Fortaleza, Brazil – April 21

Fortaleza, Brazil – April 21

We were an hour late docking at Fortaleza – the port pilot was late getting out to our ship and since oe is required we putted around in circles outside the dock area for an hour. Finally we docked and then it was another hour until we were cleared and they opened the gangway. We decided to ride the shuttle into town since it was going to a different location than on our last time here. It was about a 20 minute ride to the Old Jail Arts and Crafts center. It is a cute idea; each shop was set up in one of the old cells, but it was truly 'tourist stuff' and very over-priced. We walked around for about 20 minutes and since they ship had stressed that this was not a city to go walking around (fairly dangerous) we decided to head back to the ship.

The location we went to on our last time here was to the Central Market. The market is large – three stories but not quite good enough for us to take a taxi there this time. It's a huge city, but doesn't seem to have a lot to offer except beautiful beaches and they are supposed to be a bit dangerous for tourists so passengers were warned not to go on their own.

After returning to the ship, we had lunch and spent some time reading – even Jim couldn't read outside on the balcony this time as the sun was hitting our side of the ship and the temp was about 95 degrees. The humidity was fairly low at about 68%, but that didn't help. Way too hot for me!

We just finished dinner and after a very early sunset; about 5:30 the temperature has dropped considerably and it is comfortable outside now. We are seeing a number of oil drilling platforms off in the distance.

The onboard atmosphere is changing slightly as we get close to the end of our 115 day adventure. People are starting to talk about going home and the dreaded packing everything up. I decided to bite the big bullet and ship our two big bags rather than taking them with us on the plane. Since our first flight canceled and we now have to spend a night in Fort Lauderdale and fly home the next morning I didn't want to have to hassle with the big bags. It's not cheap, but I know it will be worth it – when you figure what this cruise costs why not spend a tiny bit more and go ship the stuff.  I'll try to add a couple pics to this post when the connection is a bit faster.

We'll be at sea tomorrow and then at Belem on Tuesday.