2007 - our year off

Well, in fact we are leaving Brazil today, but at least i wanted to give you a quick update on what we have been up to since beautiful Rio de Janeiro. Just to make you a little bit jealous - it is still summer in Brazil though the clocks have been changed and i don´t know whether it is due to my travel partner, but it still hasn´t rained since we arrived. This is not normal as it always rains when i travel - even if it is only a tiny bit. Time difference to the UK is 3hrs at the mo.

After a week in Rio we decided to head somewhere close, but nice and i decided to head for Buzios which i visited with Simon in 2005. It is a peninsula - 3hrs bus ride from Rio (approx. 100km) with 25 different beaches like Geriba (where we stayed), Ossos, Orla Bardot ....all sandy - some for walking, canoeing, running, surfing and i must admit - shame on me that i forgot how beautiful this place was/is. BB came here in the 60´s and the locals must have loved her, hence beaches, pousadas and restaurants are called after her.

The Lonely Planet calls Buzios the St. Tropez of Brazil, well i have never made it to St. Tropez, but you can feel that there is some money around - fine restaurants, posh pousadas and some affordable hostels where we stayed for the first 2 nights, but hated the noise of the main street so much that we moved to a much better pousada after 2 days which was only a couple of REAIS more expensive.

We decided to head to a different beach every day, tried to be a little bit sporty, but mainly started to chill and get some sleep which wasn´t always that easy. ME ! Miss, i can sleep at any time in any place, had some sort of insomnia after a mosquito attack the night before, resulting in about 7 bites on my face. Not a pretty picture, but things are back to normal and mum somehow doesn´t mind an ugly daughter...

Traveling Brazil (also, some sort of Alzheimer in my body) is more difficult than i remembered. OK, Rio was full of tourists, but i reckon most of them on organised trips and yes - heaps of Aussies in our hostel if i got the accent right, but hardly any foreign tourists in Buzios and as a matter of fact, nobody and that is nobody speaks any english and if lucky understands 5 words of spanish. Hence, we haven´t really made any friends or had any interesting conversations about the beauty of Brazil or the amazing and shocking history of this massive country. Surprisingly, they allow europeans / portuguese into this country after what was done to them.

OK guys - that´s it for now. Looking forward to many messages from back home. Love Lejla