The state of Ceará has miles of beaches lined with palm-trees, dunes and fresh water lagoons. Fortaleza, the capital city with over one and a half million in habitants, is the third most important in the Nordeste. The harbour is specialized in the crayfidh trade.

      The very early attempt to settle in the sertão, which separated the settlements of the Rio Grande from those of Maranhão took place in 1603. An expedition composed of Portuguese soldiers and Indian warriors explored the area in search of slaves. Another expedition set up in 1606 was driven back by an appalling drought.

      Martim Soares Moreno, who had taken part in the first expedition, was ordered by the Governor General of Brazil to conquer the area and pacify the Indians. In 1611, he was promoted to the rank of captain of Ceará and founded Fortaleza at the mouth of the river.

     In the same year, with the help of the Tapuia and Tupinambá tribes, he successfully withstood a french attack. On the other hand, he fell beneath the spell of Iracema, an enticing Indian princess who is still today the patron saint and muse of the city. In 1649 the Dutch invaders built the Schoonenborch Fort on the site of the present city center of Fortaleza. Today it has been turned into barracks. In 1645 The Dutch were chased away from the town by the Portuguese who renamed the building Fort Nossa Senhora da Assunção. Then gradually Fortaleza became an important trading post.

      Nothing remains today of the wooden fortress which gave its name to the capital city of the state. Fortaleza is a modern city as shown by the many buildings and hotels that line its beaches.

      Fortaleza's great hotels are on the Praia do Meireles, the city's busiest beach (that goes from Mucuripe near the harbour and the lighthouse, to the Praia de Iracema). At night the bars and the pavements cafés on the avenue are cram-full of strollers attracted by the arts and crafts. The sea-food, particularly crayfish, is the speciality of the numerous restaurants along the Ocean.

      Ceará's Tourist information Office, also called Casa da Cultura, is to be found in the very premises of a former prison. Over two hundred shops have been set up in the cells and offer various objects made by local craftsmen (lace and embroidery handicraft, small bottles and jars full of colourful sand, hammocks etc ....). The Mercado Central, near the new cathedral and the main post-office, often sells the same articles but at definitely lower prices. The Museum Historico is devoted to the life of the local Indian tribes which were exterminated by the cattle-breeders and the ever-expanding city. You will also see there the remains of the airplane which crashed in 1967 killing President Humberto Castelo Branco. Opposite the Museum is the Teatro José de Alencar whose steel structure was imported straight from Great-Britain in 1910.