Blogs from Belém, Pará, Brazil, South America

Belém, Brazil is the capital, and largest city, of the State of Pará in the country's north. Belém, Portuguese for Bethlehem, was initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará (Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará). Brazilians often refer to the city as Belém do Pará (Belém of Pará) to differentiate it from a number of other towns called Belém in Brazil, as well as the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank of Israel. It lies approximately 60 miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean, on the Pará River, which is part of the greater Amazon River system, and is the gateway to the Amazon River with a busy port, airport, and bus/coach station. With an estimated population of 1,499,641 people, or 2,491,052 in its metropolitan area, it is the 11th most populous city in ... read more

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

Belém was founded in 1616 by the Portuguese to guard the mouth of the Amazon river from other European powers, mainly French and Dutch. Today it is the capital of the state of Pará, it has about two million inhabitants. We arrived on Monday with a flight from Manaus. What a difference between these two cities. Belem is an attractive city, an important port in Northern Brazil, a city with many colonial and republican architecture jewels. We stayed at 'le Massilia' hotel. When you will be remembered that Massilia is Latin for Marseilles, you will understand we were in French hands and French company. The owner is indeed from Marseilles and having dinner in his restaurant is being in France. French food is served and one is in company of French peolpe, mainly French expats from ... read more

After spending another night in Sau Luis we made our way back to the bus station for an over night bus and moved further north. OUrlast day in Sau Luis was nice if rather a little boring, I think we were the only Gringo´s in the city but that wasn´t a problem. The weather was so hot and humid that we could barely walk for longer than an hour before having to head back for the room in our Pousada. The pousada itself wasn´t in the best nick!! The floors felt like they were about to cave in and in the kitchen there was ant coloneys on the wall....a nice sight when you have your first meal of the day. We also had a lizzard living somewhere in our bed but he seemed harmless! For our ... read more