EVERYDAY LIFE

The strange, deserted island

The three photos we could not download at the last posting are now attached.

This posting, however, tries to give an idea of everyday life in the apartment. Because it is very hot , we have divided tasks up equally. Pat does the washing, ironing, floor sweeping, floor washing, cooking, bed- making and general tidying up. I do the washing up (viz, photo). As a result of this totally fair division of labour, I am now healthy and almost free of any chest pain whilst Pat has lost half a stone, In an unprecedented show of revolutionary zeal, Pat now proposes that I take over the floor sweeping! As this might seem too great a change of tasks in one go, I suggested that we put the move to the vote of our blog watchers so that we might gauge the mood of those who know us well (and get me used to the idea!)

Of course what I omitted to mention was that Pat also takes the photos. We had another amazing storm which, as it cleared, left a spectacular sunset with colours like an Odilon Redon painting.

BUZIOS

Life can be hard. Incessant sun beating down mercilessly: the sound of Brazilians rushing to the beach: the smells of fruit and ice cream wafting up to our flat. It was clearly time for us to have a week-end away from all this – so we went to Buzios.

In Buzios the sun beats down mercilessly, there are hundreds of Brazilians rushing to the beach … and the smells of fruit, ice cream and other food pervade the resort.

About 2 hours drive up the coast from Niteroi, Buzios is a peninsula surrounded on three sides by sandy beaches. Some years ago, Argentinians bought much of the property. One particularly handsome specimen started chatting to Pat whilst they were both in the water. Then he left the beach with his young boy friend.

Others visiting the resort include tourists ferried in from large cruise ships anchored offshore. These impressive ships have also impressed the local shops, where prices match those of central London!

So we decided to escape the hubbub of shoppers by hiring Roberto’s small boat.

The waves gave us the sensation of riding a roller coaster, and we all got very wet. What fun! Roberto took us to visit various bays where Ray, Pat and Ben swam, in the warm water. Then he sailed away from the coast for half an hour until we reached a rocky island with birds of prey hovering menacingly overhead. Perhaps more menacingly for us were the shoal of jelly fish surrounding our boat: so we decided not to go into the water at this point.

On the way back we came across a strangely haunting island. (It reminded Ray of Rachmaninov’s Isle of the Dead). Previously a five star hotel consisting of individual chalets, now the buildings are derelict. However, the owner prevents any trespassers from landing by installing one guard with a rottweiler! Nonetheless we enjoyed the best swim of the day there. Finally we returned to the jetty wending our way between cruise ships, large schooners, water taxis, medium-sized fishing boats and very small rowing boats.

(Here we would have uploaded a photo ... but google failed us and refused to upload photos so we can try to upload them at a later blog)

The food in Buzios was excellent (like everywhere else we’ve been). We visited The Banana Restaurant twice – definitely to be recommended. Ben and Paula discovered a much more expensive Thai restaurant where we treated ourselves to another excellent meal. Afterwards we retired to an unusual bar where nearly all the seats faced the sea.

(Again ... photos later)

Here we relaxed before retiring to our low-cost pousada (bed & breakfast). Now we are back in noisy Niteroi where life can be hard. Incessant sun beating down mercilessly: the sound of Brazilians rushing to the beach: the smells of fruit and ice cream wafting up to our flat … I think we’ll go and buy some ice cream now!

New Year

Ray resting after swimming at Itacoatiara

Itacoatiara Ocean Beach: still recovering on 4th January

Champagne on New Year's Eve before setting off for the fireworks

Ben, Paula and their friend Renata on Icarai beach on New Year's Eve

Strange sitings n the sky!

NEW YEAR’S EVE

The day started (as usual) nice and warm! Whilst I was still in bed, Ray was having his breakfast and suddenly saw the strange writing in the sky Oi Oi which means hello hello. It’s actually advertising a mobile phone company – but looks very good in the sky.

It is traditional in Brazil to great the New Year at midnight by going down to the beach, watching a firework display and, at the stroke of midnight, tossing a white flower into the sea and making a wish. There are 3 spectacular displays around the bay: the famous one at Copacabana where up to 2 million people collect, a superb display at Gloria, and on our side of the bay, a fantastic display at Icarai. The one big advantage of being at Icarai is that you can see all three displays at once! We tried to capture someone of the spectacle in pictures.
In the first week of the new year, we have been recovering from the excitement by occasional visits to various beaches