Our flight landed in Belem, the city from which most leave for the Amazon. Since it was really early in the morning on the 18th of April, we cabbed it straight to the hostel, Residencia B&B ringing the bell and finally managing to get inside. They didn’t have the double room free that we reserved online, but we were too tired to argue and just crashed in what they gave us, which was a really damp twin that didn’t look anything like the photos online. Colin and I spent the next day trying to rest up from the middle of the night plane ride, ordering in some food and attempting to get laundry done. However, despite saying they did laundry, the hotel didn’t, so Colin had to walk around the city trying to find something reasonable. As soon as we could, we found a different hotel, closer to the main square, called Hotel Novo Avenida. The location of this hotel was perfect for visiting the main tourist attractions, but you wouldn’t want to walk around too late at night as the atmosphere got pretty tense with plenty of drug-users, homeless people, and hookers directly outside the hotel. Basically, similar to our place in Rio!
After reviewing the things to do in Belem, we got out on April 19th to go to the Espaco Sao Jose Liberto, which turned out to have A/C in the whole building (massive relief in the tropics!) and a huge space divided into lots of little collections and things to look at. One of the first places we went was a pretty rock garden filled with different colored mineral stones – most of them various shades of pink! We heard this place had a lot of gem stores and an exhibit on all the different minerals found in Brazil, so we figured this was an introduction.
To the side of the rock garden was a small room telling us about the space’s history. It was originally known as the “convent of St. Joseph” and built in 1749 by Capuchin Friars. Once the Jesuits were expelled, the space was transformed into different uses including as a warehouse, as barracks, then as a hospital, and finally as a prison. There were even newspaper photos on display from one of the famous prison rebellions! There were also some rather sketchy ‘tools’ used to abuse prisoners on display as well… Currently this former prison is now a museum space for the gems, jewelers, and other artisans.
In the back of the former prison was the official gems display. We had to be let in, then locked-in, to this series of rooms because the gems inside were so valuable they had to monitor exactly who was inside at all times! The extensive history display took us from the beginning of life in Brazil (among the various indigenous tribes) all the way to the present minerals found in currently operating mines across the region. From this display Colin and I learned that the challenge put to European colonizers in the 15th Century to find new treasures focused in large part on gold and gems in the regions of Para and in the Amazon.
Mining in Brazil is big business; Brazil is one of the largest gem exporters in the world. The State of Para in Brazil has been found to have at least 250 different sites where gems can occur. The Jesuits were the first to search for gold in the area, the same group who originally built the Gems Museum buildings. A river we would later visit, the Tapajos River near Santarem, was literally a gold-mine! Diamonds as well – an 8 carat diamond was sent from by the Santarem tax collection back to the King of Portugal as an impressive gesture.
The museum gave us an explanation for the indigenous people in the area, how they arrived in Para, and what their existence was like prior to the arrival of Europeans. Ceramics (long-necked vases, burial urns, amulets, and anthropomorphic statues) have been found along the Amazon river which date back 9,000 years in the Para region.
One of the amulets you probably can’t see much in the picture is a green jade frog figure known as a “muiraquita.” Muiraquita protection amulets are usually frogs, but can be birds, turtles, or even sometimes in the shape of humans. The name comes from two Tupi words put together: “Muyra” meaning “tree” and “Quit” meaning “knot” – “knot of trees” – and the object originated with the Tupi as well. Muiraquita figures indicate that the indigenous community believed the green stones (including jade, amazonite, nephrite, etc.) had something special about them that enabled wearers to have extra protection, especially regarding the power of fertility. In fact, these amulets were most commonly worn by women living between the Tapajos and Xingo River area in order to help prevent disease and avoid infertility.
A little story from the Muiraquita Wiki:
“The legend says that the amulet was offered as a gift by the Icamiaba warriors to all those Indians who annually visited their camp at the river Nhamundá. Once a year, during a ceremony dedicated to the moon, the warriors received the Guacaris warriors with whom they mated. At midnight, they dived into the river and brought up a greenish clay in their hands, which they molded into various forms: frogs, turtles or other animals, and presented these to their loved ones. Some versions say that this ritual would take place in an enchanted lake named Jaci uaruá ("mirror moon" in Old Tupi: îasy arugûá). Retrieved from the bottom of the river and shaped by the women, the still soft clay hardened in contact with the elements. These objects were then strung on the strands of hair of their brides and used as amulets by their male warriors. To date, this amulet is considered a sacred object, believed to bring happiness and luck and also to cure almost all diseases.” (Muiraquita Wiki, 2013)
There were huge gems of all different kinds in the exhibit – gold, amethysts, diamonds, quartz, emeralds, etc. Some of the gems were radioactive, and we were quite glad they were behind cases! Even suits and mining equipment! They also exhibited not only the valuable gems in the region but some of the valuable plant materials from the region as well. One of these materials, and one of the coolest things we saw in the museum was 260 million-year-old giant piece of fossilized wood.
