Blogs from Belém, Pará, Brazil, South America - page 4

Sitting here now in the city of Belem all the way up at the mouth of the Amazon, and thinking back on all that’s happened in the last month and everything we’ve done, it seems all too much to fit on one entry. Cruising the beautiful coastline of northeast Brazil, we have experienced several new things, seen countless picturesque beaches, and met many wonderful people; all the while taking our Portuguese to new levels as less and less people speak any English at all. The people of the north-east of Brazil are reputed to be wonderful hosts. We have found this to be more than true. Many times the people we met really went out of their way for us - inviting us to stay at their homes and cooking their interesting foods for us, assisting ... read more

A quick update of the following months from which I seemingly vanished: I leave Pernambuco and head North into Paraíba, traveling through small dusty towns of the deep interior and into the state of Ceará. Greeted as a curiousity, as always I recieve loads of stories about whatever person from another country once passed through. I never once meet another foreigner or tourist. I make a beeline to Fortaleza and pass a week scoping out the city before recieving my parents. We pass a week along the coast, experiencing the coastal strip of tall dunes and one church towns and a bout of violent food poisioning and two flat tires. My parents depart, I remain in Brazil, without itinerary. I wander to São Luis, then depart without looking back to a quieter place across the bay, ... read more

sodeli, nochere sehr abentuerliche fahrt vo são luis uf belem simmer etz endlich do. mir hend ues gluecklicherwiis fuer dtagesfahrt entschiede, well schlofe hettmer do eh noed choene. e stross wo zwueschedure loecher het wommer e halbs auto choend dristelle. eifach zkrass und i mein belem isch noed gad wuerkli en unwichtige ort, isches doch smuul vom amazonas und i nimm mol ah en wichtige hafe fuer alli gueter usem amazonas fuer di ganz welt. however. de zue chunt no , dass mir abeme gwuesse ort sogar no polizeischutz becho hend. isch scho krass. han mol i de zitig glaese, dasses uf dere strecki am meischte busueberfaell in brasilie git. aber isch au klar, bi dere fahrbahn, wommer nur chan schritttempo fahre. logischerwies hemmer denn auno en usgraubte und leerstehende bus gseh. miteme schuss uf dfrontschiebe, ... read more

So we left Rio and headed inland briefly to Ouro Preto, an old mining town set in the hills. Its a pretty place, surrounded by lots of greenery, with cobbled streets and lots of coloured colonial style buildings. We found some very friendly locals who went out of their way to meet our weird gringo requests... at the local restaurant myself and a couple of others asked for wine, but they didnt have any... however the owner nipped out to a local shop and bought some especially for us! It did take a while to actually get a glass, since it was white wine and wasnt chilled so they put it in a bucket of ice for a while... then they had to work out how to open it, which was obviously something they dont do ... read more

I spent this WE on Ilha de Marajo, where the buffalos are wild and stroll around the streets. It is a very primitive island with few cars but many bikes. On the somewhat scary trip to the island (there were big waves, not a very stable boat, people were screaming, bags were flying everywhere and I think that the life wests were hanging there more for decoration than for other purposes :o) I met a bunch of crazy Frenchies that I ended up sharing room with. I had my first warm shower (or should I say boiling since it was either icecold or boiling, hihi) since I came to Brazil. Very nice. We had some nice buffalo meet and then explored the only disco in town. After having tried three times, the bouncer lady finally decided ... read more