FORTALEZA BRAZIL

Wednesday 6^th February 2013.

After leaving Trinidad and Tobago, our last pot of call in the Caribbean, we had four days sailing in calm seas and cloudy skies before we reached the sea port and city of Fortaleza on the coast of Brazil.

Fortaleza is a large city, situated right on the coast with a population of approx. 2 million people. At first glance it appears to be a fairly busy and modern city. However after getting past the fascade of the multi storey buildings and hotels of the city, it is littered with a third world country’s getto’s and shanty towns of the poor. Virtually everything is old and run down and no effort is made to clean the place up. However there is no shortage of cars and the traffic is diabolical, also brought about by terrible roads.

The talk around the city is of the Soccer World Cup next year with Fortaleza getting two games of the competition. They have a lot of work to do to bring this hope to fruition.

We had a last gasp land excursion tour arranged, {nothing else available}, to visit a sugar cane distillery and Museum, about an hour and a half’s bus drive  inland from the port. While the trip was interesting and informative, it was a little difficult as no one spoke English, other than the guide. The distillery opened in 1846 and ceased working in 1996 and is now a virtual theme park for the locals. We were allowed to sample their different types of spirits but they were extremely strong like “Grappa” and not to our liking. However the trip at least gave us an insight of the terrible state of their economy and basic living conditions.

This place is not for tourists and we leave knowing full well we will not return.

Our next port of call is Salvador in two days time