Belem, Brazil

Sunday, February 26, 2012 – Belem, Brazil

The Blue Coats arrive in Belem! (pronounced bay-len with the accent on 2nd syllable) We had wonderful tender boats supplied by the port for the very short ride to the pier; they were colorful two-storey river boats with plastic stacking chairs for seats! Felt like an authentic experience for approx. 10 minutes! Our arrival port was almost 45 minutes from the larger city of Belem and as we arrived to the city so did the rain. So all the blue coats emerged from our bags – the practical rain coats given as a gift from the ship. We were easily identified as tourists but at that point, better dry than wet. We were dropped off at the very modern bus, taxi and river boat terminal, Estacao das Docas, and walked the very short distance to the Ver-o-peso market. The market name means “check-the-weight market”, created in 1688 as a result of the Portuguese tax for everything entering and leaving Amazonia. It is Sunday and raining – although I think they are used to the rain in this section of the world. The restaurant stalls were clearly identified with the owner’s name and some even had a TV, like a small bar. They have a space large enough for four stools for customers, the counter to eat from and the small area behind for cooking. Fried fish, pork, rice, vegetables…the smells were tempting. The next market had the fresh fruits and herbs – MANY fruits were unidentifiable to us so I took some photos. Even when I asked for their name, I had no idea what it was – just that it was a fruit or a vegetable. The herbs were wrapped in bundles – some were “sticks” and some were fresh bunches. The stalls along the Amazon River were handicrafts – wooden products from dark and light wood, boxes from a very light wood similar to balsa and unique jewelry and wooden tubes that sound like rain. The fish market was just about closed by the time we arrived but you could smell the activities of the morning. The Plaza de Relogio had a large Big Ben clock and then the Museo de Arta Sacra is near the Cathedral (was once an elegant palace and the site where the Spaniards and Portuguese met to set the frontiers for their respective colonies), Catedral de Se (which was closed until 4PM on a Sunday!). The Forte do Belem/Forte do Presepio overlooked the market place (built by the Portuguese in 1616 to protect their claim on the land) and the Casa das Onza Janelas now housed an art exhibition and a lovely area for waterfront dining by the river. Outside the Fort and Cathedral, there was a 1956 light beige Chevrolet with a very proud owner, a wealthy Belem resident. He spoke excellent English and said he loved antique cars as they reminded him of his days with his Father driving him to school. He owns only antique cars and had his friend/restorer with him.

We did not explore the Palacio Lauro Sodre (once a wealthy home and now the state museum) or the Parque Zoobotanico and Museu Emilio Goeldi so we have something for next time. By 1675, the city had grown into a prosperous port. Shipments of fragrant spice departed to Portugal and European goods were brought back. Poor Portuguese farmers emigrated in the hope of building new and prosperous lives and missionaries arrived to convert Amerindiens. There were bloody raids and Belem held the dubious distinction as the place where the first visiting bishop was killed and eaten by his would-be converts.

In 1876, Henry Wickham exported 70,000 rubber seed plants as a gift to Queen Victoria and they were grown in Kew Gardens. Belem was awash in money in the 1800s from demand for the rubber latex so they imported a cast-iron market hall from Scotland, streetlights and electric trams from England and dresses and lingerie from Paris. Today, it seems grotty and worn but perhaps the rain was a major influence on our perspective.

After taking the bus back to the ship, we walked the streets of the village of Icoaraci and bought some drinks at the local grocery store. A fisherman had just returned with his large catch of dorada and we watched several river boats and a ferry boat arrive and depart.

Back on our home ship, we had dinner in the dining room – all three of us, which had not happened in quite awhile. No entertainment as it was Oscar Night so we went to the casino.

“I could not at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Monday, February 27, 2012 – cruising Amazon and crossing equator

Cloudy and muggy, we are cruising up the Amazon. We cross the equator and therefore a ceremony is required! About 40 passengers jumped in the small pool in the Lido area and we had two “gentlemen piranhas” swim through them to earn a certificate.
The temperature was actually was not unpleasant today – not too muggy and humid and there was a great breeze. We saw clumps of grass and wooden planks floating by us (instead of icebergs and penguins!). We still have about 700 miles to get to Manaus.

There are over 250 days a year of significant rainfall in the Amazon. In the 1940s, the Brazilian government set out to develop the interior, which was away from the seaboard where foreigners owned large tracts of land. The demand for rubber from the Allied Forces in WWII provided funding for this drive. A large-scale colonization program saw families relocated to the forests, encouraged by promises of cheap land. They found the rainforest soil difficult to cultivate. In the 1970s, the idea of the Transamazonica highway was born, when President Medici decided that the Northeasterners should colonize Amazonia. The 3,360 mile “highway of national integration” was to be cut across the caatinga (savanna) and rain forests from Joao Pessoa (where we were!) on the Atlantic coast to Boquerao da Esperanca on the Peruvian border. Only 1,500 miles of highway was actually constructed and only a few short stretches are paved! Today, it is full of potholes large enough to tip a bus and is all but impassable in the wet season. Even in the dry weather, buses struggle for 34 hours to cover 600 miles from Maraba to Itaituba and the road beyond there has been closed since 1999. !!!!!

There are over 200 languages spoken by the various tribes in the Amazon region.
Movie “Where the River Runs Black" about the Amazon-- Ok since we are in this region.

Mr. Lee Bradley, UK tenor/opera singer, was the entertainer.