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Published: November 16th 2009
As sad as it was, our tour ended yesterday. We had a lovely time going up to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain with the other honeymooning couple and then followed that up with a nice farewell dinner on the Copacabana beach in Rio with both of the other English couples and our very nice tour guide, Lucio.
Of course, Amy and I did not want the trip to end on that date and, when we booked the trip, we also booked an addition called the "Buzios Experience". Unfortunately, the voucher we received from Gap only stated that we would be picked up at the airport (huh?) and had no time listed. Thus, Amy and I tried calling the emergency Gap number on Saturday and then again all day yesterday... we even asked our tour guide to call the number given to us but all attempts ended in an "out of service" message. Yikes!
SO... first thing this morning I wake up and start calling the local number that´s listed. After a few attempts to get through, I wind up talking to a girl who says she can´t find our booking and, as a result, I´ll have to call a different number. The hotel phone kept cutting in and out but, eventually, I did get through to someone at a local agency who also had trouble finding us anywhere...
Luckily (I suppose) the Gap driver had shown up downstairs at this time (around 8.15) and buzzed up. I went downstairs to meet him, only to discover that a) he didn´t speak English and b) there were other people who needed to be picked up, so we had to leave immediately. WTF?!! Thankfully, the concierge translated to him that we had just woken up and that we needed some time. I asked for 10 but was given 5 minutes to get Amy up, pack all our stuff and meet back downstairs... Needless to say, that was the fastest packing job either of us have EVER done and (thus far) we don´t seem to have forgotten anything.
Not to be outdone, our crazy non-English speaking driver then took us on a blistering ride the 200km out to Buzios, including an unexpected stop for a snack (he only spoke Portuguese and none of the others on the bus spoke English - I only had a small clue as to what was going on because a girl from another couple spoke both Portuguese & German and she kept translating for her husband in the front seat). Oh, and lest I forget... the bus driver then managed to get lost for about an hour trying to find another hotel. Awesome start to this leg of the trip! Yes, Gap Adventures is definitely going to hear about this.
On the bright side, we arrived at the hotel and it´s really nice. Small, quaint and clean and situated seconds from a seaside shopping centre (kinda like Charlevoix in N. Michigan) and the beach. There are some 16 beaches here in Buzios and we´re here for 5 days, so we should be able to see almost all of them.
It´s been a hectic morning (as you can tell) so Amy´s taking a quick nap. I just wanted to write a quick post and say that yes, we´re totally safe & okay and the untold stories are just that; nothing we want to blog about, but still stuff we´d want to share with our parents when we get back.
Until later,
Rudi & Amy
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Nancy Plain
non-member comment
Oh the joys of an adventure!!
Well it sounds like it has been an "adventure" with a few gaps!!!! Enjoy the last 5 days relaxing in your quaint hotel. Lots of photos to remember the trip and lots of stories to tell. Do you keep a travel journal to help with the recall?? Our Canadian winter hasn't started yet--we will save that for your return. Toodles Luv Mother Plain