Fortaleza – Dunes Dunes Dunes! – Jan 21

Fortaleza, gateway to Brazil’s northeast, was named after the fort built here by the Portuguese to protect northeastern Brazil from British, Dutch and Spanish raiders. It’s an industrial port city of four million and capital of the Brazilian northeast state of Ceará. The Northeast is very poor, even for Brazil, but produces some of Brazil’s best soccer players.

The highlight was Cumbuco Beach and Dunes, where we rode 4x4 beach buggies. Typical of Brazil, on the bus ride from the ship to the dunes, wearing seatbelts was strictly enforced. Then in the beach buggies with three people sitting on the top of the back seat holding on tightly to the roll bar careening down 20 degree grades, there were no seat belts.

But it was fun. Attempting to upload a video of going down a dune. It is a little jerky as halfway down I had to get a hand-hold with with my camera hand to keep from falling out.

Joani and her friend Julie both claim it was the other one screaming.

In this second video, an improvised water-slide down a dune into a lagoon, the guy gets going so fast that when he hits the water he skips like a stone 3 or 4 times on his butt. We were advised by the tour operator that under no circumstances were we allowed to try this.

On flat, staying secure on the back seats is easy (below). We were advised if we did fall out the back, try to avoid touching the muffler or the exhaust pipes, as they get quite hot.