Ed Rollins gives another one of his talks. This is a guy who can speak about politics in a very humorous way.

Remy, our wonderful host in one of the quieter restaurants on board with the little lady.

Sometimes just the water and clouds are worth a photo.

The Fortaleza skyline as we approached our dock.

As we approached Brazil but still several hundred miles from shore, we got an escort of gulls. these birds would fly on the air currents created by the ship and would rarely need to flap their wings.

Our welcome to Fortaleza was announced by a full orchestra's performance right on the dock.

Donna with our friend Suzanne.

The jewelry store, Stern's, supplied a complimentary guide, car and driver for the day.Our guide was a wonderful young gal named Melani.

We got to a McDonald's for lunch and finally wolfed down some real food.

We next went shopping to a building which was originally a jail.

The guilty.

Loren's daughter, Erica, is getting married in about 3 weeks. Here he is practicing to be a father again using Melani as a stand-in after a 4 month hiatus.

The central flea market.

For my cousin Bob and his wife Julie in Boston... surf's up. Just barely.

In front of the building most feared by husbands in Fortaleza.

Judy is just looking...Right!!!

Melani joins us for a group picture after a full day ashore.

The next morning a storm passed through in the early morning.

The Stern Gang plotting strategy.

Fortaleza was a nice place to visit. It was not as impoverished as the interior of Brazil and the shoe stores seemed to carry Donna's size.

Like the larger cities in most of the world, the old and the new were in proximity.

The Mall.

Donna in shoe heaven. They carried her size (American 4 1/2, Brazilian 33).

The manager of the targeted store on the left and our salesperson on the right. They were thinking if Donna could move to Fortaleza they both could retire.

We were treated to a performance of a group made up of troubled teens at this beautiful old style opera house type theatre.

It was a modern dance piece describing life at the bottom of society in Brazil, a subject known well by the players.

After the formal presentation a much more up-beat of Brazilian traditional samba and salsa was performed by a second group.

The Buccaneer look was chosen by the guys.

Suzanne and Donna enjoy the dancing.

Donna joins in.

The women's costumes were wonderfully colorful and as tradition would have it, the young single gals outfits were traditional and sexy at the sane time.