Belem is the first stop on our Into the Amazon – Brazil 2018 expedition! Join us for Belem: Gateway to the Amazon, as we show you around the capital city of the state of Pará. In this episode you will fly with us to Brazil, tour an export facility and see a city rich in history and culture!
Discovering Belém
Located on the banks of Guajará Bay, 62 miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean lies Belem, a major export hub for ornamental fish. A large number of the ornamental fish exported from Brazil make a stop at one of the export facilities here before leaving the country.
We stayed in Belém for 5 days and discovered an incredible city rich in culture and history. Not to mention fish exporters! Belém hosts some incredible architecture, especially in the Cidade Velha (Old City), where we decided to stay. Hotel della Luna is situated directly across from the largest cathedral in the city, Santa Maria de Belém.
Our balcony looked over the square and out over the bay, with Santa Maria always in sight.
The Ver-O-Peso Fish Market
After dropping off our bags and freshening up a little, we ventured out and came upon the Ver-O-Peso fish market. There we discovered dozens of colorfully decorated, aged fishing boats beached at low tide. The fishermen lay sleepily in hammocks on deck during the day, waiting for the tide to rise so they could leave to catch fish for the midnight fish market.
As the sun went down and the tide slowly came in they began to awaken and prepare to leave for an evening of fishing. We could have watched those boats and their inhabitants all night. Each one uniquely painted with beautiful rigging and lit up by the sunset, it was a sight to see. Music played on the streets as the sun colored the sky from blue to pinks and purples and then set over Guajará Bay.
We then walked along the waterfront where an open air market and food court is held all day, every day. Here is where we were warned with grave seriousness that we needed to leave our cameras and cellphones at home. Women walked by us saying “Cuidado, cuidado!” (“Be careful, be careful!”). Even the police officers told us we should not have our phones with us while walking around the city.
Estación de las Docas
We then came to Estación de las Docas. It is a gated area of shopping and restaurants along the riverfront where tourists (we were the only non-Brazilian tourists) go to enjoy themselves. It is beautifully renovated and the cranes that used to haul cargo from ships are painted yellow and lit up at night. Walking from the open air street market into the Estación de las Docas was night and day difference. Outside there was loud music, street food vendors, homeless people, city smells and the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Inside were posh restaurants, tranquil music, manicured flowerbeds and a spotlessly clean riverwalk. After a few beers and some dinner we were ready to get to some sleep.
Not As Safe As We Thought
On the way back to our hotel a young man pulled us aside and told us a dangerous man was following us. This man is known to attack tourists. We were silly tourists, walking around filming on the streets of Belém. We stuck out like sore thumbs and had been targeted. Luckily this kind young man spoke a little English and pointed him out to us.
We chatted with him and his wife for 20 minutes while the strange man lurked, pretending not to pay attention to us. I caught his eye several times, and finally he left. We were nervous on the remainder of our walk back to the hotel. I kept looking over my shoulder, seeing shadows that weren’t there. Now we knew, this wasn’t a joke. We really did need to be careful here. My heart sank as I realized it wouldn’t be safe to film or observe the Ver-O-Peso Fish Market in action during the early morning hours.
We loved experiencing both the street life and the Estación de las Docas. Inside las Docas we could relax and not worry about someone following us. The harshness of the streets meant we couldn’t film but that allowed us to soak in the real life of Belém. In Las Docas it was safe to have our camera gear out and fly our drone. If we wanted to film there we just needed to take an Uber to los Docas from our hotel with our camera gear and not walk the streets with it.
The First Export Facility of Into the Amazon!
Waking up to Santa Maria’s bells, we excitedly got ready for the first visit to an export facility! We put the address into Uber and our driver promptly picked us up. Fourty-five minutes later he pulled up to a building that clearly was not the right place. We hadn’t had time to get a SIM card for my phone yet, so we had no cell service. Our driver was kind enough to call the exporter and get directions, since the address we had was clearly incorrect!
We stepped into the facility and immediately a heavy wave of heat and humidity hit us.
The main room was quite large, with tanks along two walls and several rows of white bins down the middle. There was an adjacent room, just as large, lined with giant tubs.
A Language Barrier Isn’t So Bad After All.
During introductions we learned there might be some difficulty with communication. One of the women spoke a little English, so that helped immensely. I hooked up to their WIFI so we could also use Google Translate.
It was fun trying to speak Portuguese to them, and we laughed a lot at our attempts at each other’s languages. It took patience for all of us to understand each other, especially conversation about more detailed subjects. We felt like this made the experience more rewarding in the end. Who needs a common language anyway!
We observed the employees doing water changes as we took a look around. A large variety of small plecos filled small white bins in the first room. The tanks lined up along the walls contained pirhanas, larger plecos and discus. The tanks and bins were clean and well maintained, the facility and equipment was spotless and new.
After looking around and learning about their procedures and practices they invited us to have lunch with them. We sat down together while the small kitchen served up a typical Brazilian meal.
Water Parameters: pH & TDS Testing
We did pH and TDS tests in several of the tanks and tubs. The pH varied from 6.6 to7.2 while the TDS stayed around 91 to 100. The entire facility is heated naturally so no heaters are needed and the water temperature varied from 79° to 82°.
The water they use comes from an artesian well and it is filtered through ceramic.
At least, this is what we believe we were both agreeing on, since these detailed subjects were hard to speak about with the language barrier!
By the time our visit was over we felt like we had a new family in Belém. These wonderful people were so hospitable and kind to us. They spent hours and hours answering all of our detailed questions and never hesitated to give us any information we asked for. We could have spent another day there just looking at all the beautiful fish and learning more about their business.
Excitement For What Is to Come
We had finally gotten a first-hand taste of how the ornamental fish industry operates in Belém and we were so excited to see more. On our Uber ride back to the hotel our minds and hearts raced, imagining what the next month had in store for us!
Coming Soon! Into the Amazon – Episode 2
In Episode 2 of Into the Amazon we will take you on a tour of one of the largest ornamental fish export facilities in South America. This in depth episode will give you a real insight to what a large-scale ornamental fish export facility is like. Come with us on this behind the scenes tour and prepare to be amazed!
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