Finally, departure day arrived. I took several boxes, including my complete computer system with me to LAX, hoping to get everything on the plane. Fortunately, the ticket agent became uneasy about the weight of the boxes I was bringing. It wasn’t the flight to Sao Paulo on Varig he worried about, but the local Brazilian airline, and their possible weight restrictions because of the smaller aircraft.

After several calls to various supervisors and airlines, it turned out that the cost would be thousands of extra dollars to take everything. I had to make some instant decisions and ended up taking the computer system, and very little else, besides my regular luggage. I would have to make some kind of arrangement for shipping the other boxes later, if I decided to stay in Brazil.

Another slight heart attack occurred when I discovered my fanny pack with “everything” in it was missing.  A race back to the car, with Carlos holding my place in line, and it turned up, thank God!

Later, I would discover that my discman was also still in the car but forgotten in the panic of getting my documents intact.

The flight to Sao Paulo went smoothly. Customs opened all the boxes and left notes in each one saying they had done so. I noticed some things moved around in the boxes but nothing missing. Then it was on to Fortaleza aboard TAM, the Brazilian Airline.

Arriving in Fortaleza, I found Anne and Dhyana ready to get me to my apartment. Anne had arranged an apartment on the 13th floor. Yes, you can have a 13th floor apartment here! Brazilians don’t fear the number thirteen as residents in North America do. Fact is, they think it’s good luck, not bad. We somehow managed to shoehorn everything into Anne’s car and to the apartment.

I was SO HAPPY to be back.

My Portuguese had improved as I had been listening to the Pimsleur CD’s in the car while driving from Hemet to San Diego and back, and found them really helpful. In my opinion, the audio learning is great because you get the exact pronunciations. The Pimsleur CD’s give you the Brazilian version as opposed to the Portugal version.

In my new apartment, I showered and changed into shorts and we headed to the house that Diogo, Anne’s oldest son, and his wife Rafaela had just purchased. Buying a house, or casa, is a major event in Brazil because most people just don’t have the financial resources to purchase something that expensive. Much of the Brazilian population below the poverty line live in tiny houses, which have only the most basic of creature comforts. In Diogo’s case, he was able, with financial help from family, to purchase, over time, a house previously belonging to a relative.

We stopped along the way to buy chicken torts and chocolate cake for a small celebration. It was really good to see Diego and family again, and we share a mutual affection. Other friends arrived during the afternoon and the girls put together the food for all.

When we got there, Diogo was still sleeping, having partied a little too hard the previous night, but he was around an hour later and, while the girls took care of the food, the guys caught up on the last couple of months. It was still difficult for me because my Portuguese was not sufficient for general conversation, but we all tried and there WAS some communication. At the end of the summer, which was the period of time I had given myself to decide if I want to stay here, I wanted to be able to have a much better command of the language.

Afterwards, Anne and Rafaela worked on crafts they were making for sale. Both are talented artists. Afterwards, Anne drove me back to the apartment and went off to her condo. She needed to have the phone handy and my apartment would not have the phone or Internet access until the following Monday.

The apartment, 1301, even though exactly the same shape as my first apartment, 1903, was not quite as well equipped, and, given the opportunity, (which came later) I would move back to my original place. However, the agent told me it had been taken for one year, and would not be available until March 2005. I unpacked my suitcases, leaving the computer for the moment. There was no Internet hookup and no hurry for the mess it would create!

I read for a bit and finally fell asleep after a very full day. It certainly was good to be back though! The next day, being Sunday, and May 2nd, there was a small party for my birthday at the apartment. The girls, Anne, her friend Maristela, Rafaela, and Anne’s younger son, Rodrigo’s girlfriend, Ilene, all helped with food. Diogo and Alex, his best friend, were also there. During the day, Anne had spent a great deal of time with various phone companies trying to get the best Internet situation. By evening, we had a phone hookup and an actual phone on the end! The Internet would take a few days.

For anyone thinking of having an Internet connection at a rental apartment, it’s certainly possible, and you can choose between DSL and cable connections, but it will involve a lot of research and phoning to get the best deal, and you’ll need someone who can translate for you if you don’t speak the language. The costs are, at least to me, somewhat similar to what they would be in the US, if you figure in US dollars.

