Depredador

Monday 13th June 1988

I went to the British Consulate at 10:00 hrs. He got no reply on the telephone from the Venezuelan Consulate so he told me to give him my passport and aeroplane ticket and he would go there in person. He told me to come back at 15:00 hrs.

I went back to our room in the hotel to write up my diary. I was now on my third A5 book. It is a hot humid day. For lunch we went to O Vegetariano at Avenida 7 de Setembro 874. We entered through a narrow optician’s stall and took a lift to the sixth floor.

It is a clean airy place with friendly staff and a help-yourself smorgasbord (buffet) of vegetarian goodies for 300 Cruzados (230 Cz = $US1). Rain followed the darkening of the sky and rumbling thunder with lightning flashes.

We watched people run for cover in the streets far below as the heavens opened with a vengeance. When it had subsided a bit I went to the British Consulate and found out that the Consul was preparing a letter which should do the trick and get me a visa.

I had to come back in an hour, so I went out and bought some toothpaste and an Amazonas T-shirt in the busy shopping area. The rain did little to dampen the locals enthusiasm for shopping. I picked up my letter which would assure the Venezuelans that the Queen had vouched that I was a good egg.

I returned to the room where Mike and German Matis were fast asleep. I went to see “Predator”, an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, in a nice little cinema on Rua Joaquim Nabuco. This was an enjoyable bit of violent escapism with Arnie locked in mortal combat with a space monster in the jungle.

Following the release of Rocky IV, a joke circulated in Hollywood that since Rocky Balboa had run out of earthly opponents, he would have to fight an alien if a fifth film were to be made. Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas took the inspiration from the joke and wrote a screenplay based on it. The Thomas script for Predator was originally titled Hunter.

The original concept, centred on a plot of "what it is to be hunted," concerned a band of alien hunters of various species seeking various targets; that concept was eventually streamlined to one extra-terrestrial hunting the most dangerous species, humans, and the "most dangerous man," a combat soldier. Additionally, the setting was chosen as Central America for having constant special forces operations during that period.

An alien spacecraft deploys a shuttle to Earth. Meanwhile, Vietnam War veteran Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer and his military rescue team are tasked with rescuing a foreign cabinet minister and his aide from insurgents. They are followed by a hidden presence using a cloaking device who wreaks havoc on the team.

Afterwards I found Mike drinking with the other gringos from the Rio Branco Hotel at the nearest bar on the corner. I joined the group for a beer and then later we went with an American couple for a meal across the river in an area of wooden shacks where children threw firecrackers around bonfires in the roads.

We finished up in a wooden bar with a pool table overlooking the river and it’s illuminated shipping. We drank beer while curious children scampered about in the alley alongside. A lot of these shacks were nicely decorated inside with decent furniture, the obligatory music hi-fi system and colour televisions.

The inhabitants were very friendly to us visiting gringos. At 23:00 hrs. we returned to our room and said goodbye to Matis who was flying to Rio de Janeiro.