“Ver-o-Peso”, which means seeing the weight, is the main market from Belém, the 1,5 million people city placed at the Amazonas delta in the Pará state, which was my first stop in my journey along the Amazon River. Belém, in my opinion, is far from being an interesting city. The houses look kind of old and decadent due to the obvious situation of poverty that plagues South American countries. Criminality is high and is there for you to feel and see it. Like São Paulo or Rio, Belém suffers from lack of territorial organization, perhaps a Portuguese inheritance. A huge part of the city is transformed into a gigantic bazaar with streets crowded with a frenetic mass of people running up and down and uncountable selling stands placed on the road. Everywhere the same cheap products, mainly clothes, fake CD’s and DVD’s or no name electric devices. Then there is the market, a very big lively place with the most interesting people and superb atmosphere. It’s a drill to step inside and get lost among those corridors full of spices, ointments, potions, roots, leaves, exotic fruits, vegetables, meat, fish.... well, a list without an end.
This lady was a most adorable character, like so many in Brazil that you meet at every corner. It’s incredible how they manage to do so much with so little. Perhaps it is we who have so little and so less to give. I would think a lot about that during my stay in that amazing country. I was perplexed with all those paraphernalia she was selling, small and big glasses, roots, teas, ointments, powders, all providing some cure to almost every problem you might have. Impotence? Unrewarded love? Bad luck? No problem! She had the solution for everything. Charming!
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Belém, 16 December, 2008
“The attention of the people around here is incredible. It does not matter if it’s on the market, on the street, on the bus, on the boat or somewhere else. They catch the most insignificant detail. They observe you carefully and listen to everything you say. Being alert. It is part of the survival struggle in this hard society.”