I saw a lot of different cases filled with replica indigenous jewelry. One of these was a necklace with a “Tanga” amulet, which I learned from the museum was a covering similar to a thong that indigenous women used to wear. From the numerous pottery finds on Marajo Island near Belem there have been plenty of tanga amulets buried alongside female indigenous graves. The necklace looked amazing, but it was a bit expensive so I put it back. Instead, we decided to buy a necklace with one of the wooden frog Muiraquita amulets.
After enjoying a chocolate ice-cream we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel and ordered in that evening. The next morning we decided to head out into the Mercado Ver O Peso (meaning “check the weight,” based on the colonial habit of checking items’ weights to impose taxes) to see what we could find. The market has an iron structure (the Mercado do Ferro) which was brought from Britain in the early 1900’s and assembled in Brazil. There were tons of different animals in cages (a lot of the ones to be sold as pets looked very unhealthy) along with plants and knick-knacks.
We heard that this market used to sell illegal animal skins (I even saw a photo in a book later showing one of the stalls with a jaguar skin) but thankfully we didn’t see anything too sketchy being sold (just the poor mistreated animals) in the market. The next place we went was a museum called the Cirio Museum. This museum gives you a history (only in Portuguese, however, so learn before you go or bring a translator!) of the famous Catholic religious festival that takes place in Belem every year since the 1800’s. The festival has its origins with the discovery of a statue of Mary in the 1700’s in a riverbank, a statue that is now paraded yearly in October (steadied by a large rope) through the city.
There was a Sacred Art Museum we went into, but photos weren’t allowed. The majority of the museum was an old church in pretty great condition! There were even a few gold religious object. The next place we went was down on the street corner was the Forte do Presepio, founded in 1616. We entered and climbed up the outside walls to see the Amazon River on display along the side. There was a museum with lots of indigenous artifacts inside from many various tribes making up the Tupi “spectrum” of indigenous peoples who spoke the same language but of various ethnic groups (more funeral jars found in the area of Anajas, ritual masks, the Karaja people’s ceramic dolls, the Wai Wai people’s vases, and various zoomorphic figures) but we couldn’t read anything because it was only in Portuguese! We had to piece together the information from the visuals.
It was nearly noon now, so we went next door to the House of Eleven Windows (Casa das Onze Janelas) which was supposed to have a restaurant and a series of art exhibits inside. Instead we found a large war ship in the back and a simple photographic exhibit upstairs (it looked like everything else was closed) – not too much to see except the building itself, which was once the home of a sugar baron.
While the restaurant looked nice it was also extremely expensive, so we avoided that and headed to the Mangrove of the Herons. As soon as we walked in we were surrounded by animals – tons of birds and reptiles all over the place! We almost walked straight on an iguana because it blended in so well with the grass, we didn’t even see it there at first! I went and got us our entry tickets which had little pull-off coupons for entrance into various activities, the first of which was a trip up the 47 meter high observation tower known as the “Lighthouse of Bethlehem” to see the whole park at once.
The next coupon we had was for a little exhibit on the history of the Brazilian Navy, which was originally inspired by the British (including numerous British captains) after Brazilian independence – mostly in order to defend this independence from the Portuguese. We learned that the indigenous river transport used to be in certain types of canoes called “Uba” from the Tupi word “Iwa” originally meaning “tree.” The indigenous canoes were made by placing a whole tree trunk in a fire, then shaping the trunk using the fire – ending up with a boat with no seats, and only oars used to paddle. Some of the native techniques for making canoes and navigating the rivers were remembered when the navy started to take shape.
The new navy was based on the same style as the previous Portuguese navy, with similar departments and some of the same participants. In the 1880’s, Brazil’s naval force was extremely powerful, and continued to be so during numerous wars within the country (a revolt in Pernambuco) and over borders around their country (such as with Paraguay.) Emperor Dom Pedro I and II influenced the strength of the navy by making numerous personal donations, even including donating ships. While their navy fell into disrepair in the late 1800’s, they regained force by participating in both World War I and World War II, patrolling the Atlantic via submarines with the help of the US Navy.
