So we met at the breakfast room at 9:00 and our eyes lit up when we saw the food they had waiting for us. They had tropical fruit galore, items like coconuts with holes and straws in them, mango, papaya, fruits I'd never seen or heard of (like peace-fruit and star fruit), a selection of about 8 fruit juices (like cashew!), cold cuts, fresh bread, little sausages with a spicy sauce and onions, eggs, custom omelettes (which required us to talk to the lady cooking them, which wasn't going to happen), waffles, cheeses, etc. etc. It was pretty cool trying all this food out. Daniel and Kelly got a kick out of Stefan when he came back with a plate of potatoes, fruit, and lunch meat because I guess it's not normal to mix such different items on your plate. I laughed at him as well (he's easy to laugh at ;o), but then a few minutes later I came back with a plate of sausages, cheese, and papaya and they laughed even harder because I outdid Stefan with my mix. Oops!
The ginormous
tour bus pulled up to our hotel on time and we were ready for the beach. We were a bit disappointed that the beach in front of our hotel wasn't good for swimming because there was a large port nearby and the water was polluted, but there were other beaches nearby, so it wouldn't be a problem.The beach we were going to was called Beach Park and it was pretty well-known because it also had a water park (like Raging Waters) that we could go to if we wanted to pay 75 reais (about $25). It was very resort-like there with a few small stores, restaurants, bungy jumping, and tables and chairs on the beach. On the way in, there were a set of gorilla statues and they even had a mascot who walked around and took pictures with the
kids - and Stefan. True to their reputations, Stefan and Roland wasted no time in molesting the gorilla statues in front of the camera. Yes, there were women and children around and, yes, I 
was embarrased to know them but I was also laughing hysterically.I was stoked to be at the beach and there were plenty of rough waves there, so most of us just hung out at the beach all day. Daniel and Kelly wanted to check out the water park, so they paid their dues but were really disappointed and came to the beach with us by lunch time. Being a beach city, Fortaleza was very well known for their seafood, so we started our lunchtime seafood binge eating with some breaded and fried crab. Roland and Csilla got a massive red snapper that was covered in some kind of garlic and parsley sauce (it was too strong for Vas's refined taste buds) and Stefan and I each got a bowl of crab risotto that had too many pieces of crab shell in it. Naturally it was washed down by some beers that were kept cold by these plastic thermos things, which was nice since it was easily over 90 degrees that day.
We spent plenty of time in the rough surf that day. There were some waves to be body-surfed and get destroyed by. Roland ended getting tossed and his leg almost touched his back. Stefan got pile-driven into the sand. I drank a few gallons of sea water and skinned up my back on the sand. Yet we weren't phased and repeatedly went back out for more!
I tried out my snorkel and goggles but the water was too rough
and I couldn't even see the bottom of the ocean from the shallow water, so it wasn't worthwhile. I had watched a special on shark attacks in Florida right near the coast a few weeks back, so I was a bit paranoid for the first day or two about getting attacked. Which is funny because I've always lives next to the ocean and I never worry about it. Obviously it didn't deter me out of the water, but it was on my mind a lot.Daniel and Kelly went back to the beach park waterslides to check them out one more time and they actually found some decent rides, so they were satisfied with the experience afterall. Roland went to the bungy-ride-jump thing and got his ass kicked while doing sommersaults on it. He came back and was dripping with sweat from jumping around on it. I've never done that thing before but I guess it takes quite a bit of muscle and strength to do
it, so it probably wouldn't be worth it for me. I'd rather do something that takes no muscle at all, like bungy jump or sky dive....The bus was going to take us back at 4:30, so Roland, Csilla, Stefan, and I headed to the buses at 4:15 or so, hoping to find Daniel and Kelly on their way back from the water park. We couldn't find them anywhere though and we were really worried about missing our bus since our translators weren't around and we didn't know which bus we were supposed to get on. We finally found a tour guide that spoke English (a rarity in these areas!) and he couldn't help us find our bus despite asking around. I was worried that it had already left without us, but I knew (or hoped ;o) that Daniel and Kelly wouldn't abandon us, no matter how annoying Stefan was. Finally the tour guide said that his boss would be there in 10 minutes and could tell us which bus it was. 10 minutes? It had to be at least 5:00 by now and we were supposed to leave
at 4:30. Csilla, are you sure that you turned your watch back an hour since we were in a new time zone? Oh, whoops, that was the OTHER watch that she set. Nice one ;o) ! We walked back to the Beach Park and found Daniel and Kelly hanging out with our tour guide.After our ride back to the hotel, we decided to pay 135 reais each (like $60) to get rides to a new beach every day on the bus. We toyed with the idea of getting our own van and driver but it wasn't worth it in the end because we'd had the same structured schedule that the tour buses had.
