Road Trip: Day 4

Today we woke up and packed our things to head back to the mainland for our next stop in Buzios.  We took a little private boat over to a bus stop on the mainland in order to cut down some of our travel time.  The bus to Rio was actually really nice (the bus stop, not so much).  We got picked up at the Rio bus stop, which is an interesting sight to say the least, by one of my friend's friends.  The drive to Buzios took about two and a half hours and the geography along the way reminded me a lot of the drive between the bay area and San Luis Obispo - lots of rolling hills, farms, and beautiful wide open space.  We finally arrived in Buzios at our pousada where we met up with our buddy and his girlfriend who arrived the day before.  The pousada has an incredible view from the patio and the weather was great.  Buzios is known as the "St. Tropez" of Brazil.  I have never been to St. Tropez but have seen lots of pictures and could see why the comparison is made.  Also, Buzios is a big vacation spot for the wealthy Rio crew, and you could tell from the surrounding houses that this place was not like most of Brazil.  We headed down the hill to the beaches to check out the surrounding area, and then we headed off to dinner.  I have heard many stories about how cool the downtown area of Buzios is, and I finally got to see why.  It was built in sort of a promenade style where everyone can walk down these beautiful cobblestone streets with lots of shops, restaurants, bars, etc.  It is a very charming area and probably the main reason it is so popular.  We had a great dinner with the whole gang at a Cuban restaurant.  At dinner, my buddy's Brazilian girlfriend kept wanting him to dance but he wanted no part of it.  Finally, the professional dancers at the restaurant came over and grabbed them to dance: my buddy with the female dancer and my buddy's girlfriend with the male dancer.  They all danced for a song and it was really funny to watch my buddy get dominated by the ridiculously good female dancer.  Anyway, they returned to the table after the dance and my buddy's girlfriend was steaming over something, and we couldn't figure out why.  Well, it turns out that she was mad because my buddy had danced with another girl, although that girl was just a professional dancer trying to liven up the restaurant (not to mention, she danced with the male dancer).  It was hilarious stuff.  When I told you that Brazilian girls were intensely jealous, I wasn't kidding....