Back outside again after our naval education, Colin and I headed towards the bird park. One of the first birds we came across heading to the park was also one of my favorites – the red ibis! This is an absolutely stunning creature, with its bright red/pink feathers and curved beak! Especially when you see a flock of them gathered together at once… a sea of red!
Here I’ll show everyone some pictures of the more interesting birds we came across, and tell you a little something we’ve learned since then about a few of them. The scarlet ibis is a stunning bird due to its red color and unique beak, but they actually start out brown in color. They change color as they grow older when they molt due to eating a lot of red crustaceans! (I wonder if we feed them purple or blue things… purple ibis?) When they take off together as a group, then form a giant “V” which looks like a huge red arrow flying by in the sky. The next cool birds we came across was the speckled chachalaca and the southern lapwing, both which we found to be quite loud with their bird calls!
Colin’s favorite birds we saw that day were the roseate spoonbill and the flamingos. Similar to my favorite scarlet ibis, both of these birds have a unique feather coloration that is derived from the color of their diet. The pink color is from consuming pink-colored crustaceans. The darker the color of their plumage, the more well-fed the bird is and the better a mate it makes! I really wonder what would happen if we bred these crustaceans to be different colors! While spoonbills are protected now, they used to be at risk of extinction because they were hunted for their beautiful pink feathers which were used for ladies’ fans at the turn of the century. While the spoonbills have an interesting beak, flamingos’ habit to stand on only one leg is even more bizarre! Especially because no one can figure out why they do it.
There were a bunch of other birds we found beautiful and interesting, so here are some pictures – including egrets standing around in the rain!
While we were attempting to visit the flooded butterfly garden and hiding from the rain grabbing a snack to eat, Colin and I saw one of the creepiest birds imaginable: The Jabiru Stork. I’m terrified of these things – they look hideous and just really, really scary! These birds are native to the Amazon region, and their name “jabiru” actually comes from the Tupi language and means “swollen neck.” These storks built massive nests up in the trees together and take turns incubating their eggs. Their insane-looking beaks help them to protect these eggs and feed them once they are chicks. (Although, they look like something from a monster movie. Why use those little birds Hitchcock, when you could have used these hideous things!?) It started pouring rain even heavier towards the end of our visit, and it didn’t seem to want to stop so we decided to leave the park and hide from it back in the hotel. After a quick final walk around the garden in the rain to see some colorful orchids, Colin and I grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Another rainy afternoon in the tropics!
For the next morning, April 21st, the Zoobotanical Park and the Emilio Goeldi Museum were the next thing on our list. As we walked outside we saw a really cool Sunday market open in front of the hotel and took some time looking through everything. Really cool necklaces made of animal parts and different plants, plus lots of local (and not so local) knick-knacks. But we wanted as much time at the zoo park, so we headed there shortly after. The Zoobotanical park was created in 1895, making it one of the oldest in Brazil. It didn’t cost much to get in, and once inside we were pretty surprised. Quite a few of the animals were roaming freely around with plenty of space, kind of like a safari park or a reserve! We walked past the clever disguised water-tower in search of the real treat – the animals.
There were so many animals at these park – baby sloths roaming free among the trees, all different kinds of birds including toucans and macaws, the tapir and the endangered spider-monkey, along with plenty other different kinds of monkeys, some in their cages and some free on the trees. We even came across a beautiful blue hummingbird flying around our camera but it was too fast to catch anything but a blur!
Going deeper into the park we found caiman (alligators) and turtles/tortoises in the back. One of the tortoises had somehow, likely in a mating attempt as there seemed to be a lot of “action” going on, flipped itself on its back and couldn’t get himself righted again as much as he tried. We wondered if we should alert one of the park keepers to flip the guy back over – we worried if he might dry out? – but we decided to let him try his own luck and thankfully he had succeeded by the time we made it back around to check on him again. 
Running free around the park were also some little brown animals that reminded me of large rodents on skinny, long legs. These cute things are called agouti and they remind you of guinea pigs for a good reason! They are in fact related, except these guys run on their toes and have eating habits a bit like squirrels. I also learned that agouti are the only animal that can open the extremely difficult shell of the Brazil Nut, meaning, if they were to go extinct it could change the entire dynamic of the rainforest. We walked around the whole back of the park looking at giant water lilies and other animals, the entire time trying to figure out where this loud consistent chirping noise was coming from. We thought it might be some kind of bird because it was so loud, but it was actually a cicada… those evil crop destroyers. These bugs can produce a sound up to 120 db, which would cause permanent hearing loss if we got too close.
