Stre-e-e-tching travel

Rina lives in a remote area where most people work as rubber tappers. She has a grueling trip home. She and two others have to take a bus 3-4 hours to the coast and transfer to a different bus that will take them up the coast to another river system and than follow that river for 12 hours. They will rest for a couple of nights in that town visiting relatives since there aren't many vehicles on Sundays for continuing their journey. On Monday they can either get a car or hire rides on the backs of motorbikes for several more hours to another town and then switch to a motor boat to continue on to their home village. Rina says the roads are really bad because it has been raining a lot. Heavily laden logging trucks have created enormous potholes in the unpaved road. When they get stuck they just gun the engine and try to blast their way out digging the holes ever deeper. When full of water they can be a trap for an unwary motorbike because you can't see how deep they are. She said she wasn't sure whether she would take a motorbike or a car. One's back side gets really sore sitting on a motorbike for 4 hours plus you have to get off often as the driver tries to maneuver around the enormous pot holes. But cars aren't much better. Because the roads are bad the price is high. And you may have to wait a long time before a car has enough passengers to go. Plus you have to get out often and push. On the way down she said she spent more time on the ground than she did in the car.

Despite the difficulties getting in and out of the area, it seems that rubber tapping, while not exactly lucrative, provides a decent income. She and her companions all have cell phones and seem able to refill them whenever needed. They have all also figured out how to load exotic ring tones - ring tones I'm sure Nokia never dreamed of!