"Magnificent Belém" a Belém Travel Page by NedHopkins

Belem is nearly as improbable as Manaus. Who'd expect a city of nearly two million people located in what was once jungle?

It's here, though, in the estuary of the great Amazon River, about 120 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean -- near enough that the tides vary the river's water levels by as much as three meters.

And what a city! Fine restaurants, magnificent colonial and other buildings, good shopping, jungle and river tours-- all in a city that seems more European than most in Brazil, and also cleaner and more prosperous.

It rains in Belem: it rains a lot. But the rain comes at fairly predictable times; it pours for only a few minutes; and people (even tourists) easily work around it.

One curiosity: Though Belem is "below" the equator -- in the southern hemisphere, that is -- prevailing winds and ocean currents make its seasons like those in the northern hemisphere. That means, for example, that "winter" is from the December to the March solstices. Not that winter is all that different from the other three seasons, given Belem's proximity to the equator.

Belem is a really great city. (Its name, BTW, is Portugese for Bethlehem.)