We took a frustratingly long time to finally find a place where we could stay in Fortaleza but at least all the walking around gave us a good idea as to our surroundings. There isn't much here as cities go, the city isn't as pretty as others, their beaches aren't as reknowned and they are a little light on culture.... So what had brought so many tourists from abroad? The unfortunate answer was prostitution...

All it seems that you need to do is to establish a direct flight to Europe and you will have a thriving sex tourism trade. I had of course seen this in Bangkok, Phuket, Cartegena and numerous other cities around the world but it's not something that you ever get used to. We looked up some advice on the city and WikiTravel.com gave us this advice;

"Any drinking spot that attracts foreigners is bound to attract working girls, therefore some of them try to filter the entries, meaning that a foreign male can have trouble getting in with his Brazilian girl."

We walked around together and got looks from locals and police alike, all presuming, all very wrong. It was a little uncomfortable and frustrating but in the end there was nothing we could do about it. They have restored a part of the city where live music plays, outdoor bars abound and museums abide. It was nice, we walked around and saw the laissez-faire prostitutes, not being particularly proactive, all dressed beautifully, with class you could even say, just waiting to be approached by the foreigners...  

But we were happy to get going again. We actually bumped into Snr and Jnr again (this happens less and less often on the road what with email and Facebook documenting our every move) and we decided to kill a few hours by heading down to the beach, drinking from Coconuts and scraping out it's contents, taking walks down the beach and hitting the surf and listening to the bands playing in the nearside bars.

Fully refreshed, we boarded our bus, 24 hours later, we were tired, cold and for me personally, looking forward to renewing my great love affair with the city, Salvador...