IHANA.COM big trip - diary - October 2002

After a baking hot 5 hour drive to Fortaleza we headed for the beach at Praia Futuro to have a quick swim in the pounding surf and take advantage of the showers to clean up ready to check out the town. We parked along the main drag of Avenida Presidente Kennedy and took a stroll along the seafront to check out the movement. Theres a lot of tourist stalls so the inevitable prostitutes and hawkers hassled us incessantly as we had a drink at one of the pavement cafes. Returning to the landy we bumped into Paulo who runs tours along the beaches in his landy. He told us where to find a cheap hotel with parking 10 minutes walk from the beach, at $2.50 a night each we weren't complaining. Tonight was the first night of the music festival so we jumped in a cab and headed over to the site at the other end of town.

The dance music tent...

...main stage...

Must be dorises

Ceara Music dorises

Some can't handle it...

...some need a little lift

The Ceara festival turned out to be fun, well organised in a great location around the harbour, it was populated mostly by young people looking to have a rocking time. People we met were curious to know which type of music we liked of the previously unheard of music types here in Brasil; hockey, heggy, hippy hoppy and happy. We never knew how to answer until we realised these were rock, reggae, hip hop and rap! We headed over to the main stage which was showcasing Brasilian bands, the music was good with the whole crowd singing along to the songs, making a great atmosphere. Between groups we checked out the dance tent on the harbour wall where the DJ actually played some drum and bass, the first time we've heard some other than in the landy on the whole trip.

Friday afternoon we went to the local trendy beach with lots of people in designer swimmers and sunglasses providing some fine sights whilst showing off to each other, before heading back to the fest in the evening. As there is only beer and sodas on sale inside the fest we decided a quick caipi was needed at the stalls lining the road before going in. Chatting with the locals we were recommended to take with us a half litre bottle of cachaça to freshen up our cans of coke, only 20p for the bottle but its actually surprisingly drinkable. This, plus some chance meetings with Paulo and some friends from Jeri made the night go very well. Young brasilieras are keen to have their pictures taken so we made many new friends thanks to the digi camera.

Paulo and his loves

Good selection of bollox

Saturday we cruised the shopping district as the clothes here are really cheap and our wardrobes are in desperate need of new cloth injection. Having had enough of being the tallest people in the music fest we went to what was supposed to be the best disco in town, but it was sparsly populated with mainly well dressed expensive looking ladies, making for a non-fun evening.

After a lazy Sunday we hooked up with Paulo again and went to the bustling Orbita bar in the centre, where there was live music and all the trendy people from the beach screeching at each other.