Búzios

So amidst our urban adventure we decided to take one day off and go to the beach. My eager mother (who has probably read from front to back more lonely planets than any other literary genre that exists) picked Búzios as a particularly beautiful place not too far from Rio. Apparently Búzios is to Rio what the Hamptons are to New York and it’s only two and a half hours drive from the city so we had to join the beautiful people and make an appearance. Apparently Brigitte Bardot used to vacation there in the 60s which I’m sure would have been reason enough for my francophile mother to choose the destination.

The trip started off great from the start when we made a loo stop on the way in a roadside cafe where they were making sugarcane juice. To us this seemed like a miracle- they were actually taking the real sugarcane and pumping it in front of us. Questions were asked and photos were taken to the disbelieve of the bar staff who probably thought we were the biggest bunch of gringo weirdos getting overexcited at the Brazilian equivalent of someone pouring a glass of apple juice.

On arrival in Búzios we realised that there was no way of getting away from the waves in this country and having a nice calm dip although the beaches were really beautiful. We had a boat trip around the coast with intervals for swimming and although we didn’t have the most time in the word to leave the boat it was still a nice ride with beautiful views.

The highlight of the day however was the all you can eat buffet at the end of the day. It sounds pathetic but I think it was the best food we had in Brazil it was so delicious. The only problem with Brazilian all you can eats though is that you have to eat everything you put on your plate. A little bit of negotiation was required (“I’ll swap you a yam for a prawn/ I’ll eat your rice if you eat my beans” etc) but we made it and didn’t have to pay a thing. In stark contrast our fellow Russian travellers who had been rude to everyone all day, didn’t speak Portuguese thus didn’t realise the rules and piled their plates high with food. In the end they paid for more than they ate. Suckaaaaaaz! The moral of this story kids is don’t be rude to anyone, especially in the friendliest continent in the world.