo.  I am looking forward to moving
there on Sunday.  
 
 After confirming a reservation for Sunday, Marcos and I
walked down to the Amazon river front.  At this point the
Amazon is six (6) miles wide.  Upon seeing this I have
decided we will do our conference on Sunday from this
location.  We probably can even order a few cold ones as we
sit before the computer.
 
 == John == (reporting from Manaus, Brazil)