Advance Look at Fortaleza and Ceara

As I've tried to get an idea of what life in Fortaleza will be like, I've found a number of photos on the web that give me at least some idea of what the city and surrounding area will be like. Fortaleza is a city of just over 2 million, with a large downtown area with many surrounding favelas, which some define as "shantytowns." Fortaleza is located on the Atlantic Coast, in the state of Ceara. In this post, I've included a few photos which I found listed as public domain images. I'll try to post a few more iamges of the city and surrounding areas in the coming weeks, and certainly will post photos of my own after I arrive in Brazil.

Pinto Martins International Airport, Fortaleza









Cityscape and Beaches of Fortaleza

Sand Dunes of Jericoacoara

(Up the Coast from Fortaleza)

Flight Arrangements at Last!

Today, after what seems like weeks of attempts, I finally have confirmed flights for my journey to Fortaleza. Over the last three weeks or more, making these arrangements have seemingly lead to problem after problem. Initially, our departure date kept changing, ranging from July 31 to August 15. Last week, August 2 finally emerged as our target date. Then, it seemed that I would find reasonable itineraries only to see them disappear before I could get them booked through the program. Finally, late last week, I found a suitable itinerary, but had more problems getting the flights booked due to issues related to how the flights were being paid for by a third-party, which required additional verification to be submitted. Today, at last, all of the issues seem to have resolved, and I can finally state with reasonable confidence that I will be leaving the U.S. for Brazil on August 2, 2006.

My journey will be a bit circuitous, departing Philadelphia along with my fellow Fogarty fellow, Ben, at roughly 12:30 pm, bound for Miami, Florida. After a five hour layover there, we will board the plane which will carry us on the remainder of our journey to Fortaleza. We'll leave Miami at around 8:30 pm, and will ultimately reach Fortaleza at 8 am on August 3rd. En route to Fortaleza, our flight will have brief stopovers in Manaus, Brazil and Belem, Brazil in the Amazon region, but these stopovers will each be an hour or less, in the middle of the night, and without a change of plane.

Its good to finally have a reasonably concrete itinerary, now I will set out to finalize visa arrangements, while also studying for a surgery oral exam and surgery written exam which will occur next week.

My updated schedule for the next weeks:
Today - June 20 Neurosurgery Rotation
June 21 Surgery Oral Exam
June 22 Surgery Written Exam
June 23 - July 2 Study for USMLE Step 2
July 3 USMLE Step 2 in Lynchburg
July 5-19 Orientation for Fogarty-Ellison Program at NIH in Bethesda, MD
July 20 - 28 Lab orientation at UVA
July 31 Move out of Charlottesville, travel to Conowingo, MD
August 2 Departure