Belem is just south of the mouth of the Amazon River. It’s another huge city and luckily we had a tour scheduled. We boarded a bus for a 45 minute ride to another boat dock where we got on a river boat for an hour’s ride on the Rio Tocatins. It was a beautiful ride; there were small houses and cottages on the banks but not much else besides jungle. We arrived at a VERY small village where we got off the boat for an hour’s walk through the jungle. It was extremely hot and humid and the jungle didn’t provide any relief. I was concerned for some of the older, more overweight people on the tour but everyone hung in there and made it through. On the way there were village inhabitants showing us some jungle things, including a tarantula and a man who shimmied up a skinny tree and jumped down. This was supposed to be a 3 ½ hour tour but everything took longer than expected. Our ship was due to sail at 6PM but we didn’t leave the village until around 4:30 for the hour ride back to the boat dock and the 45 minute bus ride to the ship. We got stuck in rush hour traffic in Belem and didn’t arrive back at the Prinsendam until 7PM so our 3 ½ hour tour turned into a 7 hour tour. But that’s typical of the Brazilian concept of time. Our port lecturer, Frank, says that in Brazil there are 3 speeds: slow, dead slow and stop. That was certainly true here.
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