At the Fortaleza Beach Park you will come across the more than aptly named Insano. It is the highest water slide in the world, its height being the equivalent of a 14-storey building. Because of its slope, the descent is extremely quickly and carried out at a speed of 105 km/h.

For adrenaline junkies.

We have travel info on Fortaleza at our blog post destination: Fortaleza. You can see more photos of Búzios at our Flickr album.

A few times here at the blog we have reflected on the importance surf has for the life of many youngsters along the gigantic Brazilian coastline. For them, surf is such a central part of their lifes as it can be for an Australian or a Hawaiian. Dunes along the coast provide these youngsters with another source of endless excitement: sandboarding.

Our first weekly shot is from the top of the mythical sunset dune in Jericoacara, Ceará. Our second shot is from the equally popular Joaquina dunes on the island of Florianópolis.

If you want more information on “Jeri”, have a look at our blog post destination: Jericoacoara. If you want more information on Florianópolis, head to destination: Florianópolis.

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This is the third on a series of videos produced by the Brazilian tourism authorities. They all have a common theme: those states that will host 2014 World Cup games. During the coming weeks we will present all those videos here in the blog. They are shortish videos, with conventional but beautiful images of the states and its main destinations.

Ceará:

We have devoted several blog posts to the state of Ceará, including our guides to Fortaleza and Jericoacoara.

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RELATED POSTS:
institutional videos: Paraná
institutional videos: São Paulo
institutional videos: Rio Grande do Norte
institutional videos: Pernambuco
institutional videos: Bahia
institutional videos: Rio Grande do Sul
destination: Fortaleza
destination: Jericoacoara
institutional videos: state of Amazonas
institutional videos: Rio de Janeiro
institutional videos: Minas Gerais

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The website PanMAP, specialized in pano images and virtual walkthroughs, contains a series of photos covering very well known Brazilian destinations. Delight yourself from your very own desktop!

• virtual walkthrough: Jericoacoara (Ceará)
• virtual walkthrough: Morro de São Paulo (Bahía)
• virtual walkthrough: Paraty (Rio de Janeiro)
• virtual walkthrough: Porto de Galinhas (Pernambuco)
• virtual walkthrough: Río de Janeiro

The Brazil Travel Blog contains destination cards on with plenty of travel information on Jericoacoara, Morro de São Paulo, Paraty and Rio de Janeiro.

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The headline reads: “Minister [of Tourism] denies Brazil is a sex tourism destination”. Denial is the authorities’ major contribution to solving a sordid reality: according to UNICEF, there are 250,000 children forced into prostitution across Brazil. In the words of Sarah de Carvalho of Happy Child International:

“the crisis for these children turning to prostitution has increased significantly in the north-east of Brazil over the last few years, fuelled by increasing numbers of foreign tourists who travel to Brazil for sex holidays.”

These and other informations can be seen on a recent BBC documentary with the title Brazil’s Child Prostitutes. According to Chris Rogers, the BBC jornalist responsible for the program, Brazil is overtaking Thailand as the preferred sex tourism destination worldwide.

The World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 loom ahead. Drastic and definitive action, of the kind I haven’t seen in Brazil in the ten years I’ve been living here, is needed.

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We have seen the announcement in the media and a few blogs: Jericoacoara is going to have an international airport. The governor of the state of Ceará is promising it will be operating in July 2010 (there are general elections in October that year). In actual fact, rather than a full-blown airport, we are just talking about a runway sufficient enough for charter flights coming from Europe.

The local political bosses, the inhabitants of the region and people related to the tourism industry are celebrating. And we can’t help but feel yet another Brazilian paradise enters a road from which it will not come back.

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RELATED POSTS:
Destination: Jericoacoara
How many days in Jericoacoara?
Brazil in pictures: sands of Jericoacoara

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BY BUS

The company traveling between Fortaleza and Natal is Viação Nordeste. Its site contains schedules and prices. The trip lasts 5 hours and costs from R$69 (basic bus, with no air con).

Careful. There were several hold-ups during the year 2008. The armed robberies on buses travelling between the two cities took place in the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. We do not advice night travel on that route – all the hold-ups happened at night time.

BY PLANE

Brazilian airlines Gol and Tam have direct flights between Natal and Fortaleza. Schedules and prices available at their websites.

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RELATED POSTS:
Destination: Fortaleza
Destination: Natal
Bus transportation in Brazil
the main Brazilian airlines (from D Airfare)

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[Photo by Alfredo D. Ortiz reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific post devoted to Canoa Quebrada, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

I was quite surprised to find out quite a number of portals devoted to such a small place as Canoa Quebrada. Among the most interesting sites, Canoa Quebrada.net, Canoa-Quebrada.com and Portal Canoa Quebrada (this one with an English version of sorts). With a scary layout, the portals Canoa Viagem and Canoa-Quebrada.net.

On the Portal do Turismo do Ceará (Ceará is the state where Canoa Quebrada is located) there is also information (in English) on the destination.

Regarding accommodation, on our very own Accommodation in Brazil we have an entry with a full listing of hotels and pousadas in Canoa Quebrada.

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Accommodation in Brazil has two new blog posts.

One with a full listing of Hotels and pousadas in Canasvieiras, Florianópolis and another one with another full listing of Hotels and pousadas in Jericoacoara.

Sooner or later, during your trips throughout Brazil (and in the North East in particular), you’ll have to cross a river. And more likely than not, there will be a strapping lad and its makeshift boat ready to take you across to the other side.

The two pictures here were taken near Jericoacoara, on the way to Tatajuba.

In Trancoso, however, the unofficial ferryboat doesn’t require its captain to stand on the boat.