Day 43 - February 15, 2008 - Fortaleza, Brazil

Fortaleza photos
Morning came with Debbie taking her turn at being under the weather. She has the same cough, congestion and general malaise that had Margie in bed yesterday. Margie is feeling better, but Debbie is out for the day. She woke with chills and a fever of 101.5F.
We arrived in Fortaleza and the ship was docked on the port side before 7am, its scheduled arrival time. But for some reason, no passenegers started leaving until after 8am. Everybody was taking it easy in this port. Margie and Clay went to breakfast around 7:30 and sat on the outside deck at LaVeranda. It was a windy setting. We saw 4 wind turbines as we cruised in and they were still visible as we ate our breakfast in the breezy place. The breeze was the only redeeming feature weather-wise as it was hot and muggy otherwise.
We were on the first shuttle bus into town and it left the ship at 8:30am as no one wanted to take the originally scheduled 8am bus. Fortaleza is a large city of maybe 1.5 million people. It is spread out along the Atlantic coast. The bus ride was about 20-25 minutes and ended at the Mercado Central. The Mercado is a 4 story building with crafts, food, leather, woven goods and T-shirts. Prices are negotiable. Margie and Clay first walked down a block to the Catedral Metropolitana, a large church inspired by the old Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. The Fortaleza version is smaller than the Cologne version, but they do look the same. We then walked a couple of blocks further to the Nosso Senhora do Rosario church. This church was built by slaves in the 18th century. We then continued our walk for another 6-8 blocks, ending in a park right before the main bus terminal. Inside the park, we asked a woman in an office type structure to point out where we were on a map we had. She said just a moment in Portuguese and went off to find an English speaker.She came back with a young woman who tried to point out where we were on a map. The problem was that the map did not have all the streets. So, we never did find where we were on a map. The women did say that Clay should not be walking around with a camera on his neck. We took this as a good reason to walk directly back to the Mercado area. The shopping was uniform in nature in that there were specific areas for a trade. One block would be only book stores, another only dentists, another a shoe area. It was a little strange.
On the way back to the bus, we witnessed the police bringing in some prisoners. They were armed to the teeth and major scary. When we finally got back to the market, we stopped and had a beer and Sprite. We also spent about an hour shopping in the Mercado. There was a sorbet place that Clay was craving after hearing about them in Salvador. They are sorvetterias and you pick all the flavors you want and they sell it to you by the kilo. Clay got the strange fruit flavors. Margie got chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Margie did not think it was as good as the ice cream in Argentina, so Clay ate hers too. Clay thought it was all cold and that was all he cared about.
Debbie was still sick in bed when Margie and Clay got back from town around 12:30. Debbie would remain there all day. Margie and Clay caught a quick lunch up in LaVeranda. Ludovic stopped by and discussed the change over in LaVeranda that evening from Italian Steakhouse to Brazilian Steakhouse. He said he was losing about 30% of the dining capacity because he had to remove tables for the grill area. He thought that this would mean not everyone showing up for the first night would be able to eat there. We told him we had reservations at Latitudes that evening and would wait a few days before we tried the Brazilian Seakhouse. He said good.
Marge and Clay saw the popcorn movie in the afternoon as we sailed away from Fortaleza, The movie was "Dan in Real Life". It was a cute movie that Clay had seen in Raleigh, but as with all movies and books, even the second or third time he sees or reads them, they are still new to him.
The evening ended with Debbie still in bed trying to shake her sickness. Margie and Clay had dinner in Latitudes with a man who lives close to Margie in southwest Florida. The menu was the same Indochine menu we had before. It was good. Everyone had an early night to bed and now we have 2 quiet sea days to rest up.
Fortaleza photos