Day 48 - 11/23/23 - Armacao dos Buzios, Brazil

 Today's stop in Buzios was a tender port and a very short day with a last tender coming from ashore at 1:30pm for a 2pm sailing.  Buzios is a resort town about 100 miles from Rio and is dotted with a number of very pretty beaches and lots of tourist type activities including restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, various types of beach activities and lots of dune buggies that will take one around the island for $20-$25 per person for an hour ride.  





We ended up getting up late and having a leisurely breakfast before heading ashore around 9:30am.  At the end of the tender pier, we headed left and walked to the Brigit Bardot statue for a selfie.  Next we continued our walk to the 3 Fishermen statute in the harbor.  Finally we made it to the Kubichek statute.  With our statute photography complete, we took a little side street past some souvenir kiosks and decided to see if we could walk to the end of the peninsula which is essentially much of  the dune buggies route.  









We reached João Fernández beach and then took a steep upward road to a nice viewpoint before continuing on up to the top of the hill and another very nice viewpoint. We met one other couple who was doing the route in the reverse direction, but otherwise saw nobody else walking the route.   We had great vistas and I was able to photograph some black vultures near the summit.  The road down was as steep but it eventually leveled out and the walking was much more pleasant.  We passed by a second little lake and there were several different types of birds I was able to photograph.  







Back in town, we stopped at a bar for some ceviche for lunch and cold Coke Zeros.  The total bill was under $20!  It was a refreshing stop and eventually some new friends from the ship stopped by and and Angela and Melody did a little shopping which Ron and I chatted about all of the VW vans we've been seeing.  Eventually the girls returned and we made our way to one of the last tenders back to the ship.



I popped into the shower to cool off and it was refreshing.  The Captain gave his semi-frequent departure announcement and we were soon under way.  I say "semi frequent" as he doesn't always make a pre departure announcement.


I uploaded my pictures from my big camera to my iPhone and went up to the Lido deck to enjoy some cold beverages.  I was stopped by a fellow passenger on my excursions over the past few days and he was ecstatic about how good they were.  We chatted a bit and I was introduced to Richard who had just boarded in Buenos Aires a few days ago.  We had a good chat.  After that stop I made one more stop to chat with another couple who used Do Brazil Right for a couples excursion yesterday, and they raved about their tour as well.   


I finally made it to the LIDO restaurant area and found a table to write at and began updating my blog which took about three hours. Dinner was a traditional Thanksgiving turkey meal and it was very good.


Tonight's entertainment was Duo Rio, a husband wife duet from Brazil and the concert was the first they have sung in their home country so they celebrated with a selfie.  They were excellent!  Afterwards we watched the movie Jules.



Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way north along the Brazilian east coast.

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