After seeing all the animals, Colin and I checked out the little museum housing stuffed versions of the past animals the park held – including a stuffed macaw, stuffed eagles, a sloth skeleton, an Amazonian manatee skeleton, a black panther, and a local Amazonian turtle called the “Mata-Mata” turtle. These turtles are crazy-looking, with an appearance which camouflages itself well with the shell looking like bark and the flat head appearing to be fallen leaves. Their eating habits are through “suction feeding” because they have no teeth. This method of feeding involves vacuuming food into their mouths and using its flat mouth to “press” the water out from around their prey. I would love to see one of these guys alive and in-action!
After the park we headed decided to treat ourselves to a McDonalds, which also happened to be right next to the church we wanted to go into earlier (but we found closed,) the Basilica Santuario de Nazaré. This church is where we saw the little statue of the Virgin Mary that is paraded around the city every October during the Círio de Nazaré festival we learned about in the Cirio museum previously. While we couldn’t see the million-follower festival, we did see the Mary!
While the initial money found in the new world by the Portuguese was in the gold mines and gems of the south, it didn’t take long for the newcomers to discover what the natives knew all along – the real treasure was in the rainforest. This “Peace Theater” was built in the Praca da Republica using money from the rubber boom which took place during the 1800’s, once the gold and gem rush had died down. Once the rubber trees were drained dry in the regions around Belem (including Santarem,) the money went south to Manaus… but more about that when we get there later.
Max and the other guide took us around this neoclassical masterpiece, built in a time when there was so much money to spend in the region, the rich would order every mosaic tile and marble column they needed from Italy, and send their delicate clothing off to France to be laundered. One of the only materials used from Brazil was the multi-toned Brazilian woods which were loved for their appearance that seemed to evoke the “meeting of the different colored waters” we would see later in Manaus. The theater was outfitted with many large busts of famous artists and large murals, plus crystal floor-length mirrors which “couldn’t hide anything.” Thus the outfits worn to the theater had to be spectacular.
We first went into a side room. This room’s original roof had been lost, and with so few pictures of it, had to be restored differently from its original image once money finally allowed following a period of disrepair and abandonment. There were the original chandeliers from France hanging in the room though! The side room opened out to a balcony overlooking Republic Square. On this balcony were large busts representing music, poetry, comedy, and tragedy which were put there in the early 1900’s.
As the four of us approached the main room of the theater, it was clear that a practice of some kind was going on – beautiful classical music was being played. As we entered the room and watched the musicians onstage, Max told us that the main mural on the roof of the theater was an image of Greek gods. He also let us know that there was a free concert by the same musicians (Belem’s famous orchestra known world-wide) later in the week we could attend (we would!) if we wanted.
There was time for another place after the theater, the Catedral da Sé. Another beautiful marble church, but I had a birthday treat waiting…
…which was a great massage and mani/pedi Colin arranged for me! I got some pretty blue nails done and a relaxing massage which was all arranged the previous day by Colin! So sweet of him. We had lunch at a mall nearby after that, and did a little shopping. While we were at the mall Colin gave me my second gift – the wooden frog amulet necklace I loved so much from the museum we had been at!
While at the docks we read some history about the place and saw a few old artifacts behind the displays. The area of the dock had been originally inhabited by Tupi natives, in the early 1600’s. By the mid 1600’s however, a fort was built by Europeans. Because the trip from Portugal to Brazil was faster than from Portugal to Asia, the wealth brought by Amazonian treasured surpassed those of Indian ones and even though the Amazon didn’t have the gold (as rumored by the ‘El Dorado’ legend) some thought it would, there was enough to make a lot of people super rich. The docks was the location where these riches and the rewards were shipped. We learned about local shipping companies such as the General Company of Maranhao and Grao Para which traded in cotton, salt, rice, timber and African slaves first with a monopoly and then as one of many companies. By the 19th century Belem was trading in other goods including cocoa, coffee, clove, and leather, along with cotton and timber. Today the port still operates after going through numerous renovations and expansions.
