This was my second time in two years in Fortaleza. I came back for a month to train at a local gym that I really like, work and chill on the beach. Increasingly I find myself returning to locations where there is less to be explored, and more that supports a comfortable life while I am there and Fortaleza is the perfect place for that. My favorite part of Fortaleza is the upscale gym where I train. It’s located a block from the beach in Beira Mar (“seaside”), and much fancier than the gyms I typically go to. It’s expensive too, but everyone is really nice and happy to see me there, and there are yoga classes too. Even though nobody speaks English (and I don’t speak Portuguese), everyone is really kind and supportive. There’s an attached cafe at the gym that sells me post-workout tapiocas, which I just can’t get enough of. I always make performance improvements while I am training there, and each time I leave Fortaleza I am excited to come back again, for longer. I like staying in Beira Mar, a central downtownish place alongside the beach. A long esplanade runs along the beach for about […]
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When I spent time in Fortaleza, Brazil in 2022 I learned about a small beach town 45 minutes west of the city called Cumbuco. Locals apparently traveled there on the weekends for great beaches, live music concerts and parties. It is a famous destination for kite surfing (it seems like I am always traveling to famous destinations for kite surfing). So this time around, on my way to visiting Fortaleza again, I spent a week in Cumbuco first to do a reconnaissance trip to get the vibe and feel of it to see if it would be a place I’d like to stay again for longer in the future. Such reconnaissance trips are my modus operandi for sustained livability on the road and serve the purpose of scouting locations without a big, upfront investment. It’s better to spend a few days figuring out a place before I commit to spend a month, or longer there, sight unseen. In this way I can also get a beat on the neighborhood I want to stay in if I return which would be otherwise more difficult to do without being there first. Cumbuco is pretty cool. Well, actually it’s very hot during the […]
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There are a million places to visit in Brazil and João Pessoa is one of them. I had never visited before, but when the opportunity presented itself to stop by for a week on my way to Fortaleza, I did. I rented an apartment right on the beach (a nice beach) with a balcony overlooking it. In the mornings and afternoons I would sit outside and watch and listen to the wind blow through the palm trees as the light slowly faded. I found a big gym nearby that was ideal and only a five minute walk from my apartment (in Havianas). The gym was always packed with people exercising (my favorite type of gym) and though I don’t speak any Portuguese, everyone was friendly. They do this weird thing in Brazil inside the gyms I’ve been to where they have full-time trainers who want to suggest you exercises or workouts to do. They really want to help you but the idea of going to a gym and then having someone tell me what I should be doing is strange. I don’t work for you ma’am! After my morning workout I would eat my favorite Brazilian gluten free sandwich/omelette thing, […]
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Like some other destinations, Sao Paulo has become a regular destination during my yearly migration. Alongside Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo is an international hub for flights into the country from the rest of South America. It also accommodates this loop I’ve been toying with between Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil each year as the city is a 3 hour direct flight from Buenos Aires. Twenty years ago I never would have predicted that I would come to find such large, monstrous cities like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Seoul and Bogotá some of my favorite places to stay. I grew up in the Midwest and West of the United States and always had plenty of space around with lots of access to nature. Mega cities certainly have provided other amenities. I suppose as a nomadic travel hipster, I’ve often been attracted to atypical appeal of destinations while being also insulated from many discomforts. I avoid traffic by walking or summoning a car service like Uber and I don’t have to commute to an office to do my job. I reduce my exposure to crime by staying in nicer neighborhoods and going to bed at a reasonable hour; I don’t go […]
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I was so happy during the two weeks that I stayed in an apartment in the neighborhood of Meireles in Fortaleza, in the state of Ceara Brazil. I was a block from the beach and half a block from a beautiful, boutique gym. This is the type of gym that has personal trainers scattered everywhere waiting to intercept your last reps on the bench press (even when you’d prefer they don’t), eager to offer advice (when none is solicited), and generally hoping to be needed. That was all part of the premium price I paid for a gym so conveniently located near where I was staying (and no other options existed). I made friends with Giordano, one of these trainers, and though he doesn’t speak English we managed to communicate through grunts and gestures and smiles and laughs. I like to think that Giordano saw real potential in me compared to his other gym clients who seemed to phone it in a couple of times a week. I may have been a welcome distraction for the two weeks I was in attendance – diligently appearing each day to get the cost-per-visit I paid as low as possible. So Giordiano took […]
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I’ve barely scratched the surface of Brazil – having only visited Rio de Janeiro on a couple of occasions and Sao Paulo for six weeks earlier this year. This time around I wanted to explore Ceará, one of Brazil’s 26 states and is situated in the northeast corner of the country with beautiful beaches and a lot of wind that makes for great kitesurfing and windsurfing. Twenty years ago, Jericoacoara was an off-the-map place for beach bums and kite surfers to visit, 4 hour drive from Fortaleza, Brazil. These days it’s developing at a quick pace to match the tourist demand, but for me very much retains a rustic and simple charm. Jeri is more of an adventure destination than a beach destination — the surrounding wind-swept sand dunes abutting the ocean support the local tourist industry bringing money to the locals. Adventure outfitters and tour operators are everywhere – making the 4×4 wheel drive cars that are necessary to navigate in all directions more accessible to the rest of us. I spent two days riding one of these open-air 4×4 wheel dune buggy, sort of like a horse, standing on the back end of it gripping a handle behind […]
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The fastest month I’ve spent was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s been a long time since a daily routine of a morning gym session a day spent working felt so fulfilling. My first time here, I was surprised to find a city covered in trees, beautiful plants, and people. Brazilians from Sao Paulo may be the most friendly people on earth. While my attention was mostly focused on a new job I started, the rest was spent enjoying the posh neighborhood and people of Vila Olimpia, the posh neighborhood that became a real home.
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riends. What a great excuse to visit Brazil. The last time I was in Rio was 2016, I had flown from Japan to catch a little bit of Carnaval en route to Argentina. That worked out pretty well considering I was there on my own so I was excited to return for a different occasion and a large group of friends.
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The transition from Asia to South America afforded a new personal record for flight time – 40 hours of travel time spanning 4 flights : Tokyo->Hong Kong, Hong Kong -> New York, New York->Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo->Rio; it would have been a little shorter but my flight from New York to Rio was cancelled. Surprisingly it wasn’t so bad – the white noise of an airplane cabin is perfect for working (until your laptop battery expires). I had never been to Brazil before and in order to visit I had to venture to the Brazilian consulate in Nagoya, Japan, pay $220 and fill out some paper work. The visa is good for the next 10 years so I am excited to make further use of it. One thing I learned in my short trip to Rio is just how immense Brazil is (200 million people and a land area comparable to the United States); many varied ethnicities and regional cultures as well as geographies. My short 5 days in Rio served as an aperitif to the rest of Brazil. I stayed in Ipanema, between Leblon and Copacabana for most of my time. The last night I moved to an AirBnb in […]
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