It was a long transfer from Bahia to Buzios, starting with a sweaty dash along the beach, and finishing with a terrifying three-hour car trip from Rio, the guy transferring us had obviously learned to drive by playing 'Grand Theft Auto' on his playstation!
I hadn't expected to like Buzios, it's known as the 'St Tropez of South America', and I expected it to be full of rich idiots, like Abersoch or Padstowe. During the Brazilian holidays, it's probably unbearable, but it's 'off-season' now, so it had a quiet, sleepy atmosphere, we loved it!
It was dark when we arrived, so when we opened the curtains the next morning, and we were looking out over the bay, it was stunning. One of the best views of the trip. Just above our room there was a terrace, where you could sit and watch the sunset, whilst sipping a cocktail, it would've been rude not to!
Even 'out of season', our hotel was full of 'knob-sticks', as it was quite flash, but the staff were really helpful and friendly, and when we told them of our 'epic trip', they loved it! They even presented us with a little gift on our departure, we were touched!
Sal still hadn't got me a birthday present, but they have really smart little beach buggies here, they're fibre-glass bodies, attached to a VW chassis and engine, very funky-looking. Be kind of hard to fit in the hand-luggage, though, so I'll probably get a t-shirt!
There are loads of different beaches on the Buzios peninsula, a couple of which were walking distance from our hotel. We went to one where we could enjoy 'Brazilian beach culture' in all it's glory! Women in dental-floss bikini's, men in micro-speedo's, people arguing the toss with the beach-man over prices for brollies and chairs, and a constant stream of beach-hawkers with sarongs, coconuts, beers, and cheese!
We went to the hotel's 'beach club', too, it was on a cliff-side overlooking a quiet beach, with day-beds and hammocks, and a soundtrack of chilled-out grooves. The music has been fantastic wherever we've been in Brazil, they may have a 'sod it, that'll do, let's get down the beach' attitude to almost everything here, but the music is always spot-on! Next stop, home of bossa-nova and samba, Rio!