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.

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 cities that will host the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil have been chosen. They are Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaos, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo.

It is almost certain that the World Cup final will take place at the Maracanã stadium in Rio. São Paulo and Belo Horizonte are fighting for the right to host the opening game.

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RELATED POSTS:

Soccer championship 2009 – calendar
Museu do Futebol (football/soccer museum)
Morumbi stadium (São Paulo FC)
Brazil – Argentina
Maracanã

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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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We’ve made another update in Accommodation in Brazil, with five new blog posts with full listings of accommodation in Canoa Quebrada, Fortaleza, Guarda do Embaú, Ilhabela and Paraty.

The Brazilian Ministry of Tourism has a website devoted to Nautical Tourism in Brazil. It has an English version.

The website has a beautiful layout and tons of information on the Brazilian coastline, the weather, tide charts and other useful information for sailors.

It also contains complete information on the marinas at Baía de Todos os Santos, Fernando de Noronha, Fortaleza, Ilha Grande, Ilhabela, João Pessoa, Morro de São Paulo, Natal, Paraty, Recife, Río de Janeiro and Ubatuba.

The initiative is part of the declared policy of the Brazilian Authorities to promote tourism in Brazil abroad almost exclusively among the upper-class markets. Foreign currency, rather than number of visitors, is the force behind the promotion of Brazil as a tourist destination. The website Golf in Brazil is also part of that initiative.

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RELATED POSTS:
Golf in Brazil

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A stroke of luck and air traffic control forces the aircraft taking us to Fortaleza to do a gigantic loop above the city before landing.

Seen from above, Fortaleza is quite striking. The concentration of high-rises is particularly stunning. Any notion of urban planning is, of course, conspicuous by its absence.

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A neat visual trick at the Dragão do Mar Cultural Centre in Fortaleza. The optical illusion becomes apparent as you get closer to the end of the footbridge.

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[fuente: Business Travel Magazine]

TAM will begin flying from Buenos Aires to Salvador and Fortaleza on 26 March. The daily flight will leave Buenos Aires at 05h15, will make a stopover in São Paulo (Guarulhos, arrival 07h55, departure 09h05), will continue towards Salvador (arrival 11h15, departure 11h45h) to arrive in Fortaleza at 13h25.

The return flight will leave Fortaleza at 16h00, arrive in Salvador at 17h45, in São Paulo at 20h15 and back home in Buenos Aires at 01h00.

The passanger will not have to change planes.

The cheapest fare I’ve found is R$1,408, return, taxes included, flying in May. GOL flies Fortaleza – Buenos Aires, with just the one change of plane in São Paulo, for R$1,350. As ever, it pays to check and compare cheap flights to Brazil.

Along with Natal, Fortaleza is one of the main tourist destinations in Brazil, both for the national and the foreign market. The city has underwent an uncontrolled urban explosion in the last couple of decades, with skyscrappers now competing for the ever scarcier space between the city and the sea. In spite of this, it’s a city worth visiting, if only for a short period of time.

WE LIKE THE MOST: the sea, the food

WE LIKE THE LEAST: child prostitution aimed at foreign tourists; the sense of lack of security in all the beaches

HOW TO GET THERE: Fortaleza is well connected by plane to the main Brazilian airports. By road, you can arrive from Natal in the south, or from the west. Fortaleza is the starting point of trips going to Jericoacoara.

CAREFUL WITH: the port area near the Ponte dos Ingleses, quite dangerous; the day trips to Morro Branco, find out how long you will stay at Morro Branco to avoid ending up stranded at an expensive hotel elsewhere for hours on end.

FAVOURITE PLACES: the Central Market, the Cultural Centre Dragão do Mar, the ice-cream parlours at the Meireles beach.

PIECE OF ADVICE:

• at the Central Market you will find a wider variety of crafts and at a better price than at the Craft Fair at the Meireles beach
• when we were there, the José de Alencar theater only opened for visitation once a week.
• the Beach Park, on the outskirts of Fortaleza, is the biggest waterpark in Brazil. Good fun if you are into that kind of thing

ACCOMMODATION: full listing of Hotels and Pousadas in Fortaleza

LINKS: Portal de Turismo del Estado do Ceará, Fortaleza com.br

WEATHER FORECAST: The weather in Fortaleza for the next 10 days

GOOGLE MAPS: Fortaleza

PHOTOS: Fortaleza

ACCOMMODATION SEARCH IN FORTALEZA: search for Fortaleza hotels on our search engine (results open on a new window)

[Don’t forget to check out the list of other destinations already covered in this blog, here]

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