At the end of the evening, the group sang Happy Birthday, with Anne holding several matches in lieu of candles!
It was a great welcome back to Fortaleza.

I’m not exactly sure where Anne sees our relationship going, but the second visit was starting well! During the next few weeks, Anne and I had several conversations as to just where we were going and whether we could think in terms of a future together.

By June, I was pretty well convinced Anne liked her independence and was not interested to be together with someone, and maybe never would be. I, on the other hand, wanted a permanent relationship, if possible.

By the middle of the month, I found we were starting to drift apart, and that was pushed along because I had started spending a lot of my free time with an Internet friend, James, who was in Fortaleza every two weeks. James, along with John Mueller, whom I mentioned in my previous article, was my main source of information about Fortaleza and Brazil in general. James was responsible for my education into what really makes Fortaleza tick, and some of its major attractions.

I also had been emailing with another John, John McManus in Aracati. He’s a Canadian who has been living in the area for around twelve years. He is married to a Brasileira and has a son here. He works offshore but is very involved in his community as well.

I’m still not sure if I believe in love at first sight, but my life changed forever one evening when James and I visited one of the local “establishments” (read bar!) in Iracema, one of the beach areas of Fortaleza. A couple of ladies approached us. Turns out one knew James, and the other was her friend.

James began a conversation with his friend, Ana Paula, in Portuguese, but I just stood there staring at her friend. The other Brasileira, Thieny, was a Morena, or darker skin color and fairly tall, around 5’ 7” I would think. She had a very exotic face and was, I thought, very beautiful! She had green eyes, which I later learned were contact lenses, but beautiful!

She spoke no English so there was no conversation for us!

Over the next few weeks, we managed to spend quite a bit of time together, either at some of the bars or discos in the area or at Praia do Futuro, the tourist beach area just at the edge of the city, our favorite bahacca, or beach canteen area being Coco Beach.

It took most of June and all of July before Thieny (pronounced Chee-aney, because there is no “th” sound in Portuguese) and I could communicate much but we kept at it and made progress, she with English and I with Portuguese.

At the beginning of that same period, Anne and I stopped seeing each other at all. We just carried on with the other things, having agreed we had different goals.

In the first couple of days, I got my computer set up, and the D drive, which gave me some initial trouble, straightened out. The D drive was the only problem I encountered from having the computer shipped from the US to Brazil.

I got on-line and started working out the kinks to doing voicework in Fortaleza for my clients back in Canada and the US. I found the system worked very well and, except for international phone calls being more expensive, almost the same as being in North America.

About the middle of July, it became apparent that I would have to go back to Canada and the US for personal reasons.

I would also use the trip to clean up the remaining items in storage in San Diego and deal with my car, which was still with Carlos.

As this decision to leave for a month became clear, I worried about what Thieny would be thinking when I told her I was going back to North America for about 4 weeks.  Many “Gringos”, she told me, come to Brazil…romance the girls, promising them all sorts of things, then leave and never see the girls again.

I was determined to put her mind at ease and decided to buy her what, in North America, would be called a “promise ring”, something that would reinforce the fact that I was coming back. It made my leaving easier for her, but I still think she was very concerned about a future for “us”.

I also realized that my summer in Fortaleza had brought me to the realization that I wanted to live in Brazil…permanently!

I won’t bother with too many details of the trip back to Canada and then San Diego, other than to say it turned out to cost more and accomplish less than I had planned.

I was pleasantly surprised shortly after I arrived in Canada to have my daughter tell me that Thieny had called for me. For a Brazilian girl, calling Canada is not something they would ever have to do normally. After that, we talked many times during my stay in North America. I missed her terribly!

The time away from her only solidified what I already knew…Thieny and I belonged together.

I made a decision to do some long term planning when I got back to Fortaleza.

I’ll tell you more about that, including a look into the legendary Brazilian bureaucracy in the next installment of “Brazil or Bust”.

The following article is Andy's previous article in the magazine:

• Brazil Or Bust ~ Making A Change