Hey everyone! So for Portuguese class today we took a trip to Ver-o-Peso market downtown. It was really incredible - I'd never seen anything like it. Belem is located at the fork of two rivers, and the market was set up long ago to directly receive a lot of the good (particularly food) coming down the river. It was just amazing how much food was fit into such a small area. Only a few blocks held enough to probably feed the city for weeks. Sorry I didn't get any shots of vendors on the ground - Ver-o-Peso is also infamous for its thieves, so I tried to keep my camera hidden when possible. Our class assignment was to find specific items in the market, then head over to a nearby square within the colonial zone.
The river just beyond the stands is technically part of the Amazon delta, but that's not all of it - not even half. As you can tell from the next photo, buses are a way of life here. I'm taking a bus to get everywhere now. Unfortunately, there's no map for bus routes around the city, so newbies are out of luck...
After arriving at the plaza we took a break with some coconut water. About $1 for a vendor to cut a fresh coconut open for you.
And what better thing to do when celebrating Brazilian history and culture than to throw some capoeira in there! Turns out our professors decided to arrange a group lesson in capoeira right in the middle of tourist central.
After our group lesson we were done for the day. I stuck back and took a few more pictures of the market and surroundings. The church below is the centerpiece of a big festival coming up in Belem in a few weeks. Supposedly the city swells to twice its size during it.
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