Tag: Buzios

  • On The Buses in Brazil – Auto Viacao 1001

    On The Buses in Brazil – Auto Viacao 1001

    In February 2009, to facilitate our travel around Brazil, we took three journeys on buses. The company we used was called Auto Viacao 1001.

    Booking

    Our first test was to book the tickets. We made our way to Rio de Janeiro main bus station, Novo Rio Bus Terminal. Looking around, we spied the counters that listed our desired destinations and waited for our turn. Mr Fluskey, armed his guidebook Portuguese, did an absolutely fantastic job and we walked away with tickets in hand. I think he was buoyed up by the queue next to us. It had five people in a row wearing yellow…FIVE! That would never happen in the UK.

    people wearing yellow shirts and t-shirts in a queue at a counter

    You can now book your buses in Brazil tickets on the website so you don’t need to worry about negotiating the queues at the bus station.

    Rosie wearing a blue top, sitting cross-legged on the floor holding a pastry snack, smiling

    Feeling very accomplished, we grabbed a quick bite of Pao de Queijo (cheesey, yummy bread thingies) and made our way downstairs to the bus stops. We only had to wait twenty minutes, and the bus was ready.

    A bus station with 4 white 1001 Viacao buses in Brazil

    Rio de Janeiro to Buzios

    The bus conductor checked our tickets against our passports and let us board. We climbed the stairs to the first floor. As we pulled away from the bus station, somebody appeared bearing a snack tray. They reminded me of a child’s lunchbox in its contents, biscuits, a little juice carton etc. The weirdest component was the ham biscuit. There were two crackers with a meat-flavoured paste in the middle; a savoury custard cream of sorts.

    (NB American readers, a custard cream is a classic British cookie, designed to be combined with a lovely cup of tea…or just several more cookies)

    The coach left Rio de Janeiro via Ponte Pres. Costa e Silva, an amazingly long bridge that ran past the giant Lego-like structures of a shipping yard.

    shipping containers at a port with a crane and ship in the background

    The bridge stretched on for over ten minutes (I know this because I spent a VERY costly seven of them on the phone to my bank trying to get my card unblocked).

    President Costa e Silva Bridge over Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro
    When the surroundings changed from grey to green, we relaxed into the journey.

    The journey time from Rio de Janeiro to Buzios is only just over two and a half hours and despite providing snacks, and the on board toilet, the coach stopped at a rest stop about an hour into the journey. I thought it was spotlessly clean, well designed and with plenty of toilets. The building was quite pleasing architecturally and had nice grass verges so it blended into the scenery. As we walked around, there was a restaurant that served delicious looking food and was reasonably priced (unlike the money sucking sadness centres in the UK and US).

    Brazil has almost no rail network and so a great deal of money has been invested in the road infrastructure. The road was smooth and well maintained with clear markings and wonderful roadside facilities. The coach is air-conditioned and the seats have an impressive recline as well a foot rest. If you are travelling overnight, you get a blanket and pillow. It is all very civilised.

    Read about our time in Buzios, Brazil – Boats, Bella Vista and Brigitte

    Buzios to São Paulo

    Our second journey on the buses in Brazil took us back past Rio de Janeiro, and onto São Paulo. The first coach was a single-decker but the seats were still fantastically spacious. It was a long day with around nine hours of travelling and a stop in Rio de Janeiro to change back onto a double-decker coach. Somewhere on our second leg, between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the coach stopped and we looked around in bemusement, there was no rest stop here!? We disembarked to stretch our legs and realised that the bus was leaking fluid.

    Karl in an orange t-shirt eats crisps in front of a white and blue 1001 Viacao buses in Brazil

    Waiting in the sun, we got chatting to a group of remarkably tall young men. Turns out, we were sharing the buses with the Brazilian Under 21’s basketball team!

    young men speak to a person in a breakdown truck behind a buses in Brazil

    After an hour in the sun, another coach stopped to pick us up. This was from a different company and didn’t have the same level of comfort. It was quite old and dusty and had no air conditioning so it was stifling. It stopped at a services with McDonald’s and we gratefully dived in. Salt and sugar were exactly what we needed after an hour sweating it out on the side of the road.

