Shores of Brazil

Greetings,

Well, we are in Rio de Janeiro. Actually we arrived yesterday morning, but Oceania allows you to stay on board for a full day and a night in the harbour before disembarking. This is very convenient. It allowed us to get oriented in a city of 7 million. We did a tour with a small group of 8-10 people that was 8 hours - very extensive, and again very informative. The closest thing I can liken them to is if you were to go visit a friend in an unfamiliar city and that person was to show you around. The guides are knowledgeable, enthusiastic about their city/country, and the flexibility that a mini bus has allows you to get to places not seen by the big buses, whether public or private.

Our guide, Patricia, took a lot of the mystery out of the city in the way she presented it to us. We feel much more comfortable in navigating it ourselves for the next 4 days as a result of her suggestions and commentary.

We disembarked and took a cab to our hotel in the famous Ipanema Beach neighbourhood. We will hang out there until Thursday night at which point we will start the journey home to Winnipeg.

Just to back up for a moment, our previous entry put us in Buzios, the final stop before Rio. M and I really took a liking to this seaport/resort town. I had never heard of it before but this place was made famous because Bridgit Bardot came here to live when she tired of all the notoriety. I have a picture of Margaret sitting beside a small bronze statue of her on the beach below a very modest little apartment where she lived.

Buzios is a resort town for Brazilians, but it doesn't feel resorty - if that's a word. Were we to come back to Brazil we would figure out a way to spend a week here. Great mix of young and older people and different beaches suitable for surfing, swimming, fishing depending on their exposure to the sweep of the Atlantic. Hot, hot, hot! All you need to show up with here are shorts, t-shirts and Havainas - more about Havainas later.

Ciao   (that works in Portugese as well)

M&H