West Coast of Ceará
Iparana and Pacheco
Heading out of the city towards Cumbuco, you will pass the towns of Iparana and then Pacheco. These areas are not good, they do have some big rich properties that if you see them on a website they are misleading as they have poverty close by, the general areas are scuffy, the beaches are rocky and have cliff's.
Icarai
A little further up the CE090 highway you pass through the bigger town of Icarai (15KM from Fortaleza), its better than the previous but still maybe still not what you are looking for, the beach here starts to get better, the area is very residential and cheap to buy, with some of the buildings now looking old and run down to some effect. The area doesnt have the poverty and functions very well, but its still far from a rich town.
The area is good for the amenities to have close by for the better towns of Tabuba and Cumbuco with many restaurants and shops here i.e. hairdressers, clothes, dvd rentals, pharmacy, vetenary, many convenience stores just to name a few. There is also a couple of supermarkets and international cash machines.
The town though is now currently under improvement, with the 'Municipio da Caucaia' investing into the area to keep the area cleaner and tidy, with now the new road now surfaced, new upgraded drainaged for when the raining season and some of the older buildings being refurbished etc. The 'Municipio da Caucaia' has actually now announced (Sept 2009) that they are investing a further R$40 Million into developing all the side residential streets in the whole area. This includes Caucaia, Icarai, Tabuba and Cumbuco, and the whole project to be completed within 2 years.
The town has a good lively feel to it and holds about 8,000 residence. Evenings on the weekend you will see live bands in some of the restaurants and typical Brazilian lively parties by the main town beach front every weekend. There is also the huge weekend parties that is held at the 'Sitio Real', this is located along the CE117, the link road that short cuts Icarai to Caucaia.
At the very top of the town that seperates the town from Tabuba is a picturess sea water lagoon that is called 'Ponte Sobre O Rio Barra Nova'. It runs across in land to the start of the sand dunes and the river forms, flowing all the way through the city of Caucaia. It can run almost dry in the low tide season from Feburary to July. But the rest of the year many people are enjoying wind surfing on the widened lagoon and families just enjoying the warm water forms by the sea entry or relaxing by the beach bar, especially on a weekend.
Tabuba
From the Lagoon you reach the next town of Tabuba (20KM - 25KM from Fortaleza), the town is well spread out, the beach here is beautiful with rich beach villas all along the coast. The area is still almost all Brazilian residential but holds a few Portuguese and Italian settlers. Many of the beach houses are 2nd holiday homes for the rich Brazilians from Fortaleza or some even from other cities from the South.
Its easy to see why Tabuba Beach is a popular high middle class residential area for Brazilians with infrastructure all already in place surrounded by the beautiful scenery.
Tabuba also consists of good infrastructure with restaurants, beach bars, convenience stores, Cafe's, Bars, DIY stores, hair dressers, internet cafe, schools, a water park (Tabuba Golden Park) and now a new all night Sports Bar, all in Tabuba. With many more restaurants, bars, shops and beautiful lagoons in both Icarai and Cumbuco to choose from just a few minutes away by car or by regular buses
The West coastal 'Sunset' road (CE090) from Caucaia to Cumbuco has now had the resurfacing the tarmac and modernising completed, now making the easy access to Fortaleza even quicker. Now with new plans to surface all the residential side roads all in the areas will hugely boost propery prices further.
New developments has started to grow here now since the land prices are still much lower than the neighbouring Cumbuco and with land plots in Cumbuco now being rare. There are already a few new foreign investment developments here in Tabuba with a couple already completed.
Tabuba is also often a prefered place for Brazilians than the popular tourist town of Cumbuco for weekend get aways and holidays due to the less international tourism and higher prices that Cumbuco attracts. During the public holidays and weekends many of the beach bars are packed and many of the kite surfers enjoying the breezy ocean.
Cumbuco
Pecem
Taiba
Taiba is a fishing village that remains authentic, with a small urban structure, but with great natural beauties. Taiba beach, district of the Sao Goncalo do Amarante, about 60 km from Fortaleza. Taiba has gorgeous beaches with natural swimming pools in rocky, falesias formations, dunes and lagoons, its 2500 inhabitants live in harmony with the nature and its visitors. It has two public schools, a gas station, a small hospital, police station, pharmacies, water sports stores, some inns, and some restaurants towards and around the village square.
The commerce is basic, you will not find sophisticated items. Beaches with natural swimming pools in the low tide, good waves and strong wind for aquatic sports, great dunes with water lagoons and much sun for more than 300 days in the year.
This makes Taiba ideal for Surfing, Kite Surf, Wind Surf and Sand Board, or for people who desire a calm place, without much night life and with great options of intense contact with the nature.
There are now two parts to Taiba, Old Taiba and New Taiba where most of the new development is being built. New Taiba is still remote in the fact that there is little infrastruture, but there are a few new small condominiums there now and have quite few Brazilians and foreigners building their Villa's around this area.
The road around the New Taiba area is rocky/sandy and slow, the local council plan to tarmac this in 2010 sometime. In New Taiba you have a couple of small bars selling drinks. There is also a beautiful sea water lagoon at the very far end of New Taiba