    Check out our odd tradition of dining at McDonald’s all over the world

    Rosie stands alongside tall young men in a queue at McDonald's

    Check out São Paulo, Brazil’s Big Apple

    São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro

    Our final journey on the buses in Brazil went off without a hitch, but we got stuck in an almighty traffic jam on the way back into Rio de Janeiro. We moved at a snails pace for about an hour.

    cars and buses blurred at night on a 6 lane highway

    We watched people moving through the lanes of traffic holding items for sale. Plastic toys, bananas and bottles of shampoo were all on offer. Some of these guys were barefoot and had been out all day in the sun and heat, breathing the fumes from the cars and buses. A very tough way to earn a living.

    Read about Rio de Janeiro Carnival, Brazil – Seeing the Sights

    Rosie xx

  • Buzios, Brazil - Boats, Bella Vista and Brigitte

    Buzios, Brazil - Boats, Bella Vista and Brigitte

    In the winter of 2008, I decided it was time to visit Brazil and attend its famous Carnivale! I planned a one night stay in the beach town of Buzios, two nights in bustling São Paulo and then Rio de Janeiro for the main event. I booked us on direct flights with British Airways and in February 2009, we were off.

    We spent our first night in a hostel somewhere in Rio de Janeiro. I don’t recall the hostel unfortunately. Catching our first glimpse of Sugar Loaf Mountain at the top of the street was quite a thrill. We had arrived late the night before and so it had been hidden in the darkness. We were just using our first night as a pit stop and so we made our way on the coach, later that morning, to Buzios.

    The Hostel

    Knowing I’d booked a hostel on the top of a hill, we jumped in a taxi at the other end. I didn’t fancy dragging my suitcase up the hill (yes, we still travelled with suitcase back then). The place was called Bella Vista Eco Experience, although I don’t think it had the ‘eco’ bit at the time.

    The Kitchen
    The bed

    The rooms were separate buildings, each with an open plan kitchen/bedroom and a balcony with a killer view over the town and harbour.

    We had heard that Buzios was a popular spot for cruise ships and looking out at the bay, we could a small ship at anchor, looking no bigger than a child’s bath toy.

    Check out Why Staying in Hostels is NOT as Bad as You Think

    The Town of Buzios

    Free of our bags, we walked down to the bay front.  We passed a vast restaurant strung with fairy lights. The waiters stood in idle clusters. I wondered why such a small town needed such a dining behemoth.

    More ships arrived as evening drew in.

    Along the narrow strip of beach we came across possibly the coolest internet cafe in the world. It had a row of British phone boxes in,  a very stylish effect. The sun was setting really early, it was dark by 19:00. I should have expected it, it being February, but it was so warm that my brain was in summer mode. That combined with my jet lag meant we were done with dinner by 19:15.

    They even have a phone as the door handle…great stuff.

    We went to visit the sitting statue Brigitte Bardot. Back in the 1960s, she spent a bit a lot of time here, sung its praises and put Buzios on the map. Suddenly the world took note of this gorgeous corner of the world and it was quickly being refereed to as the Brazillian Cote D’Azur.

    Mr Fluskey and Ms Bardot getting acquainted

    Walking back the way we had come, we passed the huge restaurant again. It was packed to the rafters. Every table was full and the waiters were now dashing to and fro, dishes in hand. A cruise ship had pulled up to the pier. The passengers, it seemed, had all disembarked, walked three minutes and stumbled into the first place they could find for dinner. This may be why I have never been on a cruise ship.

    Check out all our travels in Brazil

    The Creepy Crawlies

    Back at our place, in the morning, we witnessed a very similar scene, albeit on a much smaller scale. Sizable black ants were walking in a determined line across the kitchen floor. Following the trail, we saw that they were marching to and from the sugar pot. Not terribly keen on having a stream of insects in the room, we decided to move the sugar. It took an embarrassing amount of screaming and giggling (from Karl) before we managed to get it outside into a giant flower pot.

    We spent another happy 30 minutes prodding it with glee

    The Decent

    To catch our onward transport, we had to descend the hill again. With gravity’s help we figured it would be much easier than the journey up the hill. We had to come down the opposite side to the one we had used before. I’d vaguely wondered why the taxi seemed to be going the long way round on the way up but thought he was just being cheeky because we were on the meter. About halfway down, the road surface deteriorated into a thick red dust track, littered with large chunks of concrete. We had to haul and heft the luggage down the obstacle course which took an age. Thank goodness we had left early! This was the first time I decided that a backpack would be a good plan.

    Thankfully we made the coach, the first of two (well, three) that would take us to São Paulo and the next leg of our Brazillian adventure.

    Rosie xx