Belém, you'll never walk alone...

Belém is one of the places where you'll never be alone or lonely for a long time. People are welcoming and friendly and are happy to talk to foreigners without any financial or whatsoever intentions. They might just stop you on the street and ask you if you need help or if they can take a picture of you in front of some monument... of course I was a bit scared or cautious at first but then I really began to enoy it. Especially since for the first time in weeks I was travelling alone again.

On Monday I went to a boat tour on the amazon river to the island of Trambioca. I was a bit scared that, Monday being a local holiday, the boat would be full of families and lovebirds and I took my Lonely Planet to read, postcards to write and was well prepared to spend the 'paseo' alone. Well, I had not taken into account the friendliness of the Para-people. About 10min after we left the pier the first people asked me in English where I came from, if I was travelling alone, if I liked the trip... and just my luck, there where neither families nor lovebirds on the boat but the company outing of a beauty salon!!! So apart from a very few guys the boat was full of nice ladies between 20 and 50. Most of them had never travelled further away from home than on this boat trip (that's what they told me) and were delighted to have a 'gringa' with them. They forced me to eat up their lunch packages and wanted to know everything about my trip, where I was staying, if I was not scared alone and so on. Once arrived on Sirituba beach we all went to a 'barraca', a simple place on the beach serving local food and drinks. When I got out my camera to take some pics of my new friends they all got excited and we went all over the island together doing funny poses and playing foto shooting. Here one of our best shots ;-)