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Almost every weekend there wsa an organized trip for us to take. That would mean we had to drag ourselves out of bed on a Friday morning, make it to the big charter bus, and endure bumpy roads. Some of the trips were amazing, but I found myself wanting to spend more time in Fortaleza, too. Really, we only had 2 full weekends in Fortaleza, and those were really great weekends, too. Here is a list of the trips we took, in chronological order. Often these trips are best described by the pictures I took.

Arty and Dan try to get some sleep on the way to one of our trips

Beach Park

Beach Park is a water park outside of Fortaleza. Make sure to get to Insano, which claims to be "O maior e mais radical toboágua do mundo" (the biggest and most radical waterslide in the world), is 14 stories high, and you go from zero to 101 kilometers an hour in four seconds. You can't miss it. I went three times. There are other cool rides, but Insano is the highlight, so maybe save that for last. Take advantage of the free ice cream in the park too. After you tire of water slides, there is a great beach outside the park to chill and eat really good crab for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from Beach Park because water erased all my pictures when I attempted to photograph the ocean.

Musée de Cachaça

This was a half day trip to a place where they make cachaça, a liquor you will come to know intimately, I am sure. Cachaça is the hard alcohol made from sugar cane, 80 proof and hard to swallow by itself. It is literally cheaper to buy than water. We learned the history of cachaça, saw some beautiful scenery, took paddle-boat rides, went on an anti-climactic buggy ride, and were given free shots of cachaça. The shots didn't go down as well as we planned in the middle of the day, and I turned down another round.

Bottle of cachaça lying behind a caipirinha, which is basically just cachaça, ice, sugar and limes.

one of the buildings at the museum

Kris and John help Tyler quench his thirst in the largest vat of cachaça ever

Some of the scenery on the bus ride there

Cambuco

This was a laid back beach we went to for a day trip. It offered buggy rides, a free lunch, sand boarding, horse rides, and massages, if you so desired. Sand boarding was by far the coolest: it's actually snowboarding on sand with wax on the bottom of the board. If you aren't up for that, like most kids, you can try ski-bumde, aka, skiing on your butt with a little board. Not nearly as cool.

The friendly locals offering horse and donkey rides along the beach

our buggy trip across the dunes...

to this lagoon, and a spot where we could sandboard down into the water.

Jericoacoará

One of the best weekends of my life was in Jeri. We left on a Thursday, and came back on a Sunday. Jeri is a tiny town tucked away past sand dunes that is just beautiful. It is hard to describe how peaceful and simple and perfect life was there. A 2 hour truck ride over dunes and marsh is the only way into town. It is one of the best windsurfing spots in the world, with almost no surf, so that even the water is quiet and peaceful. Make sure to bring money, although you won't need much. I think there is only one ATM in the town, and its reliability is questionable. I tried windsurfing, but unless you are really good at it, it may be a waste of a time to try it here. The people that do windsurf are really good. I ended up just wasting money and a half a day. The best things to do in Jeri are relax, eat at the best restaurant ever (Café do Brasil, featuring enourmous lunches and 1930's jazz music), watch some of the best sunsets ever, and at night, look at the stars, which are brighter than I've ever seen, and different in the Southern Hemisphere. To see a spectacular sunset, go to the "pedra furada", an arched rock down the beach a ways through which you can see the sun dip down into the water. I never did see the sun set through the arch. The first time I wathced it from on top the rock, and the second time, on an outcropping out in the water. It was just me, the water, the wind and the sky. Also around sunset, a Capoeira group gathers on the beach to perform. At night, there are a couple of bars to check out (the town only has two sand roads so it won't be hard to find where all the excitement is coming from), and really really good ice cream.

The rough yet awe inspiring terrain that was the only way to get to Jeri	Some of the group by the circular pool at the place we stayed. The pool was good for making whirlpools, going swimming at night, and playing with little kids	Café do Brasil: delicious
A shot of Jeri from the dune overlooking the town	A shot from of the beach of the dune, and some people playing beach soccer. A Capoeira group also performed here.	Some of the windsurfers doing their thing. In the afternoon, you could see many many windsurfers out on the water.
The coast as it looks near sunset	The pedra furada arched rock with me, John and Grace on top	O melhor por do sol do mundo!!!

Ubajara

Ubajara is a town in the mountains, or serras. This was a fairly low-key weekend trip. There was nothing to really do or see in the town, so a lot of time was spent in the 1970's style hotel, lounging by the pool. We took a short trip to a cave and a lookout spot the first day, and in the afternoon to this guy's house who made sweet liquers out of every flavor imaginable, with free samples. On the second day we saw some waterfalls. Very picturesque.

the serras	crossing a bridge Indiana Jones-style	free liquer samples for all
John, Jonathon and I in the cave	group photo from a lookout point	some nice little waterfalls