Herbs and the Old City - Belem #3

We dressed excitedly for the Opera House, waiting in the lobby of our hotel for Araceli. She was late and even though the taxi rushed us to the Opera House and we had been assured that there was a 15 minute grace period the guard at the gate would not budge to let us in. Fortunately for us a couple that had been on the boat with us came out of the gate, complaining that the jazz was too loud and unrefined. That wasn’t us anyway. So we went across the street and ran into Diogo in the park. It was fun exploring the park monuments in the dark. And of course we ended the evening by going to the wharf where we could walk by the river, enjoy fabulous food, hear great music, shop at our favorite beads and feathers stall and try yet another flavor of ice cream.

Our last day in Belem we went searching for some herbs that Araceli wanted Anahata to work with. We wandered through the old section of the city, down winding streets past houses adorned in old, colorful Portuguese tiles. We met an amazing man with an amazing shop, filled with piles of dried bark and leaves, roots and herbs, crèmes and powders. We spent hours in the shop working with his wife, assembling the ingredients for various needs. Peggy and Anahata were especially attracted to some vein strengthening crèmes and both have since reported excellent results.

We walked on to the market at the harbor to visit the basket stalls and then headed to the old Governor’s Mansion for lunch. The streets of Belem are lined in old mango trees, the sidewalks are cobbled stone. We popped into the Botanical Gardens just before it closed. It was the jungle, tamed. Little critters were wandering about sniffing everything, they looked like a cross between a coyote and a badger. Towering trees formed the upper canopy where a noisy group of white cranes were having a convention. It was a small but intense place with tigers in cages, turtles in ponds, splashy bright parrots in the trees.

Araceli persuaded us to have special energy healing treatments back at Aurolux. And what do you know, there was a crystal bath machine just like the one that I had encountered at Joao de Deus. And another assembly of crystals in a Kabala Tree of Life Mandala.

Healed, well hugged our friends begged us to come back. The Buddha at the door winked at us as we left. Who could resist.

To view photos that accompany this story go to:
http://homepage.mac.com/prematara/Brazil*2004/PhotoAlbum32.html