Belem is not an obvious tourist destination. Most travellers to the Amazon region head straight to Manaus, 1,400km to the northwest, on the junction of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers, but for those who do make the trek, the rewards can be surprising.

Established by the Portuguese in 1615 in the Para River estuary, the southern arm of the Amazon's mouth, Belem had its heyday during the rubber boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it produced nearly 40 per cent of Brazil's exports of the valuable commodity. It opened the Amazon to world trade and, with a population of 1.4 million, remains the biggest port on the lower stretch of the river.

It was during the Belle Epoque period that most of the city's beautiful buildings were erected, including the Teatro de Paz Opera House, modelled on La Scala in Milan, the Basilica de Nazare, built after the style of St Peter's in Rome, and the fresh fruit and produce market, Ver-o-Peso, with its decorative wrought-iron turret, which was transported in sections from Britain.

A good introduction to the laid-back city is Mangal das Garcas, a modern botanical park where lunch can be taken overlooking a mangrove forest. Other attractions include a butterfly house, full of vibrantly coloured specimens decorating the indoor foliage, and scarlet ibis and guara birds, turned pink like flamingo by their diet of crustaceans.

Located just below the equator in a highly humid zone, you can set your watch by the afternoon rain.This is what makes everything so lush and which gives the city much of its colour - the main streets lined with fruiting mango trees, wetlands that attract rich birdlife and the fast-flowing, fish-filled rivers and steamy jungle: a natural habitat for a wide variety of wildlife and plants, and globally acclaimed as nature's medicine chest.

The Ver-o-Peso market is an attraction in itself. It is worth taking the time to wander the labyrinth of undercover stalls displaying exotic fruit and nuts from the surrounding jungle, including Brazil nuts; freshly trimmed manioc roots; cherry red acerola, said to contain up to 30 times the vitamin C of an orange; graviola, a relative of the custard apple and believed to be a cure for colon cancer; and bullet-hard acai berries, which are so high in antioxidants, iron, zinc and essential fatty and omega acids, they're the world's most-nutritious edible berry.

Fishermen dock at the wharf alongside the fish market with their catch of just some of the 2,000 species of fish that exist in the Amazon. Vendors hold up huge golden dourada, rearrange gleaming piles of the infamous but edible piranha and lay out pirarucu, the largest fish in the Amazon, which can grow to the size of a motorcycle.

The local seafood can be sampled fresh at a new restaurant complex, La em Casa, which lines the wharf. With its tropical, casual lifestyle, it's a surprise to find no wine culture here - instead one must order fresh fruit juice or settle into a few caipirinhas, the unofficial national drink, made from cachaca, a high-proof sugarcane alcohol, with crushed lime, sugar and ice.

Locals love to trick visitors into trying a seemingly innocent green leaf called jambu, which, when eaten, anaesthetises the mouth.

To ensure that you see some of the creatures the Amazon is famous for, including sloths, manatees and jaguars, a visit to the Emilio Goeldi Museum and its zoo and botanical garden is recommended.

For those who appreciate architecture, a stroll around Belem's latin quarter reveals many exquisite Portuguese colonial buildings. Among these are the twin-towered 1750s colonial baroque Cathedral da Se, the Museum of Sacred Art, with its extraordinary collection of religious statues, and the Casa das Onze Janelas, which now houses an art gallery and restaurant.

And if you're game, plan your visit to coincide with the Cirio de Nazare - the largest religious festival in Brazil. Up to a million devotees flock here for the two-week event in October, when a statue of the Virgin Mary is paraded through the streets.