I am a sticky sweaty meat ball of inflamed heat. I have arrived safely in the strange exotic city of Belem. It is a very large city, with big buildings and many confusing roads. It is very exciting and exhausting. I took a plane from Montreal - Toronto = Sau Paulo (spent 9 hours in the airport waiting for my connections) and finally to Belem. Sau Paulo's city lights stretched everywhere and the crescent moon was sideways like a smile! (maybe because it is the southern hemisphere)
Armando Sobral, the local artist from IAP (Institute of Arts in Para) came to the airport to meet me. He is responsible for managing the Visual Arts in this province. He is VERY nice, and he speaks english. I am staying at the ZHOGBI HOTEL. This PLACE IS CRAZY! When I woke up, the front desk gave me a hand-drawn map Armando had left for me, with directions on how to get to the studio. The heat of the sun is very intense. I would compare it to July in Montreal. You walk, and you sweat! You sit, and you sweat. No one speaks English, or any other language than Portuguese. Making it difficult to do anything, like ordering food or asking for help. It seems I will have to learn quickly how to communicate. The city is colorful and full of activity. Very old, decrepit architecture. Painted many colors, and there is advertising everywhere. Posters and billboards. The sidewalks are made of large stones (probably from colonial times) but there are holes and large cracks, and some streets are dirty with litter. Many people sit on the streets with stalls selling things. The main streets are lined with mango trees. Large leafy green Amazon trees, growing out of the street. It is very beautiful. And there are many parks.
I have a very nice, clean hotel room with a fridge and internet hook up for my computer. The hotel is a 15 minute walk to the studio. In fact I have two studios. One at the IAP (institute of Arts of Para) which is in a cultural complex with offices and studios and a gallery. There is also a printing studio I can share with Armando. There is a small press and materials to make prints.
Armando gave me a tour of the main spots. We went to the Amazon river! It is so HUGE. The water is a dirty brown - from all the sediments. There is a HUGE market with all sorts of foods - fruits, vegetables and fish. There is a Fish market along the water too, but it opens early in the morning. I will see it later this week. There are many wooden boats - hand-painted with fishermen sleeping in hammocks in the boats. A causeway in the old port of Belem has been transformed to a tourist place - similar to the Vieux-Port in Montreal. There is a large shipping yard that was used for Rubber exportation until the business moved to Asia. And now there are fancy restaurants in the loading docks. Belem was once a VERY rich city from the rubber, until the seeds were taken to plant rubber trees in Malaysia, and then Belem became very poor. The Island of Marajo is 3 hours away by boat. Armando's sister has a hotel on the island, and will make a reservation for me to visit there. we ate lunch next to the Amazon River. I had some fish - a very good white fish from the river.
We met a business man that makes fishing boats. He had a team of people making a very large wooden fishing boat. Very impressive. They carve every single piece of the boat by hand, and then heat planks of wood with fire and oil and curve them to the boats shape. The smell of wood is very nice. I hope to go back and take pictures. Maybe they have extra wood I can use!
We visited two churches. Very old colonial architecture with wooden sculptures and paintings from Italy. There was a woman singing and playing the organ. We walked for many hours today. My feet are so hot and swollen!
sleep time to the buzzing sound of air conditioners.
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