Buzios

Ross:

Righteo people. Escaped dead-end Pero. Sure it was lovely but we´d got our sights set on Buzios. Caught the local bus back to Cabo Frio and then another on to Buzios. Buzios was discovered by Bridget Bardot and has since been a holiday destination for the rich and the famous. Dermot O´Leary was here a couple of months ago and Zinedine Zidane more recently (according to our over friendly Argentinian ex-concierge)...apparently.

We arrived at the first hostel which wasn´t too bad but instead ended up settling for a different one after a short taxi ride. We headed out for a stroll and got accosted by aformentioned Argentinian hostel owner (not our hostel, another one) who sat us down with coffee and gave us his life story over coffee for 2 hours. He´d worked in quality control in a Japanese wheel factory and had also travelled a bit in Australia. I started to switch off when he started spouting stuff about destiny and the powers above and dreams and cults etc etc...

Escaped to the beach via a rather nice Pousada (Hotel) with a whirlpool bath in the room which we vowed to move to although it was a bit more pricey. The beach (Geriba) was a mile or so long with white sand and good surf (1-2ft clean for your info Kaz). A stroll down it´s length and then a couple of blocks back found us at a nice little lakeside restaurant. The locals eat Prato Commercial, a cheap dish of local ingredients. (Fried meat, white rice, black bean stew, salad, etc). 7 quid fed and watered both of us before heading in a VW camper (like the dolmus in Turkey) into centro. The town centre was very quaint with tree-lined streets and bars set back from the street. We clocked up a mile or so along the seafront (past Pacha and Privilege - Ibiza-name-brand clubs) and settled for a beer or 2 in a small creperie. Jumped on the van back to the hostel and bumped into a mute French couple (despite my best efforts to make conversation in French) and a guy called Paulo from Rio. He looked more like a gringo than me which I was happy about (probably due to his Austrian descendency) and, lo and behold, he was here for the kitesurfing. He offered to take us to THE spot (Rasa, pronounced ´Hasa´) tomorrow. Nice chap! Did some laundry until 2am then crashed...

Got up early this morning (13/07/2008) not wanting to miss Paulo´s lift to the k-surfing beach. Got there about 11am but no wind (about 6 knots), so headed back for a swim to Turtle Beach. After a quick snack, we were back at Rasa but still no wind. The guys at the Best centre (Kite Power) suggested returning on Thursday but our plans were to leave Buzios before that. So, kitesurfing was not meant to be in Buzios but watch this space...

Paulo the gringo (sorry if you´re reading this mate, no offence...) kindly dropped us back in Geriba at our hostel before fleeing back to Rio. We watched the sun set from a beach I can´t remember the name of then headed to a self-serve per kilo restaurant which was meant to be about 70p per 100g but turned out to be more like 1.30GBP.

We had another afternoon on the beach the following day and then went for a couple of hours surfing the really clean and perfectly-sized break on a 9ft longboard the day after that. Dirt cheap to hire at about 5 pounds for 2 hours. How´s work Kaz?

Polly:

Unfortunately Ross is fairly tasty to the Brazilian mozzies and they had a tasty meal of him in Buzios so we decided to try the old fashioned trick of G&T. We also coated ourselves in Deet and got some Raid for our room. The G&T´s made us wake up a bit, so we headed back to the town for a bit of fun. We ended up at a bar with sun loungers on the beach where we spent a few hours. We were sat next to 3 Canadian girls from Ottawa and spent the night with them. We then hooked up with them the next day for dinner.

Buzios was lovely, much smaller than we expected, and no high rise buildings. It felt much safer to walk around in and loads of outside cafes and bars to relax.

Despite being a great place we decided to move on today as we only have about 4 days before we plan to go to Iguassu. We got a bus to Cabo Frio, then another to Arraial do Cabo. We had the usual frustration of getting off a bus and not quite knowing where we are or where "the good bits" are. As my bag was a bit heavy we found a beach for me to sit on with the bags and Ross went on a mission. We´ve ended up on a really quiet side of town, which is nice. We´re less than 5 mins away from one of the beaches and have a few local shops. I went and got a manicure & pedicure for about 3 pounds and we went to get some cash. The cash machines are a bit hit and miss, and most of the error messages are in Portuguese so we have to persevere. We found success with the trusty Bradesco Bank (only one that consistently gives us muller) and went for some grub. We had the Prato Commercial again, but this time Ross had ribs and I had a whole fish. Yum yum.

I just checked the weather and it´s forecast to be 27C and sunny for the next 5 days so felling really lucky. Arraial do Cabo is surrounded by beautiful beaches with snorkelling and diving sites.

(Thursday)

We went to the dive place this morning and booked up for me tomorrow. Ross is coming out on the boat as well and is gonna snorkel. I think I get to do 2 dives, and haven´t dived for years so very very excited.

After that we went to buy a picnic then set off on a hike around the coastal paths of the peninsular. It made me think of something Guy said, something about the destination not being so important, but how you get there. We never reached our intended destination but had adventures along the way. After about 40 minutes of trapsing through the undergrowth on what we thought was the path, we came out at the highest point. This lead nowhere. It was at this point when we noticed big scary spiders in webs all around us. I pooped myself big time. There was only one way back, back through the spiders. We didn´t really notice them on the way cos we were checking the ground for snakes (There weren´t any - only lizards) and busy trampling down plants and holding back branches. Ross (Bear Grills) took the lead and checked for any webs, then we carefully manouvered around them or Bear dislodged them with big sticks.

We made it back out to a clearing, then chose a different path. This one lead out down to some rocks, across a narrow path and eventually to what was a naval/military area. As we got close to this we were chased by 4 guard dogs. Again, very scary. I scrambled up the rocks in fear of what looked like crazy rabid beasts, but Ross barked back at them and eventually they retreated.

Not sure which way to go, we headed back and about 5 hours after setting off, saw the path we were meant to have taken! Oops - maybe another day. Hot and tired we went back to our beach and jumped in the water. It was colder that the UK!? Something about the Antarctic currents? We then had the most well earned picnic.

Oh - we also saw a big turtle floating in the water from the cliff edge, and a couple of penguins. David Attenborough eat your heart out.

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