Past AirBNB’s are always quickly only a faint memory, but this one was an especially interesting one. We shared the building with Cubans who are waiting there in the hope to get a US green card. They have to travel all the way Georgetown, Guyana where there is an US Embassy and which is one of the few countries they can travel to nowadays without a visa. Guess getting a green card or a visa is also not so easy anymore, thanks to Trump…

Waiting at the airport in Macapá, there is not much going on here…

Cachaça – it’s not for me! Or is it because it’s ‚com Jambu‘?

There are very serious about their religion here. But they do it very lively and colorful! It’s more of party than some serious business, here it seems you are allowed to enjoy the event and laugh and shout, very different from the catholic church in Europe

Tapioca wrap with ruccula, buffala mozarella and pesto (again a different way of using Yuca!)

Farofa: Yukka Mehl. Man isst es hier zu Fleisch. Das erste Mal ist es merkwürdig, es ist wirklich wie Mehlklumpen essen. Das zweite Mal konnte ich schon eine gewisse Begeisterung dafür empfinden.

A very hip restaurant: When you enter you are first in a kind of store, where you choose your meats and wines

 
We just arrived in time for a very important religious festival: People lining up for hours to see some statue
 

We finally decided to take the plane instead of the ferry from Macapá to Belém: The ferry version would need us to buy hammocks and ropes, which is a lot of extra luggage only for the night. Or alternatively sleep on the floor. Or to pay for a cabin which is the same price as the plane ticket for two people, which takes 23 hours less. It took only one hour! While Amapá (the Brazilian state which used to be Portuguese Guyana) still felt rough and isolated, arriving here in Belém is a treat for all senses. Belém is a city of around 1.5 million people, which is a pretty average size in Brazil. We feel very comfortable here. The people are very friendly and curious in a positiv way. They don’t seem to get a lot of tourism here.

We know that kind of energy of the city. It feels similar to Colombia. One can tell this can be a dangerous place, being at the wrong time at the wrong place! You can tell, where not to walk at night. So the best solution to stay absolutely safe is basically not to walk at night. This way you can make any place in the world pretty safe! There is also lots of hipstering going on, plenty of cool restaurants and many barbers. The evolution of the city is similar to Bogotá. Medium modern, with still lots of vendors in the streets.

Where we live there are huge mango trees lining the streets and giving lots of shades – and Mangoes in the middle of the city! Around the ‘mercado ver-o-peso’ there is definitely more voltage. The market spans for many blocks and there seems to be a lot of permanent wood and metal construction of stores on the sidewalks. It is very crammed and one better holds on tight to his things. It’s a lively hustle and bustle and on the riverfront there are endless food stalls. It doesn’t feel intimidating. It’s a know sensation and so it is enjoyable. Even tough many faces look a bit scary, I guess I have to get used to them. We definitely left the Caribbean behind. That heavy heavy energy which I grew to love. But which I’m also happy to leave behind – it’s nice to experience it, but being trapped on an island with them people from them times where them still are caught up in them colonial times and them think it’s ok to kill someone because one prefers cock to pussy, this is definätely not a behavior I will ever grow to accept! It feels very much back to civilization here. Brazil has a bad reputation and there is a lot of shit happening, but like in Colombia, this is not due to bad individuals. Like always it’s due to unintelligent, bad and greedy politicians like the actual president who wants to literally burn down the Amazon to plant more oil palms. Will we ever learn? No way! Here there is also absolutely no environmental consciousness: The produce and throw away so much plastic and also in the hotel room the throw away the hand soap only when they clean the room. They still use styrofoam packing for takeaway food. It is quite shocking, I guess it’s a similar sensation to the way we are used to use seatbelts and then imagine there are none!

The Brazilians have good food! Apart from all that fried stuff, there is actually a lot more to experience. Prices are Bogotá level – so for two people to eat and drink in a good / stylish place it will cost you around 30 USD in Belém. They eat soups which my tastebuds never experienced. But I can tell I’d love it after a few times. I think it’s called Tacacá. They have really good meat! Still missing the juice stores, like I remember them from Rio and Sao Paulo. There are many overweight people here. And I can not really make friends with Cachaca, the local aguardiente.

The Brazilian Portuguese is a very nice language which we are trying to learn, with some daily youtube lessons and some time with Duolingo. After all it is not that similar like Spanish as we hoped for. It was easier getting along with Spanish in Italy! At least in the Brazilian version they cut the second person in singular and plural and replace it with the third person. That’s cool, means even one form of conjugation less than in Spanish where they just cut the second person in plural, so instead of six forms to learn only four in the present tense of each verb.

I’m very positively surprised because after the last time here I decided to never come back to Brazil. I guess I was to young at the time for this country…