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Nightlife
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BelAİm can be a very lively place, especially at weekends, but one of the best
bars
is also the quietest, the
Bar do Forte
on the battlements of the old Portuguese fort overlooking Ver O Peso market; the entrance is just past the
Circulo Militar
restaurant. Here you sit outside, among eighteenth-century cannon pointing out to sea, and the view is marvellous especially at sunset. The other outdoor bar in the centre is the
Bar do Parque,
a famous meeting spot right in the heart of the PraA§a da RepA?blica in front of the theatre. It's open all day and there's always something going on, including, very often, a
batucada
playing live music on weekend nights. There are also some bars strung along the upmarket Avenida Bras de Aguiar: the
Spazzio Verdi
and
GAo's
restaurants in block 8 of the
avenida
are popular eating and meeting places day and night.
BelAİm's real nightlife rarely begins much before 10 or 11pm, when the focus switches to the western bairro of Condor , on the banks of the Rio GuamA?. There are numerous clubs to choose from, particularly lively on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and you'll need to take a taxi there and back. Lapinha, Trav. Padre Eutiquio 390 (tel 091/249-2290; no entry charge), is the best-known and most enjoyable, though it doesn't get going much before midnight. It's not too glitzy, there's usually good food and a live band at weekends, and it may be the only club in the world which has three toilets - "Men", "Women" and "Gay". Other places to try are the much more upmarket PalA?cio dos Bares in Condor, which often has good samba bands, and the Bar Teatro Maracaibo, Alcindocacela 1299 (tel 091/222-4797). Another good area after dark is the Avenida Souza Franco , which everyone calls Docas, a short taxi ride or walk from the centre: head up Avenida Gov. JosAİ Malcher from PraA§a da RepA?blica, turn left down Quintino Bocaiuva, take the second right and keep going for another five minutes - it's the broad street with a canal in the middle to your left. It has two nightclubs, Spectrum and Back Street Bar, which usually have DJs playing a mixture of international and Brazilian dance music to a young crowd; they occasionally host live shows by local bands. It's hard to call it more sedate, but at least you can sit down at the nearby Miralha, which has good live Brazilian music on weekend nights, and good food every night. The other live music spot is the African Bar on the dock road just past the start of Avenida Presidente Vargas; it has great pseudo-African decor, complete with thatched roof, and is surprisingly cheap. Both Brazilian and international music - mostly electronic dance - is played, and it's always lively and crowded with the fashionable young.
BelAİm is a good place for a night at the
cinema
. A couple of fine old theatres with cavernous interiors and refreshingly enormous screens make even bad films enjoyable to watch: check out the OlAmpia, on Presidente Vargas almost next door to the
Hilton,
and the NazarAİ, on the
praA§a
by the cathedral, which show mainstream releases. There's a good triple-screen arthouse, Cinema 1-2-3, behind the Iguatemi mall in Batista Campos: take any bus with an "Iguatemi" card in front, get out at the mall, and walk through it. Plenty of bars and restaurants in the same street cater for the after-show crowd, if you want to make a night of it. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Brazil,
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