Wednesday, 21st January, Buzios Brazil, 24 degrees

We had to muster at the theatre at 7.00 and after a short delay we were taken to our tender. We were very pleased to see that although the sky was still cloudy the sea had calmed considerably and it was not raining.

I have to say that I found the map for the tender driver a bit lightweight… However, after about 10 minutes and despite the scant detail on the map, we arrived at the little harbour.

I think we both felt that Buzios felt more like how we expected Brazil to look! It felt very user friendly. A short walk from the jetty led us to the bus that was to take us on a tour of the peninsula that constitutes the main area of Buzios. The rest of it is made up of small islands.

Buzios (pronounced Boo-zoos. Ed) was a small fisherman’s village and part of Cabo Frio, the second oldest city of Brazil, until in the 1950’s Bridget Bardot went there to escape the paparazzi hounding her.

Her fame brought attention and tourists to the area and it is now a city of 43,000 people. There is a statue to her on the promenade. When she died recently the city went into three days of mourning. Near the Bardot statue, just out in the water is a homage to fishing in the shape of three fishermen …

Buzios is Spanish speaking and gained its freedom from Cabo Frio in 1995. The current passing the peninsula comes up from Antarctica bringing whales to the area in summer and seals in the winter. (And cold water all year. Ed) The fisherman lived mainly in the centre of the original village. The soft soil means that you cannot build more than one storey high close to the coast and the hotels and bigger buildings are built inland where the soil and the bedrock are a bit more robust.

The Coral off the beach makes it attractive as a scuba diving area. Buzios is described as a resort attracting visitors from Rio de Janeiro. It has a number of beaches, one has waves of up to three meters and is a key surfing destination, other beaches are very calm and family friendly. One has pinky-red sand caused by the high level of iron in the area and the sand itself has garnet in it.

It was when we were looking out on a rock dating back to the time when South America was joined to Africa things started to go pear shaped. In that it started to rain – hard! I just had time to take a picture of the rock that apparently fits together with a rock in Angola from where it cleft apart millions of years ago

When I realised that my shirt, when drenched (as it was) becomes transparent, My great Seasalt shirts that I wear all the time have a fault – they are thin cotton and they become see through when wet. I hurtled back to the bus where I sat with my arms folded wondering exactly what I was going to do next as I watched the pouring rain run down the window on the bus.

Luckily the tour ended although it was still pouring (monsoon like) as I whisked past the tour guide asking her which way to the shops. A quick right turn under her direction brought us to the town square where we purchased two rather glamorous yellow macs and a cotton scarf (??) or whatever to cover up my shirt….. et voila. I looked like a banana!! But at least it hid my shirt and saved my blushes!

Next stop was a coffee shop where we found the most marvellously tasting coffee I have ever had!

I know it wasn’t exactly ‘afternoon’ but my gallant husband agreed to have one with me as I was in shock from my exposing experience……

The world looked a lot better after that.

As the rain had eased, we then looked about for somewhere Keith could try a local dish he had read about called ‘Moqueca’. We are nothing if not thorough!

There seemed to be a number of places offering the dish amongst the amazing sea food menus. We found one just opening called Le Bardot Restaurant.

I would probably have preferred the fish variety rather than the seafood, but we had to have the full experience. Moqueca is a sort of tomato based fish stew served with a coconut sauce. Ours also came with rice as well. Some of the contents were not to my taste, so I had all the prawns and Keith had all the twiddly bits.

Vowing not to eat dinner this evening, we had a good glass (or two Ed) of rose with it … remember I was still in shock before you cast aspersions. Note that by now the shirt was drying out and had reverted to its normal look – thank goodness, Having said this our trousers and shoes were still soaked so, lunch over, we went back to the jetty and got the tender back to the ship,

What an outing, but we loved Buzios!

Back in the cabin we took off our wet things, showered and after an hour or so of writing went up to the deck to get some mileage in – deciding that if we had done enough we might go to dinner after all….

We shall see …

In the end we did go to dinner – totally unnecessary but it was good to have some banter with Gareth and Sian. Sadly Penny and Michael weren’t with us again. Penny has a nasty chest infection.

Gareth and Sian are on a 9 hour tour tomorrow. We are on our helicopter flight. I really hope that the weather is better than today