Days 6-7 (17 and 18 November)

On Saturday we went to the botanic garden, which is a huge and beautiful park where we spent all morning walking around. The entrance fee is 15 reais per person but it is worth a visit. We were amazed by the bamboo forests and the orchids. After the garden we walk to the Lagoa Rodrigues de Freitas where we got a bus and then an Uber to the coach station.

The first idea was to get a coach to Búzios, where we were going to spend the next two days, but then we realised that Blablacar is working here in Brazil and the price was half of the bus ticket. So the pick up point was a petrol station next to the coach station and the area around looked very dodgy and dirty. While waiting there for the driver a police car came with all the windows open and four armed men were inside holding huge assault rifles pointing out the windows. They stopped at the petrol station and got out of the car with their weapons. They just stayed there for 5 minutes but we were shocked until they left.

Soon after that the driver arrived, he was travelling with his wife and two kids and he does this trip everyday to make some money. He has a small van with 8 seats in it but that day we were 11 people in there! The van was in a very bad condition, the driver told me that it was adapted to work with a gas called GNV which is very popular in Brazil because is much cheaper than petrol.

After a three hours ride through bumpy roads we arrived at Búzios around 22h, where we booked an airbnb for two nights. I knew from the pictures that there was a swimming pool in the house and it looked good, but when we finally arrived there it was much better than expected. It turned out to be a recently opened hostel (just 5 days before we arrived) managed by Laura and Mauro, a young Argentinian couple who also travelled for a year as we are doing, so we talked about our travels for hours and became good friends. The house is a former residence of the footballer Romario and it has a big garden swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, a big TV with PS4… The atmosphere there is very laid back and friendly and they gave us all the local tips to visit the area.

So on Sunday, as per Laura's advice, we decided to wake up very early to visit the beaches in Arraial do Cabo. We got a bus close to the hostel around 7am and we expected to be there in an hour but the traffic was terrible so we finally arrived at 9.30am!

So we head to the village’s harbour where we got a boat tour around Ilha do Farol and Praia Pontal do Atalaia. We tried to compare prices for the boat as we were told the cost was around 30,but we didn't managed to get it cheaper than 50 reais + 5 for an environment charge. The beach was nice, but it was completely overcrowded.