| A Hidden
Wonderland |
| Búzios,
Brazil |
| by Elienne M. W. Lawson |
| December
2005
One hundred
and five miles east of Rio de Janeiro, there is a small peninsula home
to roughly twenty-five beaches, each with its own particular flavor of
paradise. For a thousand years, these beaches were the home of the Tamoio
and Goitacás tribes, who competed to outdo each other at blissful
frolicking in their idyllic surroundings. They drank the sweet milk of
the tucum fruit, which is similar to a coconut, and flirted with members
of the opposite sex while swimming in the surf. In the sixteenth century,
as the European powers cast their greedy glances on the vast wilderness
of Brazil, Búzios remained relatively untouched by the legitimate
forces of military might. |
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| Pirates, however,
knew a good thing when they saw it. French, English and Dutch pirates were
quite understandably lured by the pleasures of life with scantily clad
natives and gentle breezes. Upon comparing their new hideout to their old
homelands, where excessively modest and ruffled clothing was in vogue,
the rouges plopped themselves down in Búzios and refused to budge.
(If
you do not believe they have never left, visit the bar known as TakaTakaTaka
on Rua das Pedras and introduce yourself to Kaiser, the slightly imbalanced,
ultimately benevolent Dutch pirate who has survived on an elixir of youth
all these long years since).
The French
pirates got on famously well with the “savage” natives, and in 1555
France declared the territory “French Antarctica” and set up storehouses,
run by a more legal kind of businessman, for Pau-Brasil, the famous wood
from Brazil that makes, among other things, the best violin bows in the
world. Twenty years later, sniffing a source of income, the Portuguese
crashed the party.
Fighting continued
until 1615, when the Portuguese ultimately won control of the region, and
the saddest French soldiers in the world sailed away from their paradise
lost. |
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| After a few
intervening centuries, paradise was finally regained by the world in 1964,
when Brigitte Bardot, then one of the most famous movie stars in the world,
posed for photographs in Búzios wearing nearly nothing. Needless
to say, one beautiful screen goddess in a bikini declaring a small hamlet
to be an “aphrodisiacal wonderland” is more than enough to establish
an entire industry of tourism.
Now, you might
ask, how did I arrive in Búzios, being neither Brazilian, French,
screen goddess nor pirate? I admit, I ran away from Rio de Janeiro. From
the rain, that is. The weeks I spent in Rio were waterlogged and soggy.
Ipanema and Copacabana were abandoned to the rolling clouds and constant
downpours. My dreams of being a Brazilian beach goddess were evoking more
of the feeling of wet cat. So I fled at the advice of my guidebook no less,
which recommended Búzios as a glamorous getaway from Rio. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| I had never
heard of the place before, but I put my faith in the combination of serendipity
and desperation. Up the coast I drove, racing the rain, until at last I
came to a place where the sun was shining and the water was glistening,
and I thought to myself, “Why have I never dreamed of coming here?”
Armação
dos Búzios, as it is officially listed on the maps, is famous today
for being a pleasure town and attracting real estate investment from wealthy
Brazilians, displaced Argentineans and wanderlusting Americans. Pirates,
in other words. Búzios is not an undiscovered location, but provided
you do not come during the Carnivale season when the town swells like an
engorged tick, you can still get away with feeling as if you have escaped
the madness of the tourist pathway. I had never heard of it before, after
all, and there are bound to be others like me. If you come as an investor
rather than tourist, there are deals to be had, but they are deals in comparison
with other countries; the price tags here, whether for meals or real estate,
are some of the highest in Brazil.
