Day 12/12: Thursday, January 16, 2020: Fortaleza, Brazil

Our first Brazilian port! Fortaleza is the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará. It's known as "The City of Light" due to its location near the equator which prolongs the daylight hours. It is also known for its beaches, which are punctuated by red cliffs, palm trees, dunes, lagoons and high crime rate. Fortaleza’s long-standing folkloric traditions are presented in dance performances at the art nouveau José de Alencar theater, open since 1910. With a population of 2.7 million, it is the fifth largest city in Brazil. The city lies at the mouth of the Pajeú River.

What first struck me looking at the city was how uniform the building heights were and how far the buildings stretched along the shore.

Billowing cloudy skies and lots of sun. Today we have a scheduled overview of Fortaleza starting at 1:00 pm. The ship arrived at dock at 8:00am and will depart at 5:30 pm this afternoon. Around 10:00 am, we decided to take the shuttle into town to look around for a bit before the tour in the afternoon. The shuttle ride took about 20 minutes.

They are in the process of widening the beach front road so there was construction vehicles wondering among the sunbathers. I also found it interesting to see all the trash everywhere you look. This was to be a common theme on all our Brazilian port stops. We roamed up along the beach for a couple of miles before heading back to where the shuttle bus would pick us up to return to the ship. We needed to get our tickets and have lunch before the afternoon tour began.

The afternoon tour was interesting. The city is comprised of a mixture of high rise buildings and shanty residences. There does not appear to be any zoning restrictions. If there is vacant land, someone will start building a shanty town on it.

The Fortaleza Cathedral.

We lit a candle for Terri.

The fort in the middle of the city (Fort Schoonenborch) built by the Dutch during their second occupation of the city in 1649. In 1654, the Dutch handed over this fortress to the Portuguese, who renamed it Fortaleza da Nossa Senhora de Assunção ("Fort of Our Lady of the Assumption"), after which the city of Fortaleza takes its name.

A cashew tree in the garden of the theater. The cashew tree is native to Brazil. It was taken by the Portuguese from Brazil to the Far East where today, Vietnam is the world's largest cashew producer with Brazil being number two.

There was a rehearsal going on in the theater.

Fortaleza used to have a prison in the middle of town. Many years ago, as the city grew, it was decided it was too dangerous to have the prison in the middle of the city, so they sent all the prisoners to Brazilia (where they became politicians) and turned the prison into a market place.

The cells are now individual vendor booths.

The last stop was at the city cultural center.

We drove back along the beach on the way to the ship. Again, tractors and heavy equipment mingled with the sunbathers and beach restaurants.

We pulled out of Fortaleza leaving a beautiful sunset.