Week 191 · Ferradura Beach · Water Taxi · Azeda · Búzios Town
Alexandra had the idea for Búzios from her friends — I had never heard of it. We checked on getting a tour up but none fit our schedule so we decided to rent a car and drive. We didn't factor in "Brazil time" on the rental car pick up but we were on the road by 10am. Búzios is about a 3-hour drive from Rio and is a great side trip.
We started off when we got on the peninsula at a remote beach (Ferradura) and then went to one of the main beaches (Do Canto). Very nice when we saw a sign for a water taxi to visit the other beaches and an eager captain who would give us the tour for $30.
Armação dos Búzios is a peninsula approximately 170 kilometres east of Rio de Janeiro on the Costa do Sol. It was a small fishing village largely unknown outside Brazil until 1964, when French actress Brigitte Bardot visited and the resulting press coverage made it internationally famous — a statue of Bardot stands on the waterfront today. The peninsula contains 23 beaches of varying character — some sheltered and calm, others open to the Atlantic swells. Búzios sits at approximately the same latitude south as Rio de Janeiro, meaning summer (December–February) brings intense heat and crowds, while September — the time of this visit — is spring in the Southern Hemisphere and considerably quieter. The town of Búzios (Rua das Pedras) is a pedestrian strip lined with restaurants and boutiques and is considered one of the most upscale beach resort towns in Brazil.
His boat was basically a large bass boat with a center channel for drainage. We started off to the next beach with seven people in a protected cove — after we dropped off three, we then went to the last beach on the island and around a point into the ocean (from Azeda to Joao Fernandes). A near Naval Officer confirmed about 10-ft seas with the front of the boat burrowing into the next wave with the water draining out the back through the channel. Only about 5 minutes but very exhilarating — and the captain was loving it.
We did do a safety pre-brief and untied my hiking boots — had decided to swim in the direction of the waves in the event we went overboard if the boat flipped. No issues. After that, most of the trip was in the protected coves. We returned to the main area with a better idea of what to do next — but were completely soaked.
Once we saw the size of the town and the pedestrian restaurant areas, we decided to stay and booked a last-minute AirBnB — the hosts were great and Alexandra's high school Spanish was helpful in getting checked in (at least after we found it — AirBnB direct mapping took us to the wrong place).
"Still more stable than our water taxi in Búzios. The captain was loving it. We returned to the main area — but were completely soaked."