My 22nd birthday!

On June 24^th we were finally able to go do some sightseeing! Yay! I was better, thankfully, so we were able to drive downtown to the famous Ver-o-Peso market, by the river (“see the weight”). There I bought a beautiful hammock to take back with me, and was snagged by lots of guys trying to sell shirts & stuff. Here’s the hammock – like the Brazil colors? :)

Michael & I were looking for Seleção shirts (Brazil’s team shirts) – we wanted fake ones, but not extremely fake-looking ones! The ones there in the market were cheap but really ugly. So we went to a sports store across the street & there were able to buy some good-looking shirts, without the massive price tag. I wanted to get #8, Kaká, but of course they had only 6, 7, 9, 10, and 23. Neither of us wanted 9 or 10 because Ronaldo & Ronaldinho are too overdone, so we ended up both getting 7, Adriano. Here’s a picture of the 2 of us wearing them for a game the next week, against Ghana.

Mmm, coconut water! It was so nice to have one again!

Then we walked through the rest of the market – it’s way nicer now than it used to be, because everything is covered & more organized. Of course it’s still dirty tho, & I would never buy meat there! There’s everything from vegetables to crafts (baskets, pottery, paintings) to meat to lunch stands. I love these open markets – so fun! And there’s a separate fish market (mostly freshwater fish because Belém is a port city at the mouth of the Amazon) but it REEKS, of course.

This blue building with the spires is the most famous building at the market - what you always see pictures of. The fish market is inside of it, with the other stores beside it. Going around the corner you come to a lot of fishing boats & beautiful old buildings such as these (built ages ago in the Portuguese style). Looks crowded, eh? They're all stores.

From there we drove to a place called the “Mangal das Garças,” which is also by the river. It’s kinda like a reserve for these stork-like birds - some white & some red.

(It’s fairly new, so I had never been here before & neither had my fam.) There’s a restaurant, gift shop, tower, butterfly place, and a beautiful big boardwalk out over the plants to the edge of the water (here, looking under the top one, but you can see another part at the side). It was a very hot day so it was wonderful being out there in the shade & breeze! (This shows the swampish area by the river - weird tree things there.) We ate there, but just a picnic lunch that we’d brought. Mom even brought a little cake & candles for me. Awww. :)

Cute turtle!

I couldn't forgo including these beyootiful pix that I took in the buttefly place at the Mangal - actually moth, butterfly, & hummingbird place. So sweet!!

Then we drove back to the old Fort, laden with canons from centuries ago when it protected Belém. They’ve fixed this up too, and I barely remember it. Anyway, it’s a sweet place for pictures of canons, of the river, of Ver-o-Peso (which is right close by). Most of the canons are on the grass outside, closest to the river,

and there are a few above it in the wall. Inside the fort it’s kinda empty except for a couple more canons – mostly it’s just a good photo place & it’s also fun to walk on the top of the wide wall.

(taken from the Fort, where you can see Ver-o-Peso.)

Beside the fort is this other building – the House of the 11 Windows – but we didn’t really have time to go inside it. We saw the outside & the little sitting area behind it, but apparently they’ve made it into a museum. I think it used to be a hospital or something like that.

whoa... it takes waaaaaaaaay too long to put all these pix on, but that's my favorite part of blogging - showing you the stuff I'm talking about! Enjoy!