The wind had been light for a few days with no sign of it picking up so Jen and I decided to go on a trip to Fortaleza, the large city near Jeri. Really the wind being light was just a perk, we had to go into the city anyways to get our visas extended because we are staying two days over the 90 days we are allowed in Brazil. We took the night bus leaving Jeri at 10:30 p.m. and arrived in Fortaleza at 5 in the morning. Some how Jen fell asleep on the 1 hour ride across the very bumpy, stop & go dunes from Jeri to Jijoca. I don´t know how she does it but that´s almost equivalent to falling asleep on a rollar coaster ride. The bus that runs from Jijoca to Fortalzea has comfy seats that go way back and the bus is kept at a nice and cold temperature. However it is still a night on a bus and neither of us slept very well and were very exhausted by the time we arrived at the bus station in Fortaleza.
The Federal Police Station didn´t open until 8:00 so we had some time to kill before going for our visas. We stumbled around the busy bus station until we found some seats to plunk down in for an hour or so because Fortaleza isn´t the safest city to be walking around in before sunrise. Once the sun was up, we decided we were in desperate need of a coffee and there was a very conveniently located hotel across the street with café and pequeno almoço (Coffee and Breakfast) written on the windows. After asking if we could just purchase a cup of coffee and didn´t want a room, we happily sat down and had a cup-a-joe and snuck a refill when the servers weren´t looking because the cups were tiny. As it turns out you should always ask how much something is before consuming it. When we went up to the front desk to pay, we thought the clerk said "três" (three) but when we tried to give her only three reals, she shook her head and clearly said "trinta" (thiry reals). That was a bit of a shock, and has got to be the most I´ve ever paid for a tiny cup of coffee as the glasses were only about 250 mL. We wanted to just leave and not pay, but since there was security at the doors we forked over the money and left. (R$30 = $20 CAD).
We had google mapped the location of the Federal Police Station that we found online so we semi knew where we were going. The map made sense and we made it to the police station by 7:00. Luckily the gate was partially open so we walked right in. There was a friendly man sitting at the front desk, who attemped to explain we were at the wrong location and where we should go. So after a lot of hand gestures and using common english-portuguese words we gave him our map and he pointed us in the right direction. The walk wasn´t too far, just back to the bus station and a few blocks the other direction. When we arrived there were a few people already standing out front so we knew we were in the right place.
Eight o´clock rolled around and the guard greeted us with a bom dia! (good morning!) and let us in. The wait wasn´t too long as there were only a few foreigners in line. Once we got to the brazilian visa guy, with all our papers and documentation ready, we figured we be done and out of there pretty quickly. The latter was true, we were only in the police station for about 15 minutes however all was not done. As it turns out you can only get your visa extened within a week of it expiring. Humph. It was rather hard to argue with the man and try to get them extended then when he didn´t speak a word of english. We were a little bummed after that, and the trip into Fortaleza seemed like a huge waste of time and money. We were tired, hungry and still a little bit fazed about the R$30 coffees.
We wandered up the street a bit, put on some sunscreen and then walked past a very happening breakfast/bakery/restaurant/bar. It was currently in breakfast mode, so we sat down, had a delicious completo sanduíche (A breakfast sandwhich with the works) and a very good and reasonably priced coffee. From then on, we had a great day in Fortaleza seeing the sights and exploring the city.
I´d like to pass on some wishes for a very happy 80th birthday to my Grandpa today!!!!
Or as they say here: Feliz Aniversário!
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