Before you
stalk away in search of cheaper stomping grounds, be aware that there is
something different about Búzios: a lightness in your step when
you walk here. |
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| The air
is warm and perfumed with the fragrance of bougainvillea and flowers so
foreign to me that I have never smelled or seen anything like them and
so could not tell you their names. There is salt on the wind that gets
lodged in your hair as it blows through the streets and sticks between
your toes. There is the sound of waves gently hitting the dock, the shifting
groan of boards from the boat hulls, the clatter of feet walking down the
streets, the tinkle of Chopps beer bottles as the waitress carries them
to her laughing patrons, the sweet nothings of lovers whispered urgently
in overlapping languages, hangers sliding along metal bars as women browse
clothing in shops, the lyrical thumping of a large string and gourd berimbau,
and softly, almost imperceptibly, the soundtrack of a movie playing at
the Cinema Bardot. There are other sounds, which in another place might
seem less romantic, but here, even the buzzing of the mosquitoes and the
repeated drip from the leak in the ceiling of your room can get away with
being charming. |
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Offshore
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| At night in
the squares of the town center, there are young boys engaged in capoeira,
dancing and clapping to the rhythm of the music. What strikes me when I
watch capoeira is not just the artistry and gymnastic ability
of those playing, not just the unique and moving rhythms of the beat, but
the fact that everything is produced live; this is not the typical American
street dancer who moves to the impersonal music of a boom box. Capoeira
is not something you can do alone; it inspires a communion with your peers
and a deep connection between the movement of the dancer’s body and the
musician’s body. It is more performance piece than recreational activity,
and you feel a sense of belonging as you watch, as if you as a spectator
are as important as the man playing the berimbau or the boy kicking his
heels high above his head. That is what we globetrotters search for, isn’t
it? The place that you cannot only visit, but must become a breathing
part of, if only for a few minutes on one evening, before the lightness
in your step carries you farther down the Rua das Pedras, along the shops
and bars and kiosks and teeming streets that are alive deep into the night.
After all of
this magic, you have not yet even arrived at the true beauty of Búzios.
When researching your trip, you may hear comparisons with the Côte
d’Azur. You may cringe remembering the stones that poked into the soles
of your feet, upsetting your appreciation of the beautiful terrain. You
may hear about glamour and dread (or anticipate) fashionistas stepping
off their palatial yachts in thousand dollar jeweled stilettos. You may
hear talk of nightlife like Ibiza’s with trance music pulsing so loudly
your vision blurs. Ignore it all: it is marketing copy and has little to
do with the reality of Búzios. There are no private clubs with tables
priced at fifteen thousand dollars for a night as in Monte Carlo, though
there are very posh accommodations. There are certainly wealthy tourists
and residents in Búzios, but they do not flaunt their possessions
as openly as in St.-Tropez. When reclining in your beach chair, take a
look around at other people’s feet. More likely than not, they are wearing
the same three dollar plastic Havanais sandals that you are. People are
casual here, even in their hedonism. They relax casually, dine casually
and party like an afterthought to a sun-drenched day. Everyone drinks caprinhas,
a drink made of lime and sugar cane liquor, but it is usually the Americans
and British who consume in excess (except during Carnivale, when social
rules dissolve). You can relax and have fun here, and while there is
excellent shopping, dining and nightlife, fun in Búzios means, ultimately,
the beach.
Fundamentally,
Búzios is a place of beaches. Here Rio de Janeiro state holds on
a platter examples of what a beach paradise ought to look like, and you
are invited to make a selection. The beaches near the town center are not
suitable for swimming due to the high concentration of boats, but the schooner
trips that leave from the dock are affordable and fun. You will cruise
around the bay for a few hours while sipping caprinhas and occasionally
stopping to jump into the clear waters to cool off. Azeda and Azedinha
are quiet, sparkling beaches ideal for snorkeling. Joao Ferndandes has
numerous beachside bars and hosts many of the finest pousadas in the area.
Brava beach is the playground of surfers, and Olho de Boi, which is famous
for its “naturism” as they say in Brazil, is well-known for its nudist
possibilities. Peaceful and clear Ferradura represents what Buzios looked
like before the tourist boom. Tartaruga is a popular stop for schooner
trips, and it is easy to enjoy the long stretch of sand while munching
on your lunch of fresh oysters. Ferradurinha offers the opportunity
to dive off rock formations into a green sea, while Geribá hosts
a younger crowd on its wild, white shore. Every beach offers something
different. If you want to people watch, there are beaches for that, as
well as for surfing, diving and being utterly alone in natural terrain.
It is too time-consuming to walk to all of these beaches, so it is usually
necessary to drive or take a water taxi to your chosen destination.
Whether screen
goddess or pirate, when you finally get to Búzios from wherever
it is you started, relax, drink coconut water, jump in the waves, and outdo
those old natives at blissful frolicking in idyllic surroundings.
The following
are the previous articles Elienne wrote for the magazine:
To contact Elienne
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