Fortaleza

I've decided that no matter how good I get at Portuguese, I will never understand Brazilian directions. I arrived in Fortaleza at 7:00am, caught the right bus only minutes after stepping out of the station and even got off at the stop explained on the hostel website. However, from there, I went in on a 10-block detour just to end up one block from the bus stop. Along the way I got misdirected a few times and the final directions were "it's over there... by that tree" - the street was lined with trees!!
Raul, who studied at Selkirk last year, met me at the hostel a little later. We walked to the Dragão do Mar Cultural Centre then drove to Beira Mar, the ocean-side boardwalk where we drank coconut juice. It seems the weather system followed me up north as it was once again raining only this time it was also extremely hot! We escaped into the shelter of the Central Market when it started to pour and had self-serve regional food for lunch.
In the afternoon, I found free internet at the local library and spent a few hours studying. Back at the hostel, I met some people from various countries and got thoroughly confused as to which language I should be speaking when. That night Fanie, from Québec, joined Raul and me to go to the Dragão do Mar for dinner.
Saturday was sunny so I went for an early morning walk to the beach for a swim; however, not without get lost along the way! In between studying in the afternoon, I walked to the cathedral, a park, the train station and went to another art exhibition at the cultural centre.
Raul's parents were in town (they live 6 hours away), so they took us out for dinner at a really cool country-style restaurant, complete with miniature houses and shops around the walls to show what life used to be like in the region. The buffet there was full of local dishes including rice and beans, dried beef, fish, chicken, duck, mutton and of course a dessert section too! We drove in circles a bit before finding the restaurant and we got similar "directions" to the club we were trying to find. I couldn’t help chuckling upon hearing another explanation like "straight, to the left, then right, up three blocks and down two, yeah, right there at the next light." The club was a large open-air dance hall with a band playing a variety of old and modern dance songs, including the local rhythm, forró and some rock too. Raul taught me how to dance forró which is a lot like salsa! Then it was time to head to the restaurant and wait around a few hours until my 5:25am flight to Rio de Janeiro.