After lunch on Thursday at our hotel and our daily World Cup football match, we walked down Avenida Presidente Vargas, the main downtown avenue leading to the riverfront. We explored Estacao das Docas, a complex of three renovated warehouses containing restaurants, shops, etc., all air-conditioned, plus a riverside promenade with old overhead cranes once used to unload ships. It is a very attractive project, not unlike warehouse renovations in the USA. While having dinner at Docas, we quickly learned that it usually rains here in the late afternoon or early evening. Fortunately we found a taxi and returned to our hotel without getting soaked.
On Friday we took a city tour and visited churches, museums, the historic zone, and the Mercado Ver-o-Peso, the colorful waterfront market. The name comes from the Portuguese words for "check the weight", which the government did in historic times to impose taxes. We were impressed by the orderliness and cleanliness of the market. And no evidence of pickpockets as warned by Lonely Planet.
Belem, which means Bethlehem in English, is a surprisingly pleasant city of 1,500,000 and much more modern than Manaus. The city was founded by the Portuguese in 1616 and served for centuries as the port at the mouth of the Amazon for the export of cacao, indigo, animal skins, wood, and eventually rubber. Belem has seen several booms and busts. Today it is a major port for the export of soybeans grown far to the south, timber, palm hearts, fish, and shrimp. If we are successful with the upload, readers will find a screen shot above or below from Google Earth showing Belem's location at the southern extreme of the Amazon's huge mouth. Or it may be randomly placed somewhere else. If the upload is not successful, we will post it with future photos.
Belem has numerous leafy parks, wide streets except in the historic zone, and innumerable high-rise apartment buildings. Belem is noted for its thousands of majestic old mango trees planted by the government (we believe near the end of the 19th century) that line all but the narrowest of streets, frequently completely shading 4-6 lane wide avenues. We were told that when the mangos are dropping their fruit in December - February, it is treacherous to walk on the sidewalks or drive a car in the center of the city. Most of the mangos are collected and taken home to eat by the residents of the city. But we can also picture the streets covered with fruit squashed by cars.
On Saturday we tried to enter the zoo, churches, and museums, but most were closed. In fact, almost all of Belem's offices, shops, etc. were closed in anticipation of the Brazil vs. Chile World Cup match at 1 pm. Nevertheless, we were impressed to see from the outside the buildings surrounding the attractive Plaza Frei Brandao, including the Catedral da Se, the Casa das Onze Janelas, and a riverside fort.
We had lunch on a Saturday at the Boteco restaurant in the historic Casa das Onze Janelas building, or House of Eleven Windows. This renovated building was once the home of a sugar baron and then a military hospital. We watched Brazil defeat Chile over lunch with screaming local fans, then returned to our hotel in another typical afternoon downpour. There was no large screen TV in a park for World Cup fans as there was in Manaus.
On Sunday we visited the combined Parque Zoobotanico & Museu Emilio Goeldi not far from the city center. Built in 1895, the zoo is the oldest in Brazil. The founder carved the zoo out of what was then jungle outside of the city limits. Today the zoo property is a haven of jungle vegetation surrounded by an upscale area of the city. The museum contained small exhibits, including about the 11,000 year old Monte Alegre cave paintings approximately 500 miles up the Amazon and about Emilie Snethlage, a female German ethnologist and collector of artifacts who was the first to contact several Indian tribes in the early 1900s. She was the first female to lead scientific field expeditions in Brazil, often only accompanied by Amerindians.
Later we returned to Plaza Frei Brandao to finally enter the Forte do Presepio, the small riverside fort built in 1616 to protect against French and Dutch incursions from French Guiana and Suriname up the Atlantic coast. The guards first told us at the entrance that the fort was closed, but then we were asked if we were Americans. When we told them we were, they ushered us inside. We felt bad later when we were inside and observed Brazilians being turned away at the gate.
We asked several people why Manaus hosted four World Cup games in a new stadium, while Belem, a larger city with its own first-tier team, was not selected to host any games. The most common explanation that made any sense is that Belem's exclusion was based purely on politics, although we don't know the specifics. People in Belem were also generally critical of the money the country spent on the World Cup when Brazil has so many more pressing problems, such as education funding, infrastructure, hospitals, etc.
Many of Belem's restaurants serve lunch and dinner buffet-style, with customers paying by the kilo. We ate lunch one day in an above average restaurant whose offerings even included a salmon fillet that was large enough to be from a king. Our cost was approximately US$10 each. We wondered how nearby office workers eating there could afford this type of meal.
Unlike in Spanish-speaking Latin America, few locals speak any English. David has learned that speaking Spanish does not help much at all in speaking and listening to Portuguese. Fortunately, John speaks Portuguese, which has helped immensely since we entered Brazil at Tabatinga. In spite of the language barrier, David has found Brazilians to be very friendly.
If we are successful with the upload, readers will find a screen shot above or below from Google Earth of Manaus and the "meeting of the waters" of the Solimoes and Rio Negro. Or it may be randomly placed somewhere else. Notice that the two waters do not completely mix until many miles downstream from where the rivers first meet. If the upload is not successful, we will post it with future photos.
We continue to have problems with the intermittent internet service at our hotel, which has prevented us from uploading photos for several days. We will continue to try before we fly home on Wednesday. But more than likely readers will have to wait until after we return home on Thursday. Please check back the week of July 14.
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| Belem at lower right. |
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| Manaus and "meeting of rivers". |
