Ciao Buzios!

We are on the bus back to Rio which concludes our stay in Buzios.  Buzios was great.  It had fantastic shopping, beautiful beaches and friendly people.  

When we arrived at the Buzios bus stop three days ago, we met a friendly Peruvian import named Valdemeir...or Uncle Valdie as we liked to call him.  He was trying to rent out an apartment at his house.  It was only a 2 minute walk to the city center and we talked him down to 140 Reals for three nights which translates to about $11/night for both of us.  We were pleased with the deal and headed to his apartment.  It was a nice upstairs apartment with a kitchen area, dining area, private bathroom, set of bunk beds and a queen size bed.  Deanna was nice enough to let me have the queen bed, a nice departure from the twin bunk beds that we had been in.  After settling into the apartment we walked into the city center to check it out.  There were a ton of boutique shops and quaint restaurants along cobblestone paths, a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Rio.  After exploring there for a bit we decided to go to the grocery store to get things to cook since we had our own kitchen.  Deanna made a lovely spaghetti dinner for our first meal.  After eating we cleaned up and headed into the city center to see what the night life in Buzios was like.  We were surprised to find that most of the shops stay open well after midnight.  They say that things in Brazil don't start until midnight and this was defiantly true in Buzios.  We had a few cocktails and then headed back to the apartment to go to sleep.

The next day we got up and walked into the city center for breakfast and to check e-mail.  Most Brazilian breakfasts consist of coffee and some kind of meat and cheese pastry.  Their coffee is amazing!  I would defiantly trade Starbucks for any of the Brazilian street vendors coffee.  The weather in Buzios was always touch and go...Uncle Vladie says that is the norm in Spring.  After breakfast is was looking a little cloudy so we headed back to the apartment for a rest.  A little later the sun came out so we headed to one of Buzios many beaches.  We emerged from the apartment and decided to catch a cab because we weren't sure how to get the the beaches.  We got into the first cab we saw and told him where we wanted to go.  Come to find out, this particular cabbie had no knowledge of how to get around in Buzios....not too sure why he picked this particular career path since he had no knowledge of the city.  After stopping to ask directions 3 or 4 times, we finally made it to the beach.  The beach was quite and secluded...a HUGE change from Rio!  We laid out for a few hours and then headed back in because it was looking rainy.  There were no cabs around so we decided to hitchhike back to our apartment.  Luckily, the first car to come had someone who at least knew a little English...very helpful!  We told him where we wanted to go and he was more than happy to give us a lift.  Apparently, he imports bikinis to the US.  We think he was trying to get us to buy some or go to his website or something, but his english wasn't that good.  After a quick nap, we showered, changed and headed back to the city center for more shopping and dinner.  We had dinner at a nice Thai restaurant on the beach...I know, who goes to Brazil to eat Thai food?  It was surprisingly really good plus the Brazilian cuisine hasn't been my favorite.  They eat A LOT of meat accompanied with rice and bread.  A nice recipe for a little constipation and tummy ache if you ask me, so I have tried not to each too much of their food. :)  

Day three sucked pretty bad.  It was cold and rainy most of the day.  We spent most of the day in the city center playing cards and eating Brazilian stew...a pretty good combo for a cold rainy day.  Then watched a couple of movies in the apartment.  Not too much to report from day three.

Today, our final day, started with brunch at Cafe David, a little cafe that we found that has wi fi.  We did some e-mail checking and ate and tried to decided what time we wanted to go back to Rio.  We debated back and forth on wether or not we wanted to go back to the beach one more time and finally decided to just go get on the bus.  We got to the ticket counter and it was too late to get on the 1:00 bus so our decision was made for us!  We couldn't get on another bus until 3:00 so we went back to the apartment and changed into our suits and headed to the beach.  Uncle Valdie drove by just as we were coming out so we flagged him down to give us a ride which he was more than happy to do.  Anything for "his girls" as he liked to call us!  We made it to the beach in time to get a few hours of sun and then headed back to pack up and catch our bus.  When we got to the stop we saw our two Israeli friends from Rio.  They told us they were getting ready to leave on the 4:00 bus.  We were a little confused at why they were at the bus stop so early since it was only 2:30....they informed us that it was in fact 3:30....there was some kind of daylight savings time change that took place that we had no clue of!  So we had missed our 3:00 bus...ooops!  We went back over to the ticket counter and tried to connivence them to just print us another ticket, but they didn't speak a lick of English and our sad pouty faces weren't working so we just bought new tickets and chalked it up to a loss.  So, now we are on the 4:00 bus back to Rio!  We are planning on going out to a nice "good-bye" dinner tonight and then I leave tomorrow night, sad!  

Next Blog:  Cowabunga Dude!  Couch Surfing in Rio!