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| Futuro Beach, Fortaleza, Brazil |
While we had eagerly anticipated our trip to Colombia,
Ecuador, Panama, and Peru n January, we were not as enthusiastic about visiting
Brazil, French Guiana, and St. Lucia. That’s
not because we didn’t want to go there, but because it meant that we were on
the home stretch and while touring, we now have our minds focused on the
daunting task of packing for the trip home.
As I commented to one person, “The good thing is that there are no
decisions to make. Everything in the
stateroom goes home. The bad thing is
that everything in the stateroom must go home!”
And no matter how many consumables we bring with us, figuring it will
give us space to take purchases home, we always end up with more items to pack
than we have space! Thank goodness for
free luggage shipping! So as we headed
west from our disappointing stop at Ascension Island, our thoughts began to
turn to getting organized and trying to put a very small dent in the packing
process.
In the meantime, there have been many things to do on the
ship. We had arranged to meet various
friends for lunch – friends we hadn’t had much opportunity to visit with during
the course of this 115 day cruise!
Somehow the time just passes quickly and we are suddenly trying to cram
things in at the end. We had met Alice,
a retired journalist from Indianapolis, last year and had enjoyed getting to
know her, but this year we’ve seen very little of her. So that was one day. We had gotten to know Anna, a very
enthusiastic retired teacher from Long Island, and wanted time to sit down and
chat. Although we get to see Debby Bacon
perform every evening we can in the Piano Bar, we never actually have time to
visit! So each of the three sea days we
had arranged to get together with these people and enjoy a leisurely
lunch. And during one of those lunches,
I happened to notice a dorsal fin pop out of the water, and then another. All I could do was point and say, “Look! Look!”
Debby’s husband Ron looked out and said, “Those are orcas!” After having seen so many whales on our 2012
voyage, these were absolutely the first ones we’d seen on this cruise!
Holland America celebrated their 140th Birthday
on April 18th, and although we didn’t attend the gala in the Queen’s
Lounge, there was certainly a lot going on.
I browsed through all the Thomas Kinkade paintings on board, dreaming of
being able to afford them, but even if I could, I wouldn’t have any place to
put them! (The good news is that when I
bought a few back in the early 90s, they were much more affordable, and one of
the paintings I saw was one that I had paid about 1/3 of what it was going for
on the ship – and mine included framing!)
There is a lecturer on board right now who is giving photo tips. (Why didn’t they have him at the
beginning of the cruise?) I’ve been busy
playing around with my camera and learning some new techniques that actually
gave me some very good shots of the Indonesian Crew Show that was held the day
before Fortaleza. Crew shows are always
so much more interesting on these grand voyages because we get to know so much
more of the staff! Regarding the photo tips,
I have decided that I definitely need to do more experimenting when I get home
to see if I can get better shots. I did
enter a few pictures in the ship’s photo contest, though I don’t expect to
win. (Sharon – one was the beach scene
that you said you liked!)
So we continued to keep very busy, trying to focus on the
fun things rather than the monumental task that awaits us over the next few
days, all the while sailing ever nearer to South America,
Have you ever wondered why there’s only one country in South
America that speaks Portuguese? Well,
there’s a very logical reason for it.
Back when European countries were competing with each other to reach the
Indies and everyone was sending out explorers, Spain and Portugal came to an
agreement. In 1499 these two exploration
leaders signed the Treaty of Tordesailles, which assigned a meridian as a
boundary for exploration. Any lands to
the west of this line that were discovered could be claimed by Spain. Any lands to the east were Portugal’s to
claim. This line runs right through
Brazil. This also explains why Portugal
was so influential in Africa while Spain made no claims there.
Brazil was discovered and claimed for Portugal in 1500 by Pedro
Cabral. With a population of about 203
million people, it is the fifth most populous country in the world. Its area is approximately 3.2 million square
miles. One can only imagine how much
more populous the country would be if the Amazon rain forest were more
habitable!
Fortaleza, named for the Fortress of Nossa Senhora de Assunçáo,
was founded in 1611. Today Fortaleza is
the fifth-largest city in Brazil and is the capital of Ceará, a state in the
northeast region of the country.
According to our tour guide, although Fortaleza is a resort city known
for its beautiful beaches, it is not a city rich in history.
We had originally planned to do a different shore excursion,
Cumbuco Beach and Buggy Ride. This was to spend time at the beach, which
would give us the opportunity to take a ride on a dune buggy, and then go
shopping. However, after hearing of the
experiences some had on the dunes in Namibia (including an overturned vehicle
and severely broken wrist), as well as learning that they were anticipating
rain on the day we were to be in port, we decided that perhaps we’d better
consider something a little tamer. The
entire purpose for our choosing that particular excursion was to do the dune
buggy ride, and all of a sudden that no longer sounded particularly glamorous. So we rebooked a different excursion, Fortaleza City and Beach, a choice we
later discovered was not the best we could have made.
Our very first stop on the tour was Futuro Beach. The tour description indicated that those who
preferred not to swim would have the opportunity to visit shops near the
beach. That turned out not to be the
case as all the shops were selling food, drinks, or beach supplies. So while some of the guests chose to swim, we
did some walking around. Because my foot
was still bothering me, I didn’t feel comfortable walking on the sand so I
returned to the canopied area and visited with others who had opted out of
swimming while Chuck explored the area further.
Futuro Beach is a beautiful seaside with four miles of white
sandy beaches. Many families enjoy
spending time together at the beach, and the waters there are safe for swimming
(i.e. no pollution and no sharks). Those
who did go in swimming really enjoyed the warm tropical waters.
As we left the beach, we passed Praça dos Mártires (Martyrs
Square) a national monument erected in memory of a former president, and then
stopped at a lovely modern cathedral (completed in 1978) for a visit to the
interior. Because it was Sunday, a mass
was being conducted so we were limited as to what we could see, but the stained
glass windows were magnificent and we enjoyed seeing what we could of the
interior. Our guide later explained that
many people are reminded of Notre Dame in Paris. While it’s far more modern, we can see some
definite similarities!
We continued on our way to the Old Jail, which is now used
as a market for local crafts. Again,
being a Sunday, most of the shops were closed, but it was interesting to see
many lace shops as well as watch a woman who was obviously very skilled in
making lace. She seemed to flip the
threads back at forth at random to create the lovely lace products that were on
sale! Her skill recalled watching the
women of Ecuador who wove those Panama hats with such ease!
Our final stop was at the Metallic Bridge, which was to give
spectacular views of the lovely beaches that offset the skyline of
Fortaleza. However, when we arrived
there, we discovered that the bridge was closed. I guess this was just one of those days that,
while the city was lovely, nothing seemed to work properly for us today!
The day in Fortaleza was short. All aboard was supposed to be at 2:30, and we
arrived back at about 2:00.
Because we had a short day in port, we had scheduled dinner
at the Pinnacle. Our friend Nancy was
celebrating her birthday so we invited Nancy and Bob to join us for her special
day. While visiting with them, we
discovered that they had gone to the markets at the Old Jail in the morning,
and all the shops were open and the place was teeming with locals and
tourists. So we missed that opportunity
because we had gone to the beach first on our tour.
Later, we were visiting with our friends Sally & Ange,
who had had a wonderful tour, Fortaleza
Highlights. They said that they had really enjoyed the tour and had seen a
lot of Fortaleza – many places we had seen superficially. So I guess we can chalk up our decision as “just
one of those things”. Maybe sometime we’ll
have the opportunity to come back and see more of this beautiful city!
BT
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