Sunday, July 09, 2006

The beaches

The beaches in Buzios were truly world-class. Our beach at the resort was not the most impressive of the beaches we saw, but it was certainly the least crowded, with no more than 20 people there at any one time.

Although the swimming at our beach was not so good, we were able to experience coconut juice directly from the coconut. They sold these at a booth right on the beach. It was actually quite good.

We were also intrigued by the sand crabs we found on the beach. These white-gloved little guys were ready to fight if you caught them too far from their little hole in the sand.

The weather during the middle of the week was windy and overcast with occasional rain; so lying around on the beach was not an option, but exploring new beaches was still a fun experience. This was the most famous beach on the peninsula of Buzios, but it certainly isn't the nicest. In fact, it looked like it had been shut down for the winter.

Another picture of the same beach. The postcard people must have a heyday in this town.

This beach was one of our most frustrating experiences of the week. We came on an overcast day, but we could see that the clouds were going to leave. When we got to the beach, the beach was quite empty--of tourist, that is. There were more people selling things on the beach than there were people to buy them. To make matters worse, the beach was lined by restaurants with vendors trying to get you to spend $100 on lunch (Buzios is not a cheap town!) Obviously, we weren't having any of that, but the vendors would not leave us alone. Finally, when the restaurant guy realized we weren't going to eat at his restaurant, he told us that we would have to pay for the rental of the beach chairs we were using (a lie). He watched us like a hawk until we left, then insisted we pay. It wasn't worth the hastle to argue with him, and our Portuguese isn't that good yet anyway. So we gave him his money and were glad to leave this beautiful, but unwelcoming beach.