So that 36-hour bus ride was terrible! Freezing cold, frequent stops in the middle of nowhere, creepy old man finding it appropriate to place his arm so far across the armrest that it'd touch my leg, and no blankets, pillows, or movies!! I didn't know how good I had it on Argentinean buses!
Anyway, a girl I met in Santiago (from Belem) had mentioned that maybe her friend would meet me at the bus station, and that maybe I could stay with her. So when I got off the bus at 2am at a desolate looking bus station, I didn't have high hopes. But Nathalia and her boyfriend Bruno were there to meet me! They were so incredibly nice! Life would have been much, much harder without them. Basically, what they did for me is the equivalent of me asking of you, "Hey, I met this person briefly while traveling, can you go pick them up at the bus station in the middle of the night and maybe show them around town?" Jesus! I am really really amazed at how well Brazilian friends have treated me. :)
Nathalia and Bruno dropped me off at someone's house and told me it was student housing. Okay? I got a key, was shown where the refridgerator was, and beyond that, all I knew was that I was sharing a room with a guy I'd met for five minutes and that the neighborhood was potentially unsafe at night. It turns out I was actually benefiting from my first real couchsurfing experience! Franca, the guy I stayed with, frequently hosts people and ended up being a really nice guy who is on his way to medschool. I think I got really lucky. For example, I had to catch a 6:30am ferry to Marajo... Franca left the house with me at 5:30am, called a friend to accompany us, and the two of them walked me to the ferry terminal. I couldn't believe it! How are people this nice?!
As for Belem itself: I'm not sure what to make of the city. On the one hand, it felt a bit grungy and I just couldn't gauge how safe or unsafe it was. People kept telling me that I shouldn't do certain things by myself, but I couldnt tell if it was unsafe like any city can be unsafe at night, or unsafe like Bayview/Hunter's Point. The mosquitoes were also pretty vicious and I sustained a mosquito bite on my eyelid that put my contacts out of commission for a couple days. Also, the first day I was there was the loneliest I've felt during the last three months of traveling. There is a huge language divide and it was pretty isolating. Maybe it was because I had been on a bus for 36 hours with no one to talk to... and then finding myself wandering around Belem with no one to talk to, I'm not sure. I think when you half understand people and they half understand you, you just feel alone, or at least I did. I found myself really missing home... (but I got over it) :)
Belem is known for its gastronomy and I was able to try a lot of new foods. In particular, they have many awesome fruits that I don't think have an English equivalent: tepereba, cupuacu, bacuri, uxi, caju, acerola, tucuma etc. The best was visiting the Sorveteria Cairu where they let me try about 10 samples of all the must-try fruit flavors of the region :) The Ver-o-Peso market, btw, is awesome for buying fresh produce! I also visited the Mangal dos Garcas in the city, some kind of city garden/sanctuary in which iguanas, scarlet ibises, and macau's roam/fly free. It was a really nature-y place that was wonderful to visit.
From Belem, I took a trip to Marajo, three hours away by ferry. I loved it there! I got to do everything I wanted to do on the island: I saw five beaches, I got an impromptu tour of Salvaterra (one of the main towns), I mototaxied everywhere (even in the pouring rain), I ate buffalo, and I saw a sloth while hiking around a Fazenda (huge farm estates)! Love this place!! Marajo is also very cool because while I was there, the beaches were fresh-water, but during other parts of the year, they are salt-water. Because I was by myself, I had to pay a lot for a room ($50/night), but it was in a very nice pousada run by a French guy. As an example of the language barrier, I was asking him if it was dangerous in Marajo and he said no. But he said that the only danger is some sort of creature in the water. I don't know what this creature is, all I know is that he said if people are in the water, it's fine, and if the water level is high, it's fine. But of the five beaches I visited, I basically had them all to myself! It was great, but because I didn't kno what the "one danger" was, being in the water was kind of terrifying!
So with my visits to Belem and Marajo, I was at the mouth of the Amazon river, but I didn't actually do the stereotypical Amazon trip. I didn't sleep in a hammock or see anacondas or anything, but I'm definitely okay with saving it for another time. Better to catch my 6am flight to meet Theo in Rio!
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