Last day in Belém, Last Day in Brazil

I love the crane and railroad car at the Estação das Docas

My last day in Belém means it's my last day in Brazil.  It's Monday, segunda-feira, which means just about nothing should be open today.  So I just decided to wander the city and soak in my last soak of Brazil.

Near the Theatro da Paz

The area around the Theatro da Paz looks very different without the market-goers packed in elbow-to-elbow or, as I would say if I were Brazilian, bunda-a-bunda (since the Brazil is all about the bunda).

Street vendors set up everywhere and anywhere

Brazil would be playing its final group stage game today, so Brazilwear is for sale everywhere.  Even vuvuzelas in bright green and yellow, the colors of Brazil.

Outside the Estação das Docas

The Estação das Docas was open, although the only food places open was Cairu, the sorveteria, the ice cream shoppe.  Which was cool.  (Literally!)  The ice cream shoppe was the only food shoppe in which I was interested.  Time for one last rain forest flavor of ice cream.  So many flavors I don't recognize.  What to get.  What to get.  The Paraense looks interesting.  The buca-whatever?  Hmmmm.  The counter person is getting impatient with me.

I panic.

Açaí

And I blurt out my order for the açaí.  While not so exotic that it never reaches the USA, it is sufficiently exotic that it never seems to reach the USA as aice cream.  Refreshing and oh-so healthful is that açaí berry when it's served in ice cream form.

Things are relatively quiet over at the Ver-O-Peso.

Not many market goers shopping on a segunda-feira

So quiet.

Near the river

Not much business for the older couple shelling Brazil nuts.  They were there at that location every day I walked past, busy shelling nuts.

I'd have made a purchase if I liked Brazil nuts as anything other than an ice cream flavor

My time out today was drawing to a close.  Time to head back to the Residencia Karimbo Amazonia, the B&B where I stayed in Belém.

Residencia Karimbo Amazonia on Travessa Piedade (a street Belém cabbies could never find)

Time to shower up, pack, and catch a taxi to the airport.

Which means another vacation has come to a close.

Which means another vacation blog has come to a close.  I will be back here with a special edition second mega-vacation blog this September, when it's back to Croatia.

At the Belém airport, ready to start the long, three-part journey home via Brasilia and Atlanta

All museums in Belém appear to be closed, so off to the Brew Pub

Boat on the Rio Guajará with something (not sure what) in the foreground 

I think that before I arrived in Belém, knowing that it was in the Amazon basin, I was expecting the air to be thick with mosquitos and other bugs.  Almost like a heavy rain.  Thankfully, it's not.  So, stupidly, I forgot to Deet up when I went outside and now insect bites cover my arms.  Hopefully the percentage carrying yellow fever and that -- what's it called? -- chimichanga? virus -- is sufficiently low.

The bug content isn't as high as I feared, but the equatorial sun is even hotter.  It's like the intensity of the Las Vegas sun, combined with Washington, D.C., in July humidity.  So the thought of spending an afternoon in the air conditioned comfort of a museum -- any museum -- was very appealing.

So back to the museum district of Cidade Velha.

Side street near the Theatro da Paz

 It was a thankfully short walk.

Interesting building covered in these little blue tiles

 

Past the quay.

Praça do Relogio, I believe, but don't bet it all in Final Jeopardy based on that representation

I just wanted to find something open and air-conditioned.

This didn't lead to anything open or air-conditioned

Of course the Catedral da Sé would be closed. It's Sunday!

A man could work up a powerful thirst on such a quest.  So I decided to refresh myself with some coconut water.  We live in a place where coconut water is expensive, over-priced and comes in a bottle. In Brazil, it comes in a coconut.

Refreshment stand outside the Forte de Presépio

For three reaies, about $1.50, they chop off the top of the green coconut.

Opening up the coconut

And it's filled with a whole bunch of cold water with a slight coconut flavor.  There was more water inside than I was expecting. Not sure if it's available Harry Nilsson style, where they put the lime in the coconut (drink it all up).

Refreshed and fortified, I continued my quest:

Don't let the cars in front fool you. This museum is closed.

Even the museum of the history of Pará, the Brazilian state of which Belém is the capital, was closed. So there was only one thing left to do.  Off to the Brew Pub!  Off to the upscale Estação Das Docas for some upscale cuisine in an upscale Brew Pub.

Along the Rio Guajará at the Estação Das Docas

Some prefer dining al fresco. Me? I prefer the a/c.

The Amazon Beer Brew Pub had all the standard brew pub beer flavors:

Could be a brew pub anywhere in the states

I had the Red Ale Priprioca, which was mighty tasty to a thirsty man.

Remants of the Red Ale Priprioca

It was good.  Nothing special.  Nothing bad.  I had the Peixe Grelhado, or grilled fished.  I'm sure the use of the word "peixe," rather than referring to a specific fish, means they grilled up whatever got pulled from the waters that day.  Which sounded good to me.

