One good day and one not so good day

We picked up the hire car around 11.  Maria somehow managed to negotiate an upgrade to 2 cars above our class which was pretty cool.  Our saloon seems to take the board fairly comfortably in the back.  We headed towards exiting Rio, however we were held up because the hire car company had given us the wrong documentation- so ended up waiting in a filling station in Flamengo for a guy to turn up and give us the correct paperwork.  Exiting Rio was not too bad except for the missing Niteroi bridge the first time and heading towards the airport.

Actually it was the drive beyond that proved difficult.  Brazilian drivers are not the best, so for me it was quite stressful.  Maria was surprised as Brazilian driving is probably better than in Colombia.  It seemed to take forever.  We stopped in a kilo restaurant, which was good because I could pike on the meat.

 

The drive beyond was not so fun.  We ended up skipping Saquarema due to time and headed towards Cabo Frio.  The drive was not that special- in fact the area was kind of weird and flat- a bit like a Brazilian fenland.  Eventually we got to Cabo Frio stopped at the beach for a bit.  The town was a bit of a dump and we got stuck in our first traffic jam.

By the time we got to Bouzios there was another traffic jam and we were stuck again until we got to our Posada up the hill.  Clearly this was a high season time and all the Brazilians like to drive.  We headed out for dinner that night and it took a while to find a parking space after getting stuck in mandatory traffic.  The town was really packed.

It’s quite a strange place, very clean and very rich.  Clearly wealthy Brazilians come on holiday here.  The centre is almost American in that it has new shops and almost a fake feel to it (though not necessarily in a bad way).  There were Brazilians of all ages out on the streets.  We went to a seafood restaurant that was recommended.  It was pretty good and not too expensive, as in Bouzios generally things are really pricey.  The journey back also involved getting stuck in a lot of traffic.

The next day was better.  We woke up to breakfast at the Posada which was really good. Selection of fruits and eggs with the view we have across the peninsula.  The Posada is English run and though not cheap the breakfast and the view are great. 

The surf was not forecast so great, with a small short period swell.  We headed to a beach on the edge of the Peninsula called Tucuns which is also one of the surf beaches.  Actually it was better than I expected.  Although small and quite a few close outs I got some fun little waves and it is always nice to surf in boardshorts.  There were plenty of good surfers however the beach was not overly crowded which was a bonus.  Maria had an umbrella on the beach and the vibe was pleasant.  She was able to shoot the below sequence (of me!).

Later we headed back via the supermarket.  The afternoon consisted of walking to a nearby beach, where they have snorkelling as Maria wanted to check out the possibility of this.  We were able to watch sunset on the terrace and stayed in so I could drink some beer (can’t drink anything and drive in Brazil). 

 

 

 

The plan is now to stay in Bouzios- although somewhere walkable to the centre and slightly cheaper.  Now most of the Brazilians are heading back after Easter but before everything was full.  Personally I wanted to head to Saqua for Tuesday’s swell but Maria seems to like it here.