A Weekend in Búzios

Despite the weather not cooperating 100% of the time, we had a nice trip down to Búzios in the state of Rio de Janeiro over the weekend. It was cloudy part of the time which made it a little cool and it rained on Saturday afternoon, but, even so, we had fun. Búzios has several gorgeous beaches and the town is clean and very safe.

You can see it was pretty overcast when we first arrived Saturday morning.

But even with the cloudiness, you still get a feel for how blue-green the clear waters are!

Eric was told by one of the locals that there was a trail that cut through the forest between a couple of the beaches. We took about 50 steps and decided to turn back. Not even my husband was ambitious enough to try the trail (or rather, lack thereof. The "trail" - which reeked of urine - disappeared into thick vegetation just moments after I took this picture.)

We took a boat ride over to one of the more popular beaches (João Fernandes) and spent most of the morning and early afternoon there on Saturday.

The sand at João Fernandes is a really deep red. It's quite beautiful!

The boys went for a hike around the rocks while I laid out and enjoyed the sun. This picture comes compliments of Jared. I thought is really shows just how clear the water is there!


The three of us decided just to share a room at a pousada in downtown Búzios. I found one place online that advertised a special room with two bathrooms and space for up to six people. We thought it would accommodate us well! It turned out to have a convenient location and simple, but clean rooms.

What they didn't advertise was that the special room had a bit of a cheesy honeymoon suite feel to it complete with a round bed surrounded by mirrors and, as you can see above, a huge square mirror on the ceiling above said bed. Admittedly, there were two other smaller beds, but I still don't think I'd call it spacious enough (or quite designed) for six! Jared picked on me endlessly for choosing the "Honeymoon Suite" for him to share with us on our anniversary weekend!

We ended up eating at an Argentinian steakhouse on Saturday night. It was most fabulous!

We got out to another beach (Geribá) Sunday morning while it was sunny, but the clouds followed us.

We still had fun with paddle ball and playing in the giant waves though.

Jared told us Saturday morning that this was his first trip to the beach. I responded with shock and disbelief and he reminded me that he was from Iowa. Oh, yeah, that's right - the land of frozen tundra, far far away from all thing coastal. Would someone please remind me again why people live there? ;) (Oops, I think I'm going to be in trouble when the boys get home from work - I forget I'm outnumbered this week! And I'm sure they'll be ever so quick to remind me that I voluntarily moved there. And that I plan on returning. And that eventually I'm going to have to embrace the Iweegan beachlessness and bitter winters. But, to quote the great Scarlett O'Hara, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.")

Here's Eric, after deciding that Havaianas are exactly the proper footwear for a little rock climbing. Silly boy!

Upon returning home and reviewing my pictures, I discovered that one must be careful while taking silhouette shots of one's husband - especially when he is holding a paddle. Shadows have a way of doing crazy, sometimes obscene-looking things that can render several photographs too R-rated for the general viewing public. I decided to stick with the picture where the paddle is well above his head here - it's a much safer option, trust me on this one.