Fortaleza, Brazil

Surprise, surprise! It's another hot day in Brazil!. Thankfully, a cool breeze was blowing so the 86 F heat wasn't too bad. I boarded a shuttle bus into town and then explored the colonial part of the city on foot. The new section of the city is just a mass of skyscrapers and tall apartment blocks, so there was no point looking around there. These high rises went on for miles and miles because more than 2 million people live here.

First stop was the massive Metropolitan Cathedral, the third largest cathedral in Brazil. It's only 40 years old, so everything looks really clean and new. If you are into stained glass, then you will love this place because there are panes and panes of beautiful, modern illustrations throughout the whole building.

After battling traffic, both on the sidewalk and on the streets, I finally made my way to the Jose de Alencar park. There, one of Brazil's most famous writers has a theater named after him.

Warning – the park is filled with people and some of them like to make fun of passersby. You are expected to give something to these jokers. If you don't tip these talkers, then they will heap insults on you. It won't matter if you don't speak a word of Portuguese, you will clearly understand that what they are saying about you is not good!

Next stop was the Dragao do Mar center. This entertainment and museum center is usually buzzing with activity in the late afternoon and at night, but I got there too early, so nothing was going on.

One of the first things that you notice about Brazilian cities is that there is a lot of graffiti. If it was all nice like this, then it wouldn't look so bad, but the majority of it looks terrible. I thought that New York had graffiti problems, but it has nothing compared to Brazil. One tour guide said that most of the stuff was political in nature and not gang related. Most small political parties can't afford to run ads or pay for billboards, so they hire people to mark up the streets with their slogans. If they stuck to fences, it wouldn't be so bad, but they mark up everything that they can lay their hands on. As a result, it makes many places look grimy and rundown.

Englishman's Point looks like a nice place to swim. It has a long pier that goes out into the water, a nice sandy beach and crashing waves that are perfect for surfing. Too bad the industries that used to line the waterfront have made these water practically poisonous. Only the crazy kids that you see here ventured to get into the polluted water.

What would Brazil be without Brazil nuts? Surprisingly, up until today, I couldn't find them anywhere. Then I came upon this marketplace (which looked like a parking garage full of stalls). It had vendors hawking cashews and Brazil nuts by the ton. Now that I had finally found the nuts, I couldn't find a currency exchange! All I could do was drool and watch all these delicious goodies go by.