I thought I'd leave Gabrielle and mishelle to rest, so I attempted to see the museum of sacred art again. Rodrigo from yesterday told me not to go downtown because all the stores would be closed and I'd probably get robbed because no one was around. I went anyway, but left most everything at home. There weren't any sketchy people that I noticed and all the tourist places were completely empty, so to me it was the perfect day to go.

I stumbled upon a lady making tapioca and coffee in Batista campos park, so I sat for a while there and enjoyed the morning because I was too early for everything anyway .

All the museums were nice, especially the governors palace, where I got my first guided tour in English. Wow! From the old town, I went to the gem museum, which was also nice and explained the history of the search for gold in the Amazon.

By then I was starving so I went to this cheap buffet in my guidebook, shuffling through the huge crowd in praca republica for the last day of festa junina. I wasn't feeling like a festival at all at that point.

After lunch I went to the zoo, which was as sad as the zoos in China. The cages were too small, especially the ones for the jaguars. The monkeys looked pretty angry too and the river otters were freaking out because of starvation. I saw them after they were fed and they were happy then. I couldn't really stay long and I got chased out of the most interesting part, an exhibition on native Amazonian people because it closed earlier than the rest of the park.

My last stop in Belem was the enormous basilica. It looks a little like Rome in design, but the materials made it seem like a plastic version of the church it was imitating. I was just in time for afternoon mass so I stayed for that. The music was a little too pop for my taste but one song made everyone freak out. That was pretty amazing. People were actually crying in catharsis as they sang.

I said a little prayer for my boat trip and walked home a little lighter after that.

Mishelle and Gabriel couldn't go to the beach with me the next day so I made a plan to go to the furthest one I could find. There's no cars there so I thought it would be the best.