Brazil ~ Brasil

Fortaleza Brazil

April, 2008 - Terra Da Luz " Land of Light” … very humid and warm ...colorful and dirty… little to no English spoken here. Fortaleza Brazil is very close to the equatorial line – a hot city with little variation in temperature – the day we were there is was 92`
We took a local taxi into town – our driver was named Geraldo – he spoke no English and we speak zero Portuguese. We managed to convey our desire of an hour sightseeing drive around the city – the price would be $15. Geraldo took us to an old theatre with a green wrought iron spiral staircase wrapped outside of the theatre. Inside the stage was very ornate, a red velvet curtain edged in gold fringe. Above was a relief sculpture depicting men and women reveling around a statue of someone. The chairs looked rigid and were wood with cane seats and backs – the air inside was stifling, steamy thick and although it was beautiful inside, I could not imagine sitting through a play in that temperature (I guess you would adapt). The ceiling was rounded and had been painted with angelic women in flowing gowns - sitting on clouds. Our next stop was the Fortaleza Cathedral – a huge grey concrete church with numerous steeples. The entry had many beggars, which broke my heart. The inside was gorgeous; it was painted white with arches lining the sides. In each arch there was a huge stained glass window. The multi-colored windows were illuminated by the sun shining through them – all bore religious icons of some type, it was glorious. The cathedral was huge and had long dark wood pews; there was nowhere to absorb sound so it echoed. A poor looking man outside of the church put wooden beaded bracelets w/ a cross on them on our wrists – he then wanted money – we paid him.
Next we went to the central market place. Wow – a swap meet on crack. The place looked like a parking garage – five stories tall. After looking at a few vendor’s booths you had seen everything to be bought there. Cashews, Linens, baskets, pots and pans, shoes – you name it they had it. The prices were not too bad for some items, but the hand crochet tablecloth I wanted was $40 and it was maybe 36” x 36” – I said it was too much - am I a tightwad? I think I will find something that appeals to me more when I get to Italy anyway. I did purchase some kitchen towels with hand embroidery & crochet lace at the edge. We bought some Brazilian red wine also, which we have not tasted yet – reports to follow.
The most amazing thing we saw was an older woman making lace by hand. She had what looked like a big pincushion in front of her – a strip of brown paper was pinned with hundreds of pins, and the lace was being woven over the paper pattern. The ends of the lace – the spools she was working with were numerous – maybe 25 – 30 – her nimble fingers clanked those spools in and out and around and she was looming lace right before our eyes. I had to talk to this woman – I smiled and watched a little and tried to talk to her, she smiled back - I showed her my camera and asked if I could take some photos – she nodded in agreement – I took about four photos then gave her some money for her time. I also purchased some lace $10 for one meter (a little over one yard) plus two placemats. This woman made my whole day – how beautiful, how artistic, and how lovely.