Belém

I got settled in at my place in Belém and the first thing I planned on doing was getting my stuff settled for my next city. I wanted to go to the northeast of Brazil and see Recife or Fortaleza and then get down to Bahia. Plane tickets were expensive, so I walked out the bus terminal. I expected bus tickets to be cheap even though the distances are far. But they weren’t! I got a roundtrip ticket in Argentina from Buenos Aires to Mendoza (a few years ago), 13 hours or so, and it was like $40 round trip, unless my memory deceives me. Here, for a similar bus ride to Recife—16 hours I think—one way, it was over $100. And no food! The ones in Argentina give you food and beverages. Because of the schedules and all, I didn’t think I could go to the northeast. So I came back the next day and bought a bus ticket straight to Sao Paulo. 2 days, $170. Not too bad.

Anyway, that took up the morning, so I got back, had some lunch, and went around the city. I made my way down to the docks of Belém, which was really cool. I sat there and read, walked around, and enjoyed everything. It started to rain and so I sat under this covered area for a while to wait it out. I fell asleep for a while. I kept looking at my watch, but I had done something to it and it had stopped or it was on the second clock or something. So I thought it was 4:30 or so and it was actually around 6. It was still raining and so I went and walked around the market which was covered. The market is the Ver-o-Peso market, a famous one. It is pretty cool, and pretty old. But it was raining and it was getting dark, so I made my way back to my place. It was kind of a disappointing day because I had spent lots of time figuring out my travel plans and also asleep by accident.

The next day is when I bought the bus ticket to Sao Paulo. After that, I had plenty of free time and it was sunny. I went back to the market and the dock, and was able to see a lot of the old town. Belém is almost 400 years old and at the mouth of the Amazon. It has some really great old buildings, forts, and so forth that are really cool. It was really fun to see it all.

I had been eating these great burgers ever since I got into Manaus. Some of you know what they are: the X burgers. It is really quite funny…the letter X in Portuguese sounds kind of like cheese, and so the burgers you can find on the street corners and in the restaurants around all say X-Burger or X-Bacon or whatever it is. I think it is supposed to mean cheese burger, but it got messed up somehow in the translation. Really funny. I ate the X-Bacon for like 3 days straight, I swear. Other than breakfast, of course. It is so good. Beef, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. I had one the night before I left Belém that was like the X-Bacon from heaven.

That day I had an interesting experience. I was at the dock reading, at a bench we will call Point A. This young guy came from the direction of Point B, if you will. He looked kind of shady, but it was daylight and there were lots of people around. I wasn’t too worried. He came and sat down a few benches down and then asked me what time it was. The oldest trick in the book! I didn’t care if he saw my watch or wanted it, which I got at Walmart for like 7 dollars. I pulled it out and told him the time. I didn’t have anything valuable with me and wasn’t worried still, even though he seemed a little shady.

I got up and walked toward Point B, the direction from which he came. I stopped at the end of the dock there and watched these kids jumping into the river. Lots of people still, a security guard, etc. Then a few minutes later, he came over and hung out as well. I thought it was pretty funny. Then instead of leaving, I figured I would go back toward Point A and see if he followed. I stood near this couple that was making out, so there were still people, and lots of people walking around. He came back! At this point I thought he was just stupid. That is where we were originally, and he seemed to be wandering around with no direction, only seeming to be in the same places that I was. After a few minutes, I went back to Point B. He came there too!

Now I was a little weirded out. And it seemed like other people were watching me too. So I left the dock area walking pretty fast. I was still in a major area with lots of cars and people, but it was still weird. After walking on the street (in the direction of Point A but not on the dock, on the street), I turned around after a while and the kid was on the same street coming in my direction! It was so weird. And then I saw a woman walking toward me. I didn’t think much about that, until I took a right turn back into the dock area (where lots of people were, police, etc.) and went back in direction of Point B but inside the stores near the dock. I saw the kid make the turn too but go into the bathroom. Then I saw the woman I saw going in the opposite direction on the street…she was there in the store! I couldn’t believe it. I thought the whole world was after me.

I left the stores near Point B and that was the end of it. It was pretty weird for a while. I felt like I was in a weird movie. But the rest of the night was good, especially with that X-Bacon.