After showering and cleaning up, we were off to dinner and to check out a huge party at a place that was called Pirata (Pirate) that was only open on Monday nights. We ended up walking at least a mile to find a restaurant that we all agreed on (no BBQ, no Italian, no.....ooh, let's eat Seafood!). We had nice outdoor seating and had a caiparinha and some water and ordered lobster, shrimp, and some filet mignon medallions. Yummy! The non-Amis hadn't had lobster before, and it was plentiful and cheap down in Fortaleza so they tried it out and the boys were hooked. The girls stuck with safe things to eat, but we ended up ordering lobster at every lunch from then on.
Then we were off to Pirata, right down the street. This area of town was hopping and there
were young folks everywhere. We found out as the week went by that this was the biggest party in Fortaleza and the reason why it was so busy in this area. Pirata used to be a big outdoor casino but they had converted it into a place to party with drinks, bands, and dancing. We had heard that Fortaleza was home to a style of Brazilian music called Forro (pronounced Fow-Hoa). Everyone had told us this so I was looking forward to getting private lessons from some cute Brazilian girls. We were a little timid at first with the other 3000+ people there and kinda hung out in the back having caiparinhas and beer. Kelly taught us some basic Forro steps and rhythm (I'm way to white to be able to do it). Then the band started playing music that was described as "Karnival 
Music". It was much easier to dance to, everyone just started jumping around. I did some derivative of swing dancing with Kelly to the delight of some ladies at a table nearby. They applauded us (or maybe my effort ;o) afterwards which was nice. Too bad they were old enough to be my parents ;o).But with such fun music, there was nothing to do but head towards the stage and get in the middle of the massive crowd. Everyone was jumping around, sweating, and having fun with the Karnival tunes. It was one of those times of serious cultural authenticity that serious tourists thrive on, so we had a great time. Daniel kept telling us bachelors that he was jealous of us and
that he should have gone there when he was single because there were young-20's girls all over the place.A new band came up and they started playing Brazilian Axe (pronounced osh-eh) music, which is a more simple rhythm and everyone in the crowd moves their arms in sync, kinda like the Macarena dance. The girls were delighted when buff male dancers in boxers came up on the stage but I was busy looking at the girls in the crowd. Unfortunately, Axe music leaves no individuality so
it wasn't as fun and Daniel, Kelly, Roland, and Csilla got bored and decided to go home at around 1:30 or 2:00. Stefan and I stuck around for a while though as the crowd thinned out a bit. Once they started playing Forro music again, I struck out when I asked a few girls to teach me to dance and resolved to just dance alone for the rest of the night, which was fine. I turned around and Stefan was freaking a tall, slender girl that had been dancing near us for a while. I thought she was very pretty and we both agreed that she had a nice set of...shoes.He seemed pretty happy and danced with her for a while when a fight suddenly broke out in front of us. Out of nowhere, security guards rushed the brawlers and took them down. I had no idea that there was even security at this event, but they definitely took care of business and eventually wrestl
ed the guys to the door and kicked them out. The crowd was definitely a bit unsettled by it and people were edgy for a while. The band played some mellow music to get people back in the groove, which worked in Stefan's favor. But, for some reason, he wanted to LEAVE! I don't know what his deal was but we left about 15 minutes later. We gave the girl our room number at the hotel and she was supposed to call Stefan that week, but we realized the next day that we had given her the wrong room. Oops! We finally left Pirata probably around 3:00 and Stefan had plenty of lipstick smeared all over his mouth :o) ...We had to get up at around 7:15 the next morning, and thus began our string of getting little sleep in the hotel and sleeping to and from the beaches in the bus! A good recipe for getting sick, but definitely maximizing our time down in South America!
Justinho, Pirata was a highlight of the trip
My Pictures
Stefan's Pictures (lots of good ones)
No comments:
Post a Comment