Fortaleza Feb 6, 2013

FORTALEZA, BRAZIL FEBRUARY 6, 2013

After four days at sea it is time to start hitting the ports of Brazil and our first stop will be Fortaleza – up on the north east coast of Brazil.

I have a private tour planned today that was organized by Mary from our Cruise Critic group – about 4 hours in duration with a number of stops and some flexibility in our agenda. There are nineteen on the tour and the cost is $22.00 US per person.

As the tour has an early start time of 7AM I awake at 5 AM and head down for my usual light breakfast at the International Cafe – finish it and head up to the promenade deck 7 to watch the ship dock – we are stopped off shore but the view is something – you can see in the early light the outline of the city – residential towers of almost uniform height stretching out for kilometres and you can see the beautiful beaches that extend even further.

It's 6 AM and we are suppose to be docked – seems we are waiting for the pilot – we finally see him board and the ship eventually docks at a very industrial area with heavy port activity and no services for cruisers.

At 6:30 AM I join the others at our appointed meeting place of the Explorer's Lounge on Deck 7 and we wait and we wait for the all clear to proceed down to the disembarkation area on Deck 5 – our tour is scheduled to leave at 7 AM which comes and goes – finally around 7:20 AM the all clear is announced and we quickly get off the ship and have about a five minute walk to the port entrance – part of our delay getting off is the result of the Brazilian authorities doing their due diligence.

We find our tour guide and within minutes are on board the air conditioned mini-bus – it is very humid outside with a temperature in the high 20 C. It tops about about 34 C in the afternoon heat.

Along with our driver, our narrator is Joel – call me Joe – his English is good even if my hearing is bad.

Our first two stops are beach areas – not a lot of activity – some surfer types.

We then reach the first of two market stops – the Tourism Center market or the Musuem of Arts and Culture as it is more formally known where vendors are selling their wares – we spend about 20 minutes there – I buy a pop for a $US 1 – we are provided with water on the bus.

We then head for the Fortaleza Cathedral – a massive structure that seats over 5000 and features beautiful stain glass windows throughout – the area around the Cathedral is a bee hive of activity with tour buses galore – it is also the end point for the shuttle that is operating from the port – it's a good 2 to 3 miles from the port to the central city area.

Our next stop is the Central market – a massive 5 storey building that is next door to the Cathedral but our tour guide doesn't want us walking – primarily because of the heat so we re board the bus and drive around the block to the entrance to the Mercado Central – originally scheduled for an hour stop we agreed that 45 minutes should be enough time as most on board weren't planning on doing a lot of buying. The market is huge – it is a terraced five storey massive that used both a conventional staircase as well as a sloping walkway to cover the five decks – the shops are perhaps 4 to 5 feet wide and about 90% seem to be selling the same items – fine linens, clothing and sandals, - there are a few places to grab a bite to eat – I purchased some bottle water for $US 2 – these merchants readily accept $US dollars.

There is both a money exchange and a bank machine – I tried without any success to see if my bank card would work on the bank machine – it wouldn't – it has a chip so that shouldn’t be a problem – suspect that it is a different network as another person also with a chip card couldn't get his to work either – as long as $US are accepted I should be okay.

We re board and head for our next destination – Jose DE Alancar Theatre for a quick photo op and then it's on to more beach stops – all beaches in Brazil are opened to the public and you cannot be charged a fee to use them but there are a myriad of beach resorts along the kilometres of beaches that make up Fortaleza landscape – these resorts are what our last two spots are – I and most of the other walked through them and out on to the open crashing wave sounds of the Atlantic ocean coming ashore in South America – there are many people using both the resort and the beaches – the sun has come out as well and there is a light breeze to mute the humidity somewhat. It is a pretty spectacular sight and provided many great photo opportunities.

Back to the bus and a short drive back to the port entrance where our driver spends some time trying to get permission for his bus to drop us off at the ship – didn't want us walking that short distance in the heat – finally after what seems like 15 minutes we get the go ahead but Joel needs to leave – so we send him on his way with tips in hand and head for the ship.

I mentioned earlier that there are no tourist services at this port and there is such constant wind action that the ship had to run it's engines all day to try and keep the gangway from swaying too much – not surprising about the wind action as there are four wind turbines running at the port – to mitigate the lack of services as few vendors are allowed to sell there wares at the ship – no beer sales but I was able to re-stock up on pop – not cheap at $1.00US a can – got six – but better than the $2.25 on board ship.

The Captain apparently spent quite a bit of time worrying about the gang plank and probably the extra fuel costs that the ship will occur.

Interesting to note that next year the Crown Princess doing a similiar itinerary is by-passing Fortaleza and going to Recife which is nearby instead. Whether it is just a matter of rotating ports or the difficulty of docking at Fortaleza I don't know.

It was a great day, a great tour and once again thanks to Mary for putting it together for us.

It was also announced during sailaway that the Brazilan authorities have come on board to check all the passports and visas and as a result the wedding chapel is now off limits as that is where they have set up there secure office until we reach Rio in three days time. Brazil is the only country that Canadians need a visa for on this cruise.

Over dinner as is often the case I got talking to some other cruisers so did the same type of private tour as us but it included a longer beach resort stay and they paid about $100.00 per person so unless there was a big charge for their beach stay I would say they got hosed.

I took over 180 photos so after dinner I set about sorting through and editing them – one showing the beach huts is now my screen wallpaper.

Tomorrow is a sea day and I intend to take it easy and prepare for Salvador and the start of Carnaval on Friday.

As we leave Fortaleza and head for Salvador we are also at the nearest point to Africa as we approach Recife.

Cheers!