Peixe grelhado with mashed potatoes

The mashed potatoes were herbed up with chives, which was good, but also had grape tomato halves all through them, which was not my idea of a mashed potato ingredient.  I do eat my tomatoes on every continent bur North America, so I ate these.  The tomatoes were crunchy and sweet and didn't ruin the taters.

For dessert?  Stout Açai, which was "fortified" with açai berry

A minha cerveja Stout Açai

It was less bitter than most stouts, so I would call that victory.  Then it was off for the real dessert.

The world-renowned Cairu ice cream stand

Cairu.  For ice cream.  Cairu has close to 50 flavors, mostly rain forest fruits that are ice cream flavors nowhere else that I know of.  I chose "Castanha do Pará," "the nut of Pará," which we call in the USA, "the Brazil nut."  In Brazil, the nut is tied to one specific state instead of the whole country.

Consider the Brazil nut.  It is awful in a bowl of Planter's mixed nuts.  As an ice cream flavor, however, it is AWESOME.  Beyond mere words.

Sun on the Rio Guajará

The sun was getting lower over the Rio Guajará.  Time to go back to my room and watch some USA vs. Portugal soccer.

The Elegant Decay of Belém (Part Um)

A boat plies the waters of Rio Guajará

Belém is a port city in an elegant state of decay.  How could it not to be?  It is very wet and rainy city with high humidity.  Its golden age was more than 100 years ago, during the rubber boom, but the city is over 400 years old.  It is the Atlantic port of the Amazon River. It is located on an estuary of the Amazon, rather than the Amazon itself, but the rivers are huge in these parts.

Why come to Belém?  Two reasons.  Even in its state of decay, it is still a beautiful city with a great history and the famous Ver-O-Peso ("see the weight") market.  And it is the center for Amazonian-Brazilian cuisine, where the flavors of the Amazonian rain forest are brought forth to the rest of the world.  And sometimes these great rain forest flavors are turned into ice cream.  But more on that later.

This is my walking tour of the reclaimed port area, the Ver-O-Peso market, and the Cidade Velha of Belém.  Apparently there's a modern city here, too, but who cares about that?

First, the area around the guesthouse where I am staying, the Residencia Karimbo Amazonia.

The view down Travessa Piedade

It is B&B.  The owner, who is French (note the partially hidden tri-color being flown out front), rents a few rooms in his residence.  I would highly recommend the place to you the next time you are in Belém.

The Residencia Karimbo Amazonia 

From there it is a short walk to the river:

I think this is a banyan tree, but I'm no arborist

Lots of statuary and beautiful old colonial style buildings:

Meet Pedro Teixeira

That man is Pedro Teixeira, the first European to travel the length of the Amazon.  That's an impressive feat.

Alongside the Rio Guajará, or Guajará Bay which, technically, count as the waters of the Amazon (system)

The area alongside the river here has been beautifully developed.  The old port buildings have been re-purposed into Estação Das Docas, a complex of shops and upscale restaurants.  Normally, I'm not one for "upscale" restaurants, but when it comes to Amazonian-Brazilian cuisine, I'm guessing I'm going to prefer the more "upscale version"

Outside the Estação Das Docas

 They even kept the old port cranes for atmosphere.

Still outside the Estação Das Docas

Selfie along the waters of Rio Guajará

They even have a brew pub in the Estação Das Docas, for Amazon Beer, that's how upscale it is:

Amazon Beer brew pub

Amazon Beer brew pub, note the copper vats

From there, it was onto the more traditional, more historic, Ver-O-Peso, translated alternately as "See The Weight," or "Check The Weight".

This is where you get tour boats to explore the river:

Touring boat docked

I'm guessing this small little boat is for day-trippers, but I'm not sure.

The dining section of the tent section next to Ver-O-Peso

This is where real Belém eats, not in the upscale Estação Das Docas.  There looked to be a lot of grilled chicken (frango) being eaten in there, which I could handle, but I wimped out and opted for the upscale buffet dining in air-conditioned comfort (a lifesaver given the humidity levels in this city). Note that the Ver-O-Peso has grown so huge that the old building can't contain all the market stalls.  There is a tented section between the Ver-O-Peso and the upscale Estação Das Docas.

My favorite part of the Ver-O-Peso was the fruit section.  Some of the fruits were familiar-looking.  After all, Belém is known as the "Mango City" and I know what a mango looks like.

Fruit market

But the fruit market smelled great.

And, finally, the blue spires of Ver-O-Peso:

Various views of the Ver-O-Peso

This a real working market and not a tourist attraction.  Tourist souvenirs are sold in tents between this and the Estação Das Docas.

From here I walked to the Cidade Velha.  But my battery is getting low (actually and metaphorically), so I will stop here and post Part Dois later.