Belém

I've got a bit of catching up to do with my blog, due to a lack of wi-fi again. I thought Brazil was meant to be the most developed country in South America, but so far the internet access has been worse than in Bolivia. Anyway, here's my report from Belém.

Belém was my second destination in Brazil, and it's another big city, almost the same size as Manaus and with a similar feel. I spent Sunday afternoon recovering from the boat journey, and on Monday I saw most of Belém's main sights, including, in no particular order, Praça Dom Pedro II, the Cathedral, the Theatro da Paz, and the 17th century Presépio Fort (below).

I also went to the Mercado Ver-o-Peso (the 'See-the-Weight' Market), both the fish area and the Amazonian herbal remedy area. I had lunch in the modern extension of the market, which houses dozens of stands selling cheap set lunches and fruit juices (and here it is as seen from above). I also went for a look around the Estação das Docas, which is a row of converted waterside warehouses, mainly occupied now by expensive restaurants. Surprise, surprise, I didn't eat there.

I bought some brazil nuts from a street stall nearby, which seemed the obvious thing to do since I'm in Brazil. When I tried them for the first time they tasted unlike any brazil nuts I'd ever eaten - they were more like coconut than brazil nuts. But strangely when I ate some more only the following day they'd developed a really unpleasant aftertaste, and were inedible.

On Monday afternoon I went for a walk around Belém's commercial district, and I noticed a couple of things. Firstly, C&A is still going strong in Brazil, ten years after it went out of business in the UK (I saw several stores in Belém alone). Also, it was good to see a British landmark being celebrated over here - this is Belém's biggest chain of chemists, with a branch seemingly every few blocks. In the evening I went to the cinema to see Inception (in Portuguese it's called 'A Origem'), and what a great film. I wonder how they shot those zero-gravity scenes - I'm sure the internet will tell me.

On Tuesday I went to the Museo Emilio Goeldi, which is a zoo set in a city block-sized piece of rainforest in the centre of Belém. They had, among other things, a baby tapir, a jaguar, caimans and lots of turtles, but sadly no manatee, as you can see below.

And that's about all I have to say about Belém. The next blog post about São Luís should be coming along soon.