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Published: March 16th 2010
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On 11th March we said our fond farewell to Nickie. We got on the same plane to start with to Sao Paolo, then took separate connecting flights - Nickie headed off to "not so sunny England" and we headed up north to "baking hot Belem".
Belem is in the Amazonas region, 120km from the Atlantic Ocean. The hotel is great and, most importantly, airconditioned. The first day it was so hot and oppresive that we struggled to get around. By the next day we'd started acclimatising and also there was a lot more rain so that cooled things down.
We took a wonderful trip out very early one morning to Parrot Island. We were on a large boat with just two other tourists, through the lapping river waters for half an hour or so before we reached the island. We sat in silence until, just after 5.30am, the parrots started to wake and flew to and from the island, screeching all the while. It's some strange phenomenon and noone knows why the parrots are only on that island and why each morning they migrate off the island, only to return later to sleep. Whatever the reason it was great
to see it.
After watching the parrots for an hour or so the boat took us to a canal where we were able to see some of the mangrove area of one of the islands with its abundant birdlife. Toucan, vultures, herons and loads more.
There were numerous houses on stilts along the riverbank and the families were coming out to wash, play and fish. It was a Saturday so the children were home, not at the school which was on the riverbank too.
Later that day we did a private city tour for a few hours. The driver took us around the most famous sights of Belem and we got a real feel for the city. She took us through a couple of museums, the first dedicated to sacred art and the next focused on Brazilian gems.
The city has some truly beautiful colonial buildings with a real European feel. The streets are lined with huge mango trees, full of fruit. There are incredibly beautiful plazas with romantic buildings, bandstands, bridges and trees.
However, that said, there were many streets that we drove down where we would not have wanted to be walking -
the driver kept the doors locked and windows up, particularly around the market area. Some streets were strewn with litter that had been there a long time, the sidewalks were all broken up, the houses neglected and some dodgy characters walking along them.
Our final stop was at the Basilica, an impressive church covered in gilding and marble. However it was only built in the 1950s so didn't have atmosphere of an ancient church.
We were dropped at the revamped dock area for a mooch around. Not needing (or being able to) buy anything, we found a cafe with good empanadas, coffee and followed that up with a divine icecream. Tired from such an early start, we headed back to the hotel by early evening.
Belem has an element of charm about it, but an element of danger too.
Sunday we started our day at the Mangas do Garcas which has bird and butterfly enclosures set around a mangrove area. It was very nicely done and there were birds we've never seen before.
Later we went to the botanic gardens which also houses the zoo. The gardens were supposed to reflect a slice of the
amazon. They were certainly very tropical and there were some amazing palms and giant trees. The animals were fascinating - there were turtles, dwarf caimans, tapirs, birds and even a giant otter. Roaming free in the grounds were large rodent like creatures (agouti maybe?) and green tree iguanas. One iguanas was being held by someone who worked in the park while another person de-ticked it (the ticks were huge blood sucking creatures, about the size of a pea - gross!).
Our last day in Belem and we went to explore the Mercado Ver o Peso. It was a brilliant market, full of weird and wonderful things. We loved the nut section where we watched them cut the husk of the brazil nuts with machetes. We ended up buying big bags of brazil and cashew nuts which were both delicious (and cheap). There was dried fish, dried meats and chilli stalls.
The section dedicated to medicine and health was fascinating with endless bottles of tonics, dried herbs, flowers, creams and all sorts of odd things.
The people in the market were friendly and invited us to take their photo, they certainly were not camera shy.
We walked
back to the hotel that afternoon, feeling a little bit more relaxed about the city and spent some time planning the next few weeks of our trip before packing up for the flight to Sao Luis the next day.
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