Today we were in Buzios, out on a peninsula sticking out from Brazil just north of Rio. Brigitte Bardot made this resort town with a long string of beautiful beaches famous when she vacationed here in the '60s to escape the paparazzi. It actually has 23 beaches and I saw 12 of them on my tour this morning. The town had a lot of tourists today as there were two cruise ships here in addition to the Brazilian, Argentinean, other summer vacationers. Buzios is a popular weekend get away for the young people from near by Rio and Sao Paulo also.
We did not have a tour scheduled for here today but I stood by for one and was accommodated at the last minute. Rebecca did not want to go. Big mistake this time. Unlike yesterday, when it was so hot and humid, today was windy, in the 70's, and low humidity. In short it was a glorious day! The Captain had a problem with the high winds today which were gusting over 30 kts. This was causing swells and made tendering very difficult. The tender was bobbing like a cork in the water which made boarding it and getting off of it dangerous if you were not paying attention and taking the help offered by the ship's seamen. Thankfully, today the tender ride was only 10 minutes, but never the less, an exciting 10 minute ride. My tour was "Beaches of Buzios by Trolley" and was scheduled for 2 hours. Because of the difficulty with tendering it took longer to get people ashore, after all, safety first. The trolley was a truck with covered seats carrying approximately 30 people. It was quite nice and provided everyone with great views. Some of the roads were very narrow and made passing a challenge. Our young guide, Patricia, spoke good English and did a fantastic job. I loved her smile. We drove around viewing 12 beaches and the numerous hotels, condos, and beautiful homes. I know Rebecca would have enjoyed this, especially since it was such a nice day temperature wise. The tour ended about noon so I returned to the ship for lunch with Rebecca and told her we were going to town so she could see some of it and could also shop. Shopping was successful!!! Our ride back to the ship was quite exciting as the waves were very large and our tender was like a ride at Disney World. But we made it safely back on board at 4:30. After my cappuccino at the coffee bar I started downloading the 100 photos I took today. I deleted a few however.
We have 8:30pm reservations at Prime 7, the steakhouse. Wanted to see the ship's singers and dancer's show at 9:30 but already know it will probably be 11pm before we finish dinner. That's ok, we have seen this show twice and can see it again on the next segment. The last segment is 24 days long and begins Saturday in Rio. 400 passengers will get off and 400 new ones will come aboard on Saturday.
