As Fortaleza is close to the equator, there are 12 hours of daylight pretty much all year round - with dawn at around 5:30am, and sunset 12 hours (or so) later.
People tend to get up early and go for a jog or run first thing in the morning, while it is still relatively cool. The Avenida Beira Mar, right in front of our hotel is a very popular place for a run.
Afterwards, people go for breakfast, and then head to work - again, typically starting work between 6:30am and 7am. This is that people can finish work between 3pm and 4pm, and so have some daylight left after work.
 |
| Avenida Beira Mar |
We were primarily based in IDT's headquarters in the suburb of Benfica in Fortaleza. Every morning, we were picked up from out , and driven to the the headquarters. Our drivers were members of the IDT staff, and knew all of the backstreets, so we generally managed to avoid the heavy traffic.
When we arrived, everyone would have a short cup of coffee - generally com açúcar (with sugar) - though I would have it sem açúcar (without sugar) if it was available.
We worked in IDT's ICT office for the morning - see some of my other blog posts for information on some of the work that we did there.
Every day, we would lunch with the team in the food court of the nearby Shopping Benfica - a mere 5 minutes walk (though a slow walk, as it was very hot by lunchtime). There was a good choice of food - e.g. a buffet of Brazilian food, Lebanese food from Habib's (Lebanese food is very popular in Brazil), Chinese food, and sushi. The latter included hot sushi (a Brazilian favourite - particularly Hot Philadelphia roll) and sweet sushi. Lunch is an important time of the day in Brazil, and a good time to get to know one's colleagues - with one of the unwritten rules being that one does not talk shop over lunch. After a quick coffee, we would head back to the office for the afternoon's work.
 |
| With colleagues in the Food Court at Shopping Benfica |
At going home time, we would again be driven back to our hotel. I would typically go for a quick run or swim in the hotel pool. We had an informal agreement that all CSC teams would meet at 7:30pm for a 10 minute daily scrum - style meeting . That is, to see how each team was getting on, so that teams could help each other out with any issues. We would also organize weekend excursions etc. during this meeting. After the scrum, people would either go back to their rooms to do some work or get in touch with family - or head to a local restaurant for the evening meal. One of our favourite destinations for a good value evening meal was the fish market in nearby Mucuripe . Here, one can buy fish and prawns by the kilo from fishermen, and then pay to have it cooked in the common kitchen. Delicious !
 |
| Buying prawns in the fish market |
 |
| Eating at the Fish Market |
After dinner, we would sometimes go for ice cream at the popular 50 sabores (50 flavours) - or get Açaí na tigela ("açaí in a bowl")
 |
| Açaí na tigela |
We did of course go to other places too - there were many good restaurants nearby. For example, the Japanese restaurant Hokkaido which we visited one evening with our colleagues from IDT and their families.
.jpeg) |
| Hokkaido Restaurant |
 |
| Out for a meal with colleagues from IDT and their families |
