Wednesday, February 06, 2008
It's Time!
Hi there!
Been a while, hasn't it?
Well the suspense will end now!
Things are still winging along. Thieny, Israel and I are still in the same condo in Fortaleza and we are still looking forward to a great year of helping more clients of fortaleza Adventure.
A rough count would have us helping around 50 clients visit or stay in Brazil over the past couple of years that the service has existed.
The city has grown as well. The CIA book on Fortaleza says the population, according to the 2007 census, is now 3.4M people! When I came to the city in 2003, there were 2.6M.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of high rise buildings in the city.You can find the exact number by clicking here.
We have just come through Carnival 2008, and on Sunday took a drive for the day to Morro Branco and Praia das Fontes.
We didn't go early enough!
From what we found, 8am wouldn't have been to early!
We had hoped the beach would look a lot more like this! (actually, this is Majorlandia, where another friend, also John, another Canuck, has built a beautiful home)
By the time we got there, around 10am, and after something like 45 minutes to go a few blocks in Morro Branco, the beach areas were already out of tables and chairs...you could still sit in the sun if you wanted to...and bake!
The crowd was incredible, and while we inched our way back up the streets away from the beach, there were hundreds of vehicles STILL pouring in, hoping to enjoy the party atmosphere.
Various vendors were shoulder to shoulder along the streets in Morro Branco leading to the water...and where Fortaleza has all but stopped ANY music near the ocean, there were plenty of BIG speakers blaring Forro and Axe (pronounced A-shay) up and down the blocks on the way to the sand.
We finally pulled off the street even before getting back on the highway and had lunch...mainly because of the 3 kids...Israel, his primo or cousin, Mathaus who is 10, and his friend Taina...a very pretty 10 year old Brasileira.
We got back to Fortaleza around 4pm after spending most of the day driving...not what we'd planned.
The kids stayed overnight at the condo though and Thieny took them to the local beach on Beira Mar Monday. They were there most of the day, with Thieny and her older sister, Daisy.
My best friend John Mueller is coming back to Fortaleza on the 27th of the month and will be staying in the same condo he occupied the last time. It's also in my building so we can spend a lot of time together.
The building itself is right in the middle of the best area, in my opinion, Meireles. We're only a couple of blocks from the beach and there are something like 20 restaurants within a ten minute walk!
That's not to mention all the other stores and services including Blockbuster...although Lojas Americanas has purchased the Brazilian rights to Blockbuster and combined their stores, so you can shop for many things you would ordinarily go to a department store for and rent a film at the same time. It's now known as Americanas Express - Blockbuster.
There is the one big change to the city life of the local beach and that is that the city has clamped down on music at the beachfront barracas (ba-hack-as). So the one we used to go to near Club Nautico, the big swim club on Beira Mar that had a big screen TV and used to show music videos, has been forced to shut that off!
Not even the ones right on the sand can have music now and the city has hired a number of agents who wear red vests to "police" the strip and make sure no one is violating the order.
I understand this is the result of the hotels on the side of Beira Mar away from the sand complaining about the "noise". This may be a case of the hotels "cutting their nose off despite their face", so to speak, because many, many people come to the beach to lie back in the sun or shade, hoist a cool one and listen to the forro.
I also hear rumors that our lady mayor wants to tear down all the existing barracas and create a sort of generic store for vending drinks and food on or near the beach.
If this actually happens, and I think it might over the next couple of years, it will certainly change the atmosphere and I'm not sure for the better. It will clean up the scene but also change the dynamic and I'm not sure of the effect on the people who come here to experience the local scene.
It will also be interesting to see what effect the new legislation that forbids the sale of alcohol near the national highways will have on the local economies of smaller communities, which tend to have lots of restaurants and bars near the highway.
I understand that this is one way of working to reduce the number of accidents where alcohol is a contributing factor, but my opinion is that raising the tax on the product might have more effect and not hurt local business so much.
Mind you, this is only my opinion and if it works, it will have achieved a good result for everyone.
