Belem and Sao Luis

So after a long 2 and a half days on board the Amazon Star we finally arrived in the bustling city of Belem. It was quite a relief, although it was fun to sleep in hammocks again I was looking forward to a bed! We found a good hostel and had a lovely per kilo meal which definitely beat the boat food! We spent the next day wandering around the city and found a great market where we found some yummy Brazil nuts-surprisingly the first time we have had them in Brazil!

There was also a huge variety of fruits, prawns, lots of typical Amazonian goods and whole alleyway full of live ducks, rabbits and chickens! Belem has some lovely old buildings including a few palaces, stunning old churches, a fort and theatre. The port was very colourful with lots of old multicoloured boats!

And the best part of the day was finding a per kilo sushi restaurant for lunch! Amazing!

We then travelled over night on a bus to the lovely cobblestone city of Sao Luis, about 14 hours away. We spent another day sightseeing all the old colonial beautiful buildings- we took so many photos! It really was an impressive looking city and a good stop off on our way to Parque National Dos Lencois Marranhenses. We also visited a crazy museum all about the folk festival , Bumba Meu Boi that happens just in Sao Luis every year. Unfortunately the tour was in Portuguese but we think what we were shown were a collection of ingenious fish traps, lots of textiles and some bizarre figures and we have no idea what they were used for! See picture below! Dinner was possibly the best pizza we have had in South America!