Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“leather civilization” touching all aspects of life in the
sertão
(with some English
labelling) enhanced with real saddles, stirrups, branding irons and the like. To a
certain extent this presents a romantic view of the past, but one that widely
conforms to the modern
cearanese
idea of themselves as rugged individuals, albeit
paired with their
ocio criativo
, “creative laziness”.
There's also a small, shiny-domed
planetarium
, cinemas, an auditorium and a good
coffee-shop, the
Torre do Café
, located in the tower that supports the covered walkway
between the two main sections of the complex. On the ground level there's also a shop,
the
Central de Artesanato do Ceará
, selling quality regional arts and crafts. At weekends
the bars and restaurants below the complex become a hive of eating, drinking and
musical activities.
Praça Cristo Redentor and around
he southern entrance to Centro Dragão do Mar opens onto the
Praça Cristo
Redentor
, an otherwise bare space notable for the 35m column of the
Monumento
de Cristo Redentor
, raised in 1922 to commemorate the centenary of Brazilian
independence. At the western end lies the once elegant but long-abandoned Teatro
São José, while the eastern side is dominated by the
Seminário do Prainha
,
completed in 1864 around the older Igreja do Prainha (1841). From here it's a
pleasant if hot stroll to the beaches along
Avenida Monsenhor Tabosa
, a shopping
street given a smart facelift in 2014.
City beaches
The main city beaches are
Praia de Iracema
and the adjacent
Praia do Meireles
,
both focal points for Fortaleza's nightlife and broken up by a series of piers
(
espigões
), though the boundary between the two beaches is blurry in practice.
As beaches go, the Praia do Meireles wins hands down thanks to its greater expanse
of sand, though the water is not as clean as the beaches out of town and Iracema is
gradually receiving a long-overdue makeover (this is where the new
aquarium
will
eventually open). The pier here, known as
Ponte dos Ingleses
, is very popular with
couples and families in the early evenings and a lovely place to have a beer or simply
watch the sunset.
The seafront boulevard is well laid out, punctuated by clumps of palm trees, and there
is no shortage of watering holes. By day there are surfers on the waves and beach parties
at the
barracas
, and in the early evening it seems everyone in the city turns out to stroll,
jog or rollerblade down the
Avenida Beira Mar
, which has replaced the city's squares as
the favoured meeting place.
If you're a beach devotee, cleaner water, higher rollers and better seafood are to
be had further out past Mucuripe at 7km-long
Praia do Futuro
: take buses marked
“Caça e Pesca” (#49) from Rua Castro e Silva in the centre or along Avendia Beira
Mar. he beach
barracas
here are very good, and it's the only beach where locals will
actually swim.
4
Porto das Dunas and Beach Park
Beach Park Rua Porto das Dunas 2734 • Daily 11am-5pm (closed Wed & Thurs March-June & Aug-Nov) • R$170 (children up to 12 R$160)
•
T
85 4012 3000,
W
beachpark.com.br • Viação São Benedito runs regular buses to Prainha from the rodoviária,
but for the Beach Park
it's easier to take a tour: Sim 7 Turismo (see opposite) runs daily buses (with hotel pick-up) for R$38 return
Most Brazilian tourists use Fortaleza as a base from which to visit the surrounding
beaches, either renting a car, or more typically taking tours (see opposite). The nearest
targets are the surf beaches at
Porto das Dunas
(31km east of the centre via CE-25/
CE-40) and
Prainha
(36km east), with a combined length of 11km. Porto das Dunas is
best known in Brazil for having an aquatic theme-park called
Beach Park
, the largest of
its kind in Latin America and home to the world's tallest water slide (at 41m high, the
aptly named
Insano
).
