Fortaleza, Brazil: Dune Beaches and Northeast Brazilian Culture

Praia do Futuro, three kilometers east of the port district, is the beach that locals actually use: a long stretch of red-tinged sand backed by coconut palms and a string of open-air barracas (beach restaurants) that serve fried shrimp, grilled lobster, and cold Skol until well into the evening. The barracas fill from noon onward and are the primary social venue for Fortalezans on weekends; the forró (northeast Brazilian accordion music) starts in the mid-afternoon at most of them. The beach is calm enough for swimming in the morning and rough with wind-chop by midday, which is when the jangadeiros typically head back in.

The Mercado Central on Avenida Alberto Nepomuceno is a four-story covered market with more than 600 stalls selling everything from hammocks and lace to cachaça, cashews, rapadura (raw sugarcane blocks), and dried shrimp. Ceará is Brazil's leading hammock-producing state; the market's fabric stalls carry hammocks from the artisan-weaving towns of Jaguaruana and Pacajus in every weight from ultralight travel versions to double-woven outdoor hammocks. Bargaining is expected and good-natured. The basement level has a food court with tapioca stands and açaí bowls.

The Parque Estadual das Dunas do Cocó, within city limits south of the beach district, protects a remnant of the tabuleiro (coastal scrub) ecosystem that once covered this stretch of coastline. Short trails lead through the vegetation to viewpoints over the dune fields. The dunes closest to the city have been substantially altered by development, but this park preserves enough of the original system to give a sense of the landscape Fortaleza was built on. Entry is free and the park is cool and quiet by 7:00 a.m.

The Dragão do Mar Center for Arts and Culture on Rua Dragão do Mar opened in 1999 and remains the most architecturally distinctive cultural space in the northeast. It contains two theaters, a cinema, a planetarium, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ceará, all arranged around an outdoor plaza that becomes a nightlife hub on weekends. The museum's collection emphasizes artists from Ceará and the broader northeast; the building itself, a nautical-influenced design by Delberg Ponce de Leon, is worth seeing from the outside if the galleries are closed during your port call.

Caldo de sururu (mussel soup) and caldeirada (fish stew with coconut milk and palm oil) are the dishes most specific to Fortaleza's waterfront; both appear at the barracas and at the lunch counters in the Mercado Central. Caranguejo (crab) is typically served grilled in the shell with butter and lime and eaten with a wooden mallet, a messy and satisfying process. Cashews — raw, roasted, or candied — are everywhere; Ceará grows the majority of Brazil's crop.