Photos
Pousada Chez Nice
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| Paraty to Serra dos Ongros | |||||||||||||||||||
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4th Jun (Tue): After a brisk walk to a natural waterfall inside the national park, Edwardo, Cidade and I enjoyed the Combi van rollercoaster ride to the bottom of the hill with the owner of the Pousada. Seems he is quite the notary, pioneering rock climbing in Brasil and continuing to support community endeavors such as building a climbing wall in the local primary school. On arrival in Petropolis, we checked out the museum and learnt of the history of imperialism in Brasil.. and the fact that the presence of the Portuguese Imperial Court in Petropolis in the 1830s brought Germans and thus the knowledge of beer to Brasil. Beer is cheap and, unsurprisingly, of germanic style. Motoring on past the occasional gum trees and lush vegetation, we were treated to spectacular views of the Serra dos Orgaõs ranges on the descent to Buzios, a tourist mecca on the coast. Unfortunately the smog from Rio (100km away at the end of Gauram Bay) obscures the view of Christ the redeemer and the wetlands at the end of the bay. We stopped by Cidade´s house in the outskirts of Buzios to be greeted by his two overly friendly Rottweilers and the groundsman... formally attired in nothing but brown underwear. Cidade seemd a little unimpressed with the cleanliness of the house and didn´t accept the explanation that ´well you didn´t tell me you were coming!´ Leaving Cidade to his remonstrations, Edwardo & I headed into town where he found me a great pousada (see the link) called Chez Nice which he got for a nice price. Dumping our gear we paced to Azeda beach past the statues of Brigitt Bardot and the Three Fishermen. Brigitt made Buzios famous for the Brazilian jetset after being photographed walking along the beach in this ´lost paradise´in 1964 and the fishermen quickly became famous in my mind after watching them do a days work in 5 minutes, pulling in a school of fish on Azeda beach right on sunset. The swimming and local culture of the small beach combined with the beautiful sand and scenery were breathtaking. We were approached by the only other tourist on the beach, a pot-bellied, varicosed and bald Dutch guy who´s opening line was ´where are the good beaches?´. We try to help him with directions. He goes on to say that the best beaches in the world are in Australia before finding out that I was Australian.. We head back to town where I do a year´s worth of washing (yep, just wearing my shorts and thongs) before enjoying Stone street´s bars, shops and restaurants. The place is full of tourist goods, large cobblestones and shop assistants loitering in empty doorways or playing games to while away the time until the summer comes.. or they can close the shop - at about 10pm most nights. Restaurants are built on a stone wall which is reached by the water at high tide - like so many places in Brazil, there is no primary sand dune, and any 100 year storm is going to wreak havoc.
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| Name: | Craig | ||||||||||||||||||
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