Blogs from Pará, Brazil, South America - page 3

The last couple of days have been busy between buying hammocks and looking at boats for our trip as well as trying to fit in the cultural stuff in Belem. On the first night we went around the markets to find some dinner, we found a lovely little stand kind of thing where we had steak, rice noodles all four around 3euro, not bad eh?!! We tried to find a bar afterwards to have a few drinks but everything seemed to be closed after dark so we had to have a quite night in the hostel. The next morning Phillipe was´s mother runs our hotel made anne and myself go to his apartment to help him with his paintings, he does a lot of canvass paintings and seems to sell most of them. He needed help ... read more

We had a choice of 2 boats from Santarem to Belem, one that looked like a converted car ferry, the other that looked like a real Amazon cruiser built in the 40s or 50s. We chose the real Amazon cruiser. Getting onboard was more of a challenge than we expected, the guide books say that ALL boats leave from the Docas do Para which are near the middle of town, but that's not right, the N/M Santarem (our boat) leaves from Porto Derre, an industrial dock about 5 - 10km out of town. It was starting to dawn on us that there was a reason it was cheaper :-) As it had come from Manaus it was already pretty full when we got on so finding a spot for our hammocks was not so easy, but ... read more

First thing I did when I arrived at the bus station in Belem is to look for internet cafe to figure out how to get to my hostel, i called them on skype then tried to get a bus, according to instructions it's just outside the station so took one from the list i wrote down, I got on and showed the driver a piece of paper where I need to go. He looked at it and pointed me to the street perpendicular to the one I was on, so i walked across the intersection, only the bus stop was far away so have to find it, people showed me the way. i got on and did the same thing, then the driver told me to get off and the hostel is just across the street, ... read more

I can't sleep again. And the internet is working a little better than it has been. So... We met an artisan here that makes goods for tourists. He trades with the indigenous peoples of the area for animal skeletons, hides, woods, etc. and then he makes stuff out of it. Knife handles and stuff for blow dart guns, keychains, necklaces, etc. He took us to the zoo and fed us lunch at his place. We bought some things from him. The zoo here is awesome. Dirt roads in the middle of a preserve. Only part of the preserve is the zoo, the rest is... well its preserved, noone goes there. It is owned by a University. We pet a tiny Jaguar, tortured some monkeys with a latex glove (they are afraid of white gloves), saw some ... read more

I am in Santarem after 3 days on a boat. We got here two days ago and the ground still feels like its moving when I walk. This place is incredible and way flooded. They have 15 meters more river than they are supposed to, we went in a canoe today and entire trees were underwater... we paddled the canoe to a restaurant we were not supposed to be able to paddle to. And from the water stains on some of the buildings here it looks as though they probably had about one more meter in the past. I will give detailed accounts of things later, but this is probably this nicest place we have visited thus far and one of the most comfortable (and cheapest) hotel we have stayed in thus far. Below is a ... read more