Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

There are three piers in our bay, though as best I can tell only one is used as a pier. That’s the Fishermen’s Pier, so-called because it juts out into the bay from the fish market and was originally meant to make life easier for the fishermen. This pier, a real tourist attraction here on Manguinhos Beach, sits off to the left of our house. To the right of our house is a private pier built by Barracuda Resort, a once-glamorous but now rather faded, resort hotel. Their Web site advertises this second pier as "a private jetty for your boat and for fishing." In ten years we’ve never seen anyone use it, not for tying up a boat, not for fishing, not for walking, not for sitting. Right between these two structures, and almost directly in front of our house, are the remains of an old rock pier built by slaves, which had been used for loading bananas during the period in which all of Búzios was a banana plantation. It’s only visible at low tide, when visitors and residents alike often walk out to its farthest point to hunt for crabs, take pictures, or reflect on its history. We never stop taking pictures of these piers. Here are but a few:

The Fishermen’s Pier

The Barracuda Resort Pier

The Rock Pier