Of coarse the night would not be complete without going outside to see the sunset! Ready to continue my birthday the next day and with it getting pretty late by then, Colin and I went back to the hotel. Once we got back I had a final surprise gift waiting for me that Colin and picked up in secret! Unbeknownst to me, while we were at the Espaco Sao Jose Liberto, Colin snuck off while I was buying the chocolate ice-cream and stealthy purchased (how did I not notice any of this going on??) the Tanga necklace I had really liked but thought was too expensive previously! Yay!! (See the picture earlier in the post when I was wearing it at the Espaco Sao Jose Liberto.) I now had my own beautifully detailed piece of jewelry with an interesting backstory of being the amulet for indigenous Tupi people! My favorite type of jewelry. So cool… thank you, Colin!
The morning of April 24th we headed out early to try and see a few of the last places in Belem that sounded of interest to us. On a mission to find some buttons and thread (after washing our clothes so many times we had more than a few worn holes in them that needed repairs) we first went back to the market thinking there might be some there. Unfortunately we couldn’t find thread anywhere, and the few needles we found would be useless without any. Hilariously, after more than an hour of walking through the market and asking in numerous other stores for our treasure, we wondered out loud “how does anyone fix their clothes around here when you can’t find needles, or buttons, or thread anywhere?” Less than 10 seconds later, we saw this…
Turns out one shop has all the thread! We bought what we needed (thread, needles, and some buttons to repair the ones that burst off Colin’s shirt when he ripped it off to help stop the bleeding of my knee when I fell on the island before) and headed into the square towards the Palácio Antonio Lemos, another glorious money-spend and former city hall of the 1800’s rubber boom. We found a couple of modern art exhibit on the bottom floor (mostly of various artists’ impressions of flowers and the city, which we couldn’t take photos of) but the interesting bit was up the grand marble stairs. We had to put covers on our shoes to not scratch the wood, and again couldn’t take photos, but slid around the meeting hall/living room of the former palace looking at the old European goodies decorating the rooms.
We next went to another palace, the Palácio Lauro Sodré, the former residential palace of the mayor who worked in the city hall palace– we could believe it; there was certainly enough money flying around back then to afford both elaborate constructions. The bottom floor had another (maybe to draw people in?) modern art exhibit, this one very modern including ‘virtual art’ with a disco ball shining out the images of various videos the viewer selects. The top floor was stunning with everything again imported from Europe – marbles staircases, tiles, mosaic floorings, paintings, everything but the Brazilian wood.
Our final stop of the day was my birthday dinner-turned-lunch. Colin had secretly chosen a restaurant called ‘Tia Maria.’ This place was really interesting when we walked up with crazy eclectic décor outside and everything classic Italian with a funky twist. There were even Ferrari posters and little cars hanging from the ceiling, posters from Italian mob movies, and prints of classical Italian artwork. The only thing that wasn’t “with a funky twist” was the food – that was classic, delicious Italian at its best. One of the most amazing meals I’ve had in Brazil!
We spent the next day resting up in the morning (and packing, and researching our time on the Amazon) before having our treat that evening. We had picked up our tickets around 9 am, but the classical music performance didn’t start until 8 pm that evening. We had an early morning flight the next day, but we didn’t want to miss another dose of the music we heard while touring the theater previously. (Plus it was our first classical music concert together!)
Arthur Ibere de Lemos (1901-1967) – Preludio para Orquestra Sinfonica
Paulino Chaves (1880-1948) – Preludio e Fuga em do menor
Jacinto Kahwage (1966) – Semana de XXII
Marcos Cohen (1977) – Fantasia Urbana
Meneleu Campos (1872-1924) – Fantasia de Concerto para violino e orquestra (Solista: Gina Reinert)
- Intermission -
Ettore Bosio (1862-1936) – A Taboca do Ceguinho e Samba do Costa (Cenas Pitorescas Brasileiras para Orquestra Sinfonica)
Agostinho Jr. (???) – Estudo Orquestral
Jose Domingues Brandao (1855-1941) – Eh! Bumba (Il Rapsodia de Cantoas Populares Paraenses)
Luiz Pardal (1960) – Gestos Imaginarios
After the classical concert it was back to the hotel for a few hours sleep, then awake again for our early morning flight to Santarem!
Until later,
Francesca
Are you eating meat? WTF?
ReplyDeleteYeah only for about the past year mate! I've eaten capybara, alligator and piranha in Brazil - and even crickets in Thailand. Delicious.
ReplyDelete