4 Best Sights in Belem, The Amazon

City beautification efforts to increase tourism and encourage environmental conservation led to the creation of the Mangrove of the Egrets, a verdant park that lines the Rio Guamá. It's a great place for a short stroll. There is an aviary, a lookout tower with a view of Belém, a navigation museum, a boardwalk leading to a lookout over the Rio Guamá, a live butterfly museum, ponds with aquatic plants, food vendors, a gift shop, and an excellent restaurant. Entrance to the park is free, although each attraction costs R$3.

In 1883 this 40-acre plot of rain forest was designated an ecological reserve. Nowadays it has an aquarium and two amusement parks as well as natural caverns, a variety of animals (some in the wild), and mammoth trees.

Founded January 12, 1616, this fort is considered Belém's birthplace. From here the Portuguese launched conquests of the Amazon and watched over the bay. The fort's role in the region's defense is evidenced by massive English- and Portuguese-made cannons pointing out over the water. They are poised atop fort walls that are three yards thick in places. Recent renovations unearthed more than two-dozen cannons, extensive military middens from the moat, and native Tupi artifacts. A small museum of prefort indigenous cultures is at the entrance. Just outside the fort, cobblestone walkways hug the breezy waterfront.

Founded by a naturalist and a group of intellectuals in 1866, this complex contains one of the Amazon's most important research facilities. Its museum has an extensive collection of indigenous artifacts, including the distinctive and beautiful pottery of the Marajó tribes, known as marajoara. A small forest has reflecting pools with giant water lilies. But the highlight is the botanical zoo, where you can visit a variety of Amazon wildlife, including jaguars, panthers, manatees, anacondas, macaws, sloths, and monkeys. As of this writing, the aquarium is closed for renovation.