Dec 14

We anchored off Buzios, Brazil which we visited about 2 weeks ago.  Buzios is a peninsula about 2 1/2 hours drive from Rio and is known for its many beaches and is popular with people from Rio & Santos.  There are many hotels, condos and expensive homes and there is a large Argentinian section so Spanish is widely spoken as well as Portuguese.  Buzios was reputedly settled originally by pirates & slave traders and was a sleepy fishing village until Brigit Bardot visited it in the 1960s to escape the paparazzi, but a newspaper divulged it and the European tourism began.  It's lined with all sorts of shops, both touristy and upscale.  On our last visit we took a schooner tour and, on recommendation from others, this time we took the trolley tour which was excellent.  We went around to several beaches and up the mountainside for great overlooks of the cities, beaches and cliffs.  One of the geological aspects is that this is the portion of Brazil that was tucked under the western part of Africa when Pangea was the entire landscape of Earth and broke away 500 million years ago.  The rocks and minerals are identical to those in Africa.  We visited the area as well as a unique red sand beach.  After the tour we walked along the waterfront on Orla Bardot where there is a bronze sculpture of the young Brigit.  We spent a couple of hours wandering the streets and contemplated lunch however, as it's a tourist locale, the prices were extra high.  There was a chocoholic teatime where we again won trivia.  Before dinner the Krew Kapers, a show put on entirely by crew members, was again very entertaining, We had dinner with the Executive Concierge and Destinations (Tours) Manager.  The after dinner entertainment was another Playbill singer Marin Mazzie who, like me, grew up in Rockford, Il.  After the show there was a gathering in the theater exclusively for the Playbill group, but we delayed walking out and wormed our way up to Marin and had a fun conversation with her reminiscing about Rockford.