Guest Mary O’Donnell was on board Maasdam and sent in this great Cruise Diary from her voyage. Stay tuned for more posts from Mary!

Tuesday 2/19/12

Fortaleza, Brazil

This is a big city! Population about 3.5 million! Brazilian architectural style is impressive. They moved to central core support for high rises sometime in the 1930′s. I had no idea there were so many ways to preserve privacy and view corridors when building condos. However, in this climate of perpetual humidity and temperatures in the 80°Fs, it seems as if they do not do much residential central a/c. Everyone has window shakers!

The shuttle bus dropped us off in the downtown area. In addition to the museums and small tourist office, the markets are full of beautiful fabrics, laces, embroidery, local craft works and modern art.

Although Brazil is an oil exporter, conservation mentality is obvious everywhere. We noticed these motors imported from India lined up on the dock, along with stacks of huge blades ready to install more wind turbines. Fortaleza is situated directly on the Atlantic Ocean, and therefore has rather constant warm breezes blowing. The docks/piers are a great place for these wind turbines.

Every day it seems to rain a bit as a cloud passes by, but when the sun is out, it is beautiful and the water is so blue.

We try to manage a bit of a rest every afternoon, so that we will be ready for the evening show.

Last night we had a great comedic magician. Of course our cabin steward, Lukman, freshened up our room and left us a little something to share our bed.

Onto the equator and the Amazon!

Topics: Cruise Diary, ms Maasdam, Postcards from..., South America | | 1 Comment

Tags: Brazil, cruise, Cruise Diary, Fortaleza, HAL, Holland America Line, Maasdam, Postcards from..., South America, vacation