I pulled into Belém early on Sunday morning and made my way to the bus terminal to scope out tickets south. While Belém is a very large city, it didn´t hold much interest for me and I was happy to move on quickly. During trip through Amazonia, I plotted out my next three weeks of travel along the northern coast of Brazil. I planned to scope out some of the many fantastic beaches in that part of the country. Belém, as a port town, didn´t fit into my plan. Instead, I elected to work south about 12 hours to São Luis, a coastal state capital with a very pleasant colonial center. The first bus south left in the evening and cost an unbelievable sum. I´ve since ascertained that bus travel in Brazil is far and away the most expensive of the countries I´ve been to. Coming from Bolivia, this is a very unpleasant surprise.

Since I had the day to kill in Belém, I made my way to the center with a Spanish woman, Vanessa, whom I´d met on the boat, and Franco, an Italian we met in the bus station. There was a festival in the main park in downtown Belém, so we sipped chilled coconut water and watched a demonstration of Capoeira. This is the Brazilian martial art that is "disguised" as a dance. It is a fascinating display of acrobatic kicks, handstands, jumping, and rolling all rhythmically done to the beat of live music. It was very entertaining and a good way to spend an afternoon before hopping the bus to São Luis.

Upon arriving at the capital of Maranhão state, I was pleased to discover that the culmination of their month-long festival, Sao Joao, would be occuring in just a couple days. This party, in many northern states, is as big or bigger than Carnival. Works for me. I went down and partook in the festivities a couple of nights I was there. Every night, in numerous locations around the city, there was a procession of live bands and colorful dance troupes crowding into city parks and playing a constant stream of music, more often than not Forro, but occaisionally a bit of Samba as well. The crowd is encouraged to dance along and the energy level is fantastic. By the night of biggest parties, I was joining right in, bouncing all over the place to the frenetic pace of the music and enjoying the environment.

The days in Sao Luis, I spent walking the extensive beaches and trying to cook away a horrid farmers tan which has become baked onto me by my four and a half months of travel. I fear it´s a battle I can´t win, but I´m determined to try. In the end, I spent nearly a week basking in the sun by day and soaking up the culture at night. It was great, particularly since my hostel was providing me a daily supply of exotic fresh fruits and juices some of which I´d only previously tasted in tropical flavoured candies. I could get used to Brazil.