Fortaleza, Brazil (1/18/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Jan 18, 2007 6:26 PM
Subject: Thursday, January 18, 2007


Thursday, January 18, 2007

Fortaleza, Brazil

The Paris of Northern Brazil I don’t think so, but that is what they bill themselves as. We rode down one street where we saw nice new high rises on one side and up a hill on the other side, slums with all sorts of refuse thrown down the hillside.

They admit to two and one half million people in the city. It is supposed to be a laid back city with tourism their main product. There is a beautiful beachfront at least a mile long, where the ship is docked. Here are many of their restaurants and their best hotels. However the beach cannot be used for swimming as it is badly polluted. Beaches for swimming are supposed to be a ten minute ride away.

Almost all of the city is very poor. The rich we saw are not very rich. Everywhere we went we saw poor buildings one on top of another. Most stores were open air. The exceptions being in the wealthy area, and there were not many of those.

We had an event today, provided by the cruise line. It was for all passengers. They took all who wanted to go to see something a little different. This event was held at their exclusive legitimate theater built in 1916. It was fairly small. Seating for about 800. This showing was for our ship only. About 270 showed up. The theater was very nice but nothing spectacular as we were led to believe.

The performance started with a short video presented on a portable home type movie screen that was in disrepair. The narration was in Portuguese and the subtitles in English. The screen could not be seen and the subtitles could not be read. From a pamphlet given us, we ascertained this was a play about the slum dwelling children and their plight. Then the curtain opened.

I’d guess there were about 25 dancers in total. They were doing modern dance. These dancers were all children and teenagers, from the slums. That was what they were portraying on stage. The entire show lasted about an hour I think. It may have been longer because the time went so quickly. This was the finest modern dance performance by a large group that I have ever seen live. The kids were fabulous. Very intricate and difficult moves all done at the same time. The costumes were terrific. The choreography, fantastic. The work and training that had to go into this had to be mind boggling. It could not have been better.

From there we walked just outside to a large courtyard. There were chairs and tables set up for us in the shade from large trees and there was bird doo on the chairs. There were Brazilian dancers doing Brazilian dances while wearing Brazilian outfits. The women’s outfits were very scantly covering their posteriors. As they danced those aforesaid posteriors would stick out quite a bit, as they had quite a bit to stick out. Don’t you just hate when that happens? Don’t you just hate the way those Brazilian women are built. Disgusting, huh? After a while they started to get people from the audience to come up and join in the dancing. While all that disgraceful stuff was going on they were serving soft and hard drinks and a few types of Brazilian food to taste. Not my taste. The food that is. We had a great time as did all we talked to.

The bus ride back took us through the downtown area and then along the beach. Near the beach we saw several of the usual U.S. food chains and what looked like luxury hotels. I don’t know if this is right but the guide said that the medium cost of a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment, in the best area, would be about $79,000. Sounded like 1,700 to 2,000 square feet. That seems very, very cheap.

We hurried back in time to make it for lunch. I hate room service. Then the ship departed at about 2:30 PM.

I don’t know if you recall, but a few nights ago I wrote that Regent, our cruise ship line, gave us gift one of six. That was a water bottle with an insulated holder and belt. Last night we got gift number two. Really stupid. Heavy ribbed cloth belts. The kind you fasten by threading the plain end between two metal rings attached at the other end. One problem. The size. It was one size fits no one. It I put the two together we could make one. Tonight was gift number three. A small flash light made like the good Mag Lights, out of aluminum tubing. It takes three AAA batteries, included, and the bulbs are several very bright blue/white LEDs. It also came with a holder pouch that attaches to the belt that fits no one. Bobbi says we probably get a safari jacket next. I say it’s going to be a pith helmet. Then there will be somewhere to pith. That was terrible. Actually, what is a pith? Do those helmets look like one or protect from them? Piths that is. Maybe that name was given by some one with a lisp? That just brings more questions.