More in the next post.
Been a while, hasn't it?
Well the suspense will end now!
Things are still winging along. Thieny, Israel and I are still in the same condo in Fortaleza and we are still looking forward to a great year of helping more clients of fortaleza Adventure.
A rough count would have us helping around 50 clients visit or stay in Brazil over the past couple of years that the service has existed.
The city has grown as well. The CIA book on Fortaleza says the population, according to the 2007 census, is now 3.4M people! When I came to the city in 2003, there were 2.6M.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of high rise buildings in the city.You can find the exact number by clicking here.
We have just come through Carnival 2008, and on Sunday took a drive for the day to Morro Branco and Praia das Fontes.
We didn't go early enough!
From what we found, 8am wouldn't have been to early!
We had hoped the beach would look a lot more like this! (actually, this is Majorlandia, where another friend, also John, another Canuck, has built a beautiful home)
By the time we got there, around 10am, and after something like 45 minutes to go a few blocks in Morro Branco, the beach areas were already out of tables and chairs...you could still sit in the sun if you wanted to...and bake!
The crowd was incredible, and while we inched our way back up the streets away from the beach, there were hundreds of vehicles STILL pouring in, hoping to enjoy the party atmosphere.
Various vendors were shoulder to shoulder along the streets in Morro Branco leading to the water...and where Fortaleza has all but stopped ANY music near the ocean, there were plenty of BIG speakers blaring Forro and Axe (pronounced A-shay) up and down the blocks on the way to the sand.
We finally pulled off the street even before getting back on the highway and had lunch...mainly because of the 3 kids...Israel, his primo or cousin, Mathaus who is 10, and his friend Taina...a very pretty 10 year old Brasileira.
We got back to Fortaleza around 4pm after spending most of the day driving...not what we'd planned.
The kids stayed overnight at the condo though and Thieny took them to the local beach on Beira Mar Monday. They were there most of the day, with Thieny and her older sister, Daisy.
My best friend John Mueller is coming back to Fortaleza on the 27th of the month and will be staying in the same condo he occupied the last time. It's also in my building so we can spend a lot of time together.
The building itself is right in the middle of the best area, in my opinion, Meireles. We're only a couple of blocks from the beach and there are something like 20 restaurants within a ten minute walk!
That's not to mention all the other stores and services including Blockbuster...although Lojas Americanas has purchased the Brazilian rights to Blockbuster and combined their stores, so you can shop for many things you would ordinarily go to a department store for and rent a film at the same time. It's now known as Americanas Express - Blockbuster.
There is the one big change to the city life of the local beach and that is that the city has clamped down on music at the beachfront barracas (ba-hack-as). So the one we used to go to near Club Nautico, the big swim club on Beira Mar that had a big screen TV and used to show music videos, has been forced to shut that off!
Not even the ones right on the sand can have music now and the city has hired a number of agents who wear red vests to "police" the strip and make sure no one is violating the order.
I understand this is the result of the hotels on the side of Beira Mar away from the sand complaining about the "noise". This may be a case of the hotels "cutting their nose off despite their face", so to speak, because many, many people come to the beach to lie back in the sun or shade, hoist a cool one and listen to the forro.
I also hear rumors that our lady mayor wants to tear down all the existing barracas and create a sort of generic store for vending drinks and food on or near the beach.
If this actually happens, and I think it might over the next couple of years, it will certainly change the atmosphere and I'm not sure for the better. It will clean up the scene but also change the dynamic and I'm not sure of the effect on the people who come here to experience the local scene.
It will also be interesting to see what effect the new legislation that forbids the sale of alcohol near the national highways will have on the local economies of smaller communities, which tend to have lots of restaurants and bars near the highway.
I understand that this is one way of working to reduce the number of accidents where alcohol is a contributing factor, but my opinion is that raising the tax on the product might have more effect and not hurt local business so much.
Mind you, this is only my opinion and if it works, it will have achieved a good result for everyone.
More in the next post.
