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Blog > The Little Mail Carriers in Belém, Brazil!

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Hello everybody, olá! You’ll never believe where we are!

Olá! Chegámos ao Brasil!

Oh, well… the title kind of gave that one away, didn’t it? Anyway, that’s right – we’re in Brazil, the country that hosted the very exciting World Cup this summer! People here sure love football, but there’s so much more to this country, and we were really eager to explore it all with our host Felipe (aka felipeduarte).

Felipe lives in the state of Pará, in the Amazon region. He showed us his postcard collection and we could see all Brazil in postcards and get an appetizer of what our time here would look like!

Felipe's lovely postcards

The capital of Pará is Belém, also known as “Metropolis of the Amazon”. It is a very interesting city, where over 1.500.000 people live. Being so close to the Equator, the city has a tropical rainforest climate, with temperatures averaging 25°C (77°F) year round!

Wow! Belém is huge!

We visited one of the most beautiful churches in Belém, the Basilica of Our Lady of Nazareth. The interiors, decorated with marble and gold, were just incredible!

The Basilica of Our Lady of Nazareth

Every October since 1793, a huge procession in celebration Mary takes place in Belém – it is named Círio de Nazaré and gathers more than two million people, the biggest catholic event in Brazil! Here are some photos that Felipe showed us:

Círio de Nazaré celebrations

Really impressive! After that, we went to the great República Square, where one of the most relevant landmarks in Belém is located: Paz Theatre. Voted as one of the wonders of Brazil, this large theatre was built in 1878, during the Amazon rubber boom. During those days (and up until 1912), Belém was called “Paris in America” due to its richnesses and prosperity.

Theatro da Paz

By lunch time, we headed over to Ver-o-peso (literally, “see-the-weight”) market, the most representative landmark in Pará. It is the biggest outdoors market in Latin America! You can see it on one of Felipe’s postcards:

Ver-o-Peso market

Fresh fish is sold on the Iron Market (the blue one, with towers) and there are also lots of tents, where you can find anything, from food to clothes, herbs and essences, regional or international. It’s a very culturally rich place!

Spices and essences at the market Native fruits at the market

Well… all this native fruit is making us hungry, it’s time to try the Brazilian cuisine! The base of day-to-day food is rice and beans, and of course meat and chicken, with some regional variations. The people from Pará really appreciate a native fruit named açaí berry, which is now widely used by athletes as an energy drink. It is a purple seed that is drank as a dense liquid. And of course, we had to try a brigadeiro, a very typical chocolate bonbon. So, so good — and just the perfect size!

Yummy food!

After getting to know a little about the city, we decided to explore one of the nature parks in the area, the Mangal das Garças (Herons’ Mangal).

Mangal das Garças

It’s a really incredible place to see nature and observe several species of animals and plants. The red bird is named guará (or scarlet ibis) and the white ones are garças (herons). They roam around freely in the park.

Belém lighthouse

This tower is the Belém Lighthouse, which is 47 metres tall and has quite an unusual architecture for a lighthouse, don’t you think? We went up to the observation platform… the view from up there is breathtaking!

Breathtaking views from the top of the lighthouse Don't we look nice in here?

It’s said that it rains everyday in there. And look at those dark clouds… it must be coming! Quick, let’s step indoors and learn something about the region’s culture and handicrafts.

Little P...? I think I'm stuck here!!

The indigenous marajoara pottery and natural rubber animal figures were quite intriguing. We also learnt that Belém was founded in 1616 and is now eagerly waiting to celebrate its fourth centenary! We visited the place where the city started: a citadel named Feliz Lusitânia.

Feliz Lusitânia

On top in left, an old canon in Forte do Castelo, a portuguese fortress. On the right side, the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Finally, we went to the Belém Central Post office to send a postcard home.

Belém Central Post Office

We saw there the machines used by the Post in the past: Morse code devices, scales and writing machines, but we loved the postboxes the best! Brazilian postboxes

On the left, the old Brazilian ones, used in the early 1900s and on the right, the current ones, that have a very unusual shape.

And that’s it for this amazing trip! Off we go into our padded envelope again…

Bye-bye Brazil!

… but not without first heartily recommending this lovely country to everyone! Our experience in Brazil was fantastic, what an amazing country. And of course — a big thank you to our host Felipe for his hospitality! :)

See you soon everyone!

21 comments so far

edo, Spain

So interesting explanation dear Mail carriers and brazilian postcrosser!!I hope to visit this country one day or receive a lot of cards from there!! Hugs

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DianeM, United States of America

Fantastic!

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ceoramalho, Brazil

I've been to Amazon once, but never to Belém... I hope I can go there one day soon!!!! And yes, Brazil is awesome!!!

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rosenbusch, Germany

What´s a wonderful trip...

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zomertje, Netherlands

Wonderful story and beautiful photo's to go with them,you really see a lot of the city. love the postboxes!!!!

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isagv, Germany

I even know how to pronounce Belém because Geminiscp and Joaninha told me as I visited the Belém tower in Lissabon in June. :D

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joseadp, Portugal

Brazil is a huge country! I'm Brazilian and I just know a small part of it! I wish I can visit Belém some day.

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Herchelle, Canada

How cool is this?! We just said hello to these little mail carriers in Calgary, Alberta CANADA, a month ago!!

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scriptor, United Kingdom

What a great tour. Thank you Brazil for hosting the little mail carriers.

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YiliLoh, Malaysia

Thanx for sharing another trip story! Nice! :)

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Sunneva12, Norway

lovely! I wish I could go on such amazing travels as those two lucky mail carriers :-)

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PilotOne, Portugal

From the pictures I'm sure you have spent a wonderful time in BraZil!

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Luziaceleste, Brazil

Lovely trip. It is possible to have 'brigadeiros' all around the country, but each corner has plenty of attractiveness. How nice to see mail carriers visiting Belém!!

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Geminiscp, Portugal

:) wonderful staying, I see! Thanks for hosting them!

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FelipeDuarte, Brazil

So nice that you liked! Host the Little Mail Carriers was great. Best wishes from Brazil!

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ipuenktchen, Iran

amazing pics, and a special thankyou, so I learned about another kind of pottery!!! it seems the LMC had a great time in brasil!!!! thx for sharing!!

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islander61, Bahamas

Seems like they had a wonderful adventure in Brazil. I enjoyed reading about it, and the photos were (are) spectacular.

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Aviacionado, United States of America

Awesome!!! Belem!

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Janestar, United States of America

Loved this! Thank you little mail carriers for a great trip report. It is very beautiful in Brazil. Have a safe trip to your next destination!!

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inki1963, Germany

They are so lovely and I really like to read about their trips...

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fitziane, United States of America

Great trip. I'd never heard of Belem, Brazil, so thanks for opening up my horizons again, Little Postcrossers.

I hosted you in Tianjin, China, and we had lots of fun, didn't we? I am now in Cairo, Egypt, so if you want to visit me again, I'd be very happy to take you to the pyramids and on boat rides down the Nile River. :-)

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