Touring Belem, Brazil

Belem, Brazil – 19 April 2010

I managed to get my suitcase out before the 7:30 AM deadline. After dressing, I went downstairs for breakfast, which was buffet and acceptable. When I went back to my room to get my backpack, I was surprised that my luggage had still not been taken down. Eventually, we boarded the buses and took off for the open air market, which is reputed to be the largest in South America. It is called “See and Weigh”, because officials would meet the farmers and/or fisher man when they arrived with their produce and weigh it. The farmer or fisherman had to pay a ten percent tax on what he was planning to sell. Now they sell fruits, nuts and other produce, but apparently fish are the big thing. The market opens at 4:00 AM and restaurants come to buy the fish. It was already late when we were there and some of the vendors had already left. There was an area where they sold handicrafts and I bought a few items. In fact, I was so busy buying that I lost the group from bus 1. I attached myself to the group from bus 2 until I caught up with the bus 1 group as they were boarding the bus to head to the Cathedral.

See and Weigh Market - Handicraft Section
I bought some pottery items here.



Street Scene at See and Weigh Market
See and Weigh Market - Woman shelling Brazil Nuts
See and Weigh Market - Brazil Nuts
Amazon River in background of See and Weigh Market - Handicrafts Section
Street Scene at See and Weigh Market
Fish Section of See and Weigh Market

The cathedral is based upon a “miraculous” statue that was found by someone who attempted to bring it to another church, but it returned to the original location; consequently, they built the cathedral around it. The cathedral was built during the years of the rubber boom and no expense was spared. The heavy bronze doors were imported from Portugal and different types of marble were imported from Italy. Skilled craftsman were imported to do the carving of the statues. The fantastic mosaics were done by local craftsman. The people who donated the money had their names on the items they paid for. The only exception was the painting over the front door. Since it would be impossible to see the names from the distance, they painted in pictures of the donors.

A theatre was also constructed, but we didn’t have time to see it and in addition, it was closed.

Cathedral

CathedralInterior of Cathedral
Interior of Cathedral

Our next stop was the Botanical Garden, which had interesting local plants and animals. There were several types of birds, a few monkeys and a few Jaguars, which are majestic. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get very good pictures of the Jaguars, since they refused to cooperate!

Description
Brids
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Jaguar

Lilly Pads
Turtles

We had a buffet lunch in what looked like it was once or could have been a warehouse. After lunch, we hung around, because we were not permitted to board the ship until 3:00 PM. The crew was in the process of cleaning up from the previous cruise. I got to the ship just as it started raining. We were met with Champagne. I registered, got my room key, purchased computer time and came to my cabin. I was surprised at its size. I had expected a smaller cabin. I hung around and finished reading “The Sisters of Sinai” by Janet Soskice, which has proved to be more interesting than I expected. Maybe the fact that I’ve been to all the places in the Middle East that they speak of made it more interesting to me.

At about 4:30PM we had the mandatory fire drill followed by the speeches of the cruise director and the naturalists, which I found interesting. I headed back to the cabin to change for dinner and then headed upstairs for the cocktail hour and then dinner. I am having a rough time staying awake.