# Pará (Brazil)

Pará, the second largest state in Brazil by area. It is located in the north of Brazil, and encompasses the mouth of the Amazon River.

## Cities

* -1.455833-48.5038891 Belém — the capital and terminus for a trip down the Amazon
* -0.595998-47.54812 Algodoal — a coastal city on the island of Maiandeua
* -2.516667-54.953 Alter do Chão — home to one of the most beautiful freshwater beaches in the world, leading to it being popularly known as the Brazilian Caribbean
* -2.635833-54.9369444 Belterra — Henry Ford moved his rubber cultivation project here after he failed in Fordlândia
* -1.195833-47.1808335 Capanema — an agricultural town on the way to Salinópolis
* -1.296944-47.9219446 Castanhal — a regional center for education and trade
* -3.831389-55.49757 Fordlândia — a historic city where Henry Ford once tried to cultivate rubber
* -4.275833-55.9838898 Itaituba — a small city near the end of navigable part of the Tapajós river
* -2.007778-54.0688899 Monte Alegre — famous for some nearby ancient rock paintings
* -6.755-51.08388910 Ourilândia do Norte — the main city of southeast Pará
* -6.067778-49.90194411 Parauapebas — this city was founded in the 1980s to support the world's largest iron ore mine, and still has an air of pioneers and adventurers
* -0.628889-47.35583312 Salinópolis (also known as Salinas) — a beach resort some 300 km from Belém
* -2.442778-54.70777813 Santarém — a small city located where the Tapajós river pours into the Amazon River

## Other destinations

* -0.978611-49.5816671 Ilha do Marajó — claimed to be the world's largest fresh water island (larger than Switzerland), it has a distinct birdlife and also huge water buffalo farms
* -1.164-48.4692 Ilha do Mosqueiro — an island with 17 km of beaches with freshwater tides just outside Belém, which draw vacationers primarily in the dry season
* -3.517-55.0733 Tapajós National Forest —
* -4.439444-56.8402784 Amazônia National Park — 8,600 km² of very biodiverse habitat with a wide range of animals and plants (a bit smaller than Cyprus)

## Understand

While the east is densely populated, the west is a barely developed rainforest wilderness that is being pushed back further and further by deforestation. It is home to about 40 indigenous groups.

### Climate

It has a tropical climate in which there is no dry season — all months have mean precipitation values of at least 60 millimetres (2.4 in).

## Get in

* Val de Cans International Airport (BEL) in Belém
* Santarém-Maestro Wilson Fonseca Airport (STM)

## See

The Port of Belém has restaurants, art galleries, a small brewery, ice-cream shops, artisan stands, regional food kiosks, coffee houses, and a touristic harbour.
Fans on industrial-urban planning may be interested in visiting Fordlândia, a prefabricated industrial town built by Henry Ford to be inhabited by 10,000 people.

## Do

Every October, Belém receives tens of thousands of tourists for the year's most important religious celebration: the procession of the Círio de Nazaré.
Enjoy the beaches in Salinópolis, Alter do Chão or Ilha do Mosqueiro.

## Buy

In Belém look for the Marajó-style ceramics, based on the vanished Marajoara culture, which developed on an island in the Amazon River.

## Eat

Among all the Brazilian states Pará has by far the heaviest influence of indigenous cooking. Many of these dishes will taste strange to an average European, but all are quite worth a try
* Tucupí: A yellow gravy boiled from manioc, quite bitter, goes in many dishes.
* Maniçoba: A distant cousin of the all-Brazilian Feijoada, easily shortlisted for worst-ever-looking-food. Mostly pork and manioc, served with rice.
* Pato no Tucupí: duck with jambú (vegetable) cooked in tucupí.
* Tacacá: soup with tucupí, dried shrimps and jambú.
* Açaí: soup-like dessert made from the Açaí fruit.
* Brazil Nuts: A nut native to the region.