Photos

“Storehouse of Time” (Armazém do Tempo) is the, quite poetic, name of the metallic pavilion in the foreground of the picture, located close to the entrance of Mangal das Garças Park.

This old iron structure is a former boatshed donated by the extinct “Empresa de Navegação da Amazônia S/A” (ENASA – Company of Navigation of the Amazonia S.A.).

By the time of the creation of the park, the structure was restored and brought to the place to function as an alternative space that houses a cafe, an area for artistic exhibitions, and a souvenir shop that sells plants, regional handcraft, books and CDs of local artists.


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About Mangal das Garças:

Set on the banks of the Guamá river, as a result of a renewal of an area of 40.000m², the "Mangal das Garças" (Mangrove of the Herons park) reproduces, in a naturalistic area, some of the different regions of the Amazon Rainforest that covers the state of Pará: "matas de terra firme" (non-floodable forests), "matas de várzea" (flooded forests) and "campos amazônicos" (amazonic grasslands). A poetic synthesis of the amazonic enviroment in the urban heart of Belém.

The park is dominated by two major structures: An observation tower with a great view of the city of Belém and of the nature that surrounds it. And a large amerindian-influenced wooden building with a restaurant, "Manjar das Garças", on the upper floor, with a terrace looking out across the river, while the ground floor is given over to a museum of Amazon boats and boatbuilding.

A wooden walkway leads out to a belvedere overlooking the Guamá river, where the combination of shade, river traffic and birdlife is hypnotic. There are also artificial lakes teeming with herons, flamingos, scarlet ibis and other species of waterbirds. Another walkway goes through an "Aningal", a vegetation formed by a plant locally known as "aninga", common in the edges of the rivers and islands of the Amazon Forest.
Elsewhere in the park you'll find kiosks with refreshments and a souvenir shop.

But the highlights ot the park are two striking pavilions: an aviary (Viveiro das Aningas) and a reserve for butterflies and hummingbirds (Reserva José Márcio Ayres).

On the entrance to the aviary, guides give visitors a laminated sheet that identifies all of the magnificent birds inside, like razor-billed curassows, bare-faced curassows and roseate spoonbils, among various other species, many of them extremely rare. The sheets are also given in the nearby "Reserva José Márcio Ayres", a combined butterfly and hummingbird sanctuary, where the combination of beautiful fluttering butterflies and shining darting hummingbirds is, quite simply, magical.

Source: Myself, secult.pa.gov.br and roughguides.com