The bus dropped us off at the market. There is always something enticing about markets in foreign countries. They are full of strange fruits, smells and objects. It is fascinating to walk around through the stalls looking at the goods and talking to the traders, exchanging smiles and laughs.
We saw a lot of big birds circling overhead. That was the fish market. The fish were gutted and the heads and entrails thrown to the vultures and egrets. As we got near we found ourselves walking through the vultures and egrets. They were standing around waiting to be fed.
Inside the fish were all extremely exotic. The smell wasn’t quite as exotic.
The beach at the fishing port was covered with rubbish with vultures and egrets picking through it. It did not look very enticing. All around was the squalor of decaying colonial buildings. Nothing was maintained. It reeked of poverty.
Belem was an abbreviation of Bethlehem. It did not live up to its name.
