World Cruise 2013: Day 108

World Cruise 2013

April 23, 2013

Today the ship arrived in Belem, Brazil. The southern channel of the mouth of the Amazon lies just to the north of Belem, and as such, the city is known as the Metropolis of the Brazilian Amazon region. Belem is also known as the “City of the Mango Tree, due to the large number of such trees in and around the area. The city name of Belem comes from the Portuguese and means “Bethlehem”. It is the capital of the Para state of Brazil.

The ship was not docked in Belem but was anchored off of Icoaracy Village. The tenders used were not the ships tenders but boats from the shore.

I left on a tour called “Belem Highlights”. We got a old double decker boat that pulled up to the ship. You had to lean over and step down to get on the boat. The boat held more people than the ships tenders so it took a long time to load the people. The ride to the shore was about 30 minutes and we found our bus and got on. The bus was a very nice double decker bus. We drove thru the village of Icoaracy and headed for Belem. It took us about 45 minutes to drive to Belem. Along the way we saw quite a bit of filth and dirt. We saw some industry and lots of old buildings some of which were houses and some which were places of business. In Belem there were some modern buildings, as you will see when I send you the pictures. We drove thru the downtown area and our first stop was in the old part of town at the Ver-o-Peso Market, a huge outdoor market that sprawls four city blocks. We walked thru the market, which include crafts, shirts, and food and the guide told us about the food like the fruit and nuts that are found in the Amazon. Some interesting places include the drinks that are made, the herb medicines, and the large number of different kind of fish that was for sale at the market. We left eh market and walked over to the Forte do Castelo, a fortress built by the Portuguese in the 17^th century. This was the highest point in the city and was a good place to take pictures. We saw the Cathedral De Se and took pictures but did not go inside. Our next stop was at the Basilica of Our Lady of Nazareth, which is an elaborate copy of St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome. Our last stop was the the Emilio Goeldi Zoo & Botanic Park which covers twelve acres of wooded area and is a renowned research center dedicated to studying Amazonian fauna and flora.

We headed back to Icoaracy Village where we got on the boat for the 30-minute boat ride to the ship.

Below are some pictures taken from the ship and from my tour.