Blogs from Pará, Brazil, South America

Tha erum vid komin til Brasiliu, Belem nanar tiltetekid. Ad baki er batsferd i litlum bat yfir landamaeri Fronsku Gvaejana og Brasiliu, 10 tima rutuferd i drullu, grjoti og verulega mishaedottu landslagi, tveggja daga pasa i Macapa og nu sidast 28 klukkustunda batsferd i hengirumi, em vid skulum byrja a byrjuninni... Sidustu dogunum i Fronsku Gvaejana var eytt i afsloppun, kokteildrykkja og strandferd svo eitthvad se nefnt. Oldurnar i Atlandshafinu geta verid ansi kroftugar og i eitt skipti vildi ekki betur til en svo ad ein reif okkur baedi a bolakaf, Svenna skaut aftur upp en Hronn faceplant-adi og bring-adi (thad er orugglega ord) botninn og kom upp ur med oll got hofudsins full af sandi, berbrjosta med bikiniid nidri a maga. Thad var sem betur fer fament a strondinni og thvi voru ekki margir sem ... read more

At 4am on April 29th we landed in Belem and immediately rested by a water feature inside the airport, waiting for light to ease our passage to town. Eventually we summoned some kind of energy to find a bus going anywhere near our hostel, though once we were onboard the driver took pity on us and delivered us right to the front door. This, we learned, was typical Belem kindness and hospitality. Belem is a large port city lying on the south bank of the River Amazon's mouth, which is so wide it makes the city look irrelevent. Exhausted from our flight, we arrived with the intention of going straight to bed; however, the hostel workers had the royal wedding on the television, so we sat for a while and watched pictures from home, not at ... read more

The island of Marajo is located in the heart of the Amazon river delta. The north-eastern part is facing the ocean, but most of it is surrounded by the Amazon or other rivers that join in the delta. It is huge, in fact 1.8 times bigger that Belgium! It is a three hour journey by boat from Belém. Our guidebook didn't say a lot about it, so we found a place to stay on the internet. We later discovered that the French 'Guide du Routard' has more information, so we could have booked directly and save some 'reals', next time... What we booked was a 4 day/3 nights stay at a farm (or fazenda) on the island. I didn't know what to expect, I just followed Robson whose expectations were very high. The boat trip as ... read more

De retour a Santarem, nous avons pris nos billets pour le bateau pour Manaus partant le lendemain apres midi. Ca nous laissait une journee pour se balader dans le centre. Il faisait tellement chaud qu´on s´est pose a une terrace pour savourer quelques 'sucos', les fameux jus de fruits exotiques venus tout droit de l´Amazonie. On s´est balade parmi les marches, toujours tres animes. Beaucoup de poissons fraichement peches sur les etalages, tellement enormes qu´il ferait palir plus d´un pecheur! Par contre l´odeur avec la chaleur... L´equipage du bateau nous a gentiment laisse installer nos hamacs le soir, on donc pu dormir sur le bateau ce qui nous a economise une nuit d´hotel. Depart le lendemain prevu a 1heures de l´apres midi.... read more