Fortaleza

We’ve arrived in a city of 2.4 million people; the capital of the Brazilian state of
Ceará. As first impressions go, it was quite breathtaking to see the golden coastline hugged by rather futuristic high-rise blocks. Once on the ground it was a completely different story and from this aspect we became aware of the deceptive beach front and the underlying real life that many of the locals enjoy simultaneously with endurance. As it was Sunday when we arrived in Fortaleza, the city was comparatively silent by Brazilian standards and everybody seemed to have headed out of town to enjoy the idealistic lifestyle of a beach bum.
The local bus ride into the city centre was bewildering! We saw beauty and happiness in the street children, some of who were playing futebol whilst others were ‘soltando pipa’ (flying single-stringed kites). When Jon was living in the Zona Norte of Rio de Janeiro, he became involved in the joyful pipa game. Onto the roof of his house he climbed to set up for the contest, taking in an unforgettable view of the local Carioca neighbourhoods and favelas at the same time but also trying to spy out other peoples’ kites with whom he would play. To start playing, one has to fly their kite and if they are the only one doing so, somebody is guaranteed to eagerly join them within seconds. Once there are one or more kites high overhead, the aim of the game is to cut each others kite strings. The one remaining with their kite still flying is the winner (though some cheaters roll their cords in glass shards to give them that extra boost).
After disembarking the bus we admired an aqua blue and brilliant white colonial building before wandering up to the Mercado Central to admire some local handicrafts and re-hydrate. Curios stray cats and optimistic dogs scoured through clusters of rubbish that seemed to appear every so often along the way and we were always sure to cross to the opposite side of the street for fear of potential rabies transmission. The occasional street child looked at us imploringly, and the level of malnourishment was startling: perhaps even worse than the children we came across in Bangladesh. The market itself had many cheap t-shirts with humorous phrases printed on, plenty of clay figurines holding drums or accordions to illustrate the Forró music culture, and finely detailed wooden carvings of religious scenes, wildlife, architecture, you name it! We could have easily blown our life savings in that place but with a little discipline and willpower, we wandered across to the Cathedral without looking back. It was rather plain and was all white apart from the numerous beautiful stained glass windows and the crucifix which was illuminated with electric-blue lights from behind. Attentive church-goers watched as the bishop of Fortaleza was enthusiastically running the service, and a couple of needy street children walked by with open palms. Then it was off to a small street market with cobblestones covered with sand, plenty of beachwear for sale, and a coconut vendor who was able to quench our thirst handsomely!
The district of Iracema is slightly down-at-heel, and so we moved onwards via a supermarket, where we bought a variety of local chilled drinks, to a beach-side bar for ice-cold Chopp and chicken hearts. Yes, chicken hearts, and they were extremely tasty! Sundays in central Fortaleza are slightly tricky: our visit to the Centro Cultural Dragão do Mar proved to be fruitless as everything was closed! So what to do…hang on, this is Brazil, so off to the beach! The local buses are fantastic, and the journey past favellas and tiny streets with colourfully painted houses with red-tiled roofs and ad-hoc games of futebol captured the mood perfectly. The Praia do Futuro was packed: many thousands of people doing one of the things that Brazilians do best of all! This is the life! Had we been hungry here, vendors plied their trade in lollipops of cheese to whack upon their tiny, portable barbeques, almost like thuribles containing hot charcoal and swinging from a chain.
Meanwhile, back on the trail, we hit the Meireles strip just as the sun was setting. This can be best described as a cross between Miami beach and Benidorm. Past the tiny fishing beach, off which jangada fishing boats with their curved masts were anchored and accessible only from the tiny rowing boats piled up on the beach, and on to the large craft fair which commences each day at dusk. Fortaleza was gradually springing into life, and the promenade became highly animated with passers-by, street artists and circus acts. Suitably fortified with a fat tapioca, condensed milk and coconut delicacy from two elderly women pushing a street-vendor’s cart, we pushed onwards along the strip, taking in the vacation atmosphere of this massive resort, and enjoying the balmy, tropical evening.