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The ship remained docked last night in Fortaleza and we had a few hours in the morning and early afternoon to explore the area today. Fortaleza (fortress in Portuguese and pronounced “fohta lesa”) reminded me a lot of Salvador. It is the capital of the state of Ceará (pronounced like “sierra”). It is the fifth largest city in Brazil with well over 3 million people living in the metropolitan region.
The Spaniards arrived here in 1500 followed by the Portuguese who built a fort and started colonization in 1603. The Dutch made a run at it by establishing Fort Schoonerborch but were expelled by the Portuguese who renamed it Fortaleza de Nossa Senhora da Assuncao. Fortaleza became the capital of Ceará in 1799 and eventually became known for its cotton industry.
Fortaleza has a large number of expensive and quite architecturally brilliant (in color and style) high-rise buildings near the water and seems to be experiencing decent growth. As we moved out from the downtown area it transformed into the typical one and two story dilapidated 3rd world type of structures with a preponderance of trash, small merchants, informal restaurants, open air hardware stores, tire stores with outside “displays” of used tires, bicycle repair shops, etc. Not a chain store in site.
I went on a dune buggy excursion today. The area we saw on our bus trip out to the dunes had a large number of informal low-end “resort” type businesses on the beach. Once in a while there would be some estate-style homes and even 5-6 story buildings but there also seemed to be a number of those buildings in early stages and possibly “stalled” stages of construction. After 30 minutes or so we reached the area where we would take our exciting dune buggy rides.
This beach area was replete with sand dunes that seem to go on for more than 50 miles inland and extend for an equal distance up and down the coast. This makes for a big industry for off-road vehicles, which we saw frequently on our ride to the beach.
With it’s strong and consistent winds, this area is also known as a haven for wind and kite surfers. I spotted some interesting fishing boats that had, what appeared to be, a mast laying down and extending over the front of the boat. There was, in fact, an example of this type of boat on the lawn in front of the resort where are activities took place (see photo below). The rigging was unique to say the least. It seems the fishermen need to “sail” out past the waves to get to the fishing spots, which is something I have not seen before.
Our tour guide led us into the resort where we divided into groups of 3’s and were taken to our dune buggies, which came complete with a driver. One person sat in the passenger seat and the other two sat somewhat precariously in the back holding onto the roll bar. We drove across the street away from the ocean and drove on sandy but firm roads until we came to the top of a hill where a series of grass covered shacks were perched. Here we could buy local crafts (although I never even looked at what was there) from what seemed to be mostly children.
They also were letting guests take “sand sled” rides down a steep hill. The locals call this ski-bunda but it is high speed sand dune sledding on something that looks like a skateboard without wheels. They wax it up using candles, sit on it and guide themselves wtih light downward hand pressure. Several tried, some successfully, but Mike (who, along with his wife Cheryl were my buggy partners) was used a little too much left hand pressure and went literally head over heels including an unexpected head plant in the sand. He may have even hurt his back (turned out to be short term pain from the embarrassment more than anything) but definitely got super fine sand EVERYWHERE which was pretty miserable until he hosed off at the resort. See photo below — for my brilliant (just ask me, I’ll tell you!) video titled “Mike Does a Dump in the Sand”, click here: http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent/100548
After a little more driving around in the sand and stopping at another hillside location where they were selling customized picture T-shirts of guests with their local ponies — who were dressed up in a very festive style! After this we went back to the resort where some swam in the ocean and others (like me) sat around and sipped on authentic coconut milk from chilled coconuts. Finally, we boarded the bus and, on the way back to the ship made two more, let’s say, mildly interesting, stops…first at what they called the English Bridge which was really a run-down pier and the other stop which was called the Old Prison but was really another local craft marketplace – they are known for the lace here and it was available in ample quantities. We were then taken back to the Mariner where we arrived about 1:15…just in time for lunch.
We took it easy the rest of the day by having lunch in Compass Rose and drinks in the Observation Lounge. By chance, our friends Nick and Sherrie came into the Observation Lounge and, after a martini, we went to dinner at La Veranda. We had a nice dinner of veal parmigianino and a magnum of 2003 Antinori Super Tuscan. Nice! (Thanks Nick!) After we taught Sherrie our two cork tricks we also taught the head waiter the same tricks and he showed us a couple of his own. Good times! We ended the night by finishing our wine on the pool deck accompanied by warm ocean breezes.
Photographically, once again, I was amazed at the colors from my backup camera, the D200. They look like photo-realistic models of buildings or watercolors. Simply amazing considering I took most of these pictures from a bus with dirty windows that was going over 40 mph most of the day!
Also, when we were safely back on the ship in the afternoon — we heard Lisa, the assistant cruise director, paging some guests in French…seems they weren’t back on the ship yet (good thing they scan our ID cards coming and going or they wouldn’t know). The two missing guests finally showed up (only 15 minutes late…but the ship gets concerned because they are on a schedule!). Below, you can see my paparazzi shots of the guests boarding the ship right below our suite!
Next I am going to start working on my Machu Picchu movie as I have much of the content ready now.
(PS: Turns out that the video made the Ray’s Quirky Moments segment and made Mike a big star on the ship and on YouTube! Used with his permission of course).
“Mike Does a Dump in the Sand” Video: https://vimeo.com/52571171
Marlene Shirley - Amazing pictures, I loved the buildings! Looks like a fun time on the beach but not sure about the sand sleding. I’m trying to imagine what it would feel like to be warm. We did get up into the 40’s today. Love ya! Marlene