More Blog Updates

Time to satisfy the curiosity of those readers who are wondering what's been happening with some of the ongoing dramas — or even just the day-to-day changes — that make up our life in Búzios. So here are a few blog updates:


The Vacant Lot's Not Vacant Anymore
(First posted on 9/16/13, updated on 6/23/14)

Two years ago the beautiful forest next door to our house was uprooted, sections of the steep, sloping hillside were removed, and construction began on the foundation of a house. But just a few months after it started, the work stopped. Whether it was stopped by the authorities or the owner simply abandoned it because he ran out of money has never been quite clear. All we know is that people carted off the tools and the porta-potty, and Mark and I have since been watching nature return in all its exuberance. Here's how the lot was left when it was abandoned:

And here's what it looks like now:

Hah! Now it's for sale!

For us it's just a matter of waiting for the next shoe to drop.


Bakery 1 and Bakery 2
(First posted on 5/6/13)

The bakery at the corner of our street, the one I referred to as Bakery 1 in the May 2013 post, is now being run by the owner's son, and is being slowly dragged into the 21st century. The old TV with bad reception has been replaced by a snazzy flat screen model, products are being upgraded, but the place still thankfully retains its seedy, neighborhood-y feel. Bakery 2, otherwise known as Golden Bread, is no longer the only place to meet and greet, and not because the quality has gone downhill, but rather because the formula has changed. They've gone the way of self-service. As someone who hails from the land of self-service, all I can say is that the place has lost some of its original luster.

Bakery 3

But more to the point here, Búzios has now been blessed with yet another bakery, Bakery 3, and what a place this is! Run by the elegant, French-born Valérie and her equally elegant, German-born baker-husband, this newest hot spot of European-quality breads and rolls and pastries and other baked goodies has some of our friends touting it as the only bakery in town. But Mark and I frequent them all, of course, 'cause you never know which side your croissant is buttered on.




Dining Areas
(First posted on 8/18/14)

A year ago I was thrilling to the plethora of dining areas we have at home — five, count them, five, quite separate and distinct, each one of them used depending on the meal, the weather, and the number of people we need to seat. Well, could it be that five wasn't enough? We have added a sixth dining area to the mix. Outside the living room, and at the top of the stairs which lead to the beach, our new favorite dining area is intimate, cozy, protected from the glare of the setting sun, and it reminds us of Provence:



Girl's Night Out  
(First posted on 11/10/11, updated on 5/13/13)



The institution of Girls' Night Out that my friend Cristina and I began some 12 years ago is still going strong. We still meet once a week (barring illness, travel, etc.), we still alternate languages, and — believe me — neither one of us has aged one iota. Really.





Watchin' Movies
(First posted on 5/7/12, updated on 5/13/13)

In the two years since our update on how many movies Mark and I have watched since moving to Brazil, the number has risen to 2,088. Hey, it's our main source of entertainment . . .


Man in Water
(First posted 11/19/14, updated on 8/10/15)



This man fascinates me. He is still there, almost every day, standing in the water in front of our house, quiet, contemplative, pensive. Yesterday Mark and I passed him on the beach (he was on his way into the water), and we all nodded a hello. The man will never know what a world-renowned celebrity he's become.

Girls' Night Out

Every world traveler brings a little something of himself to a foreign country. On a grand scale, an Englishman by the name of Charles Miller introduced soccer to Brazil, a sport now so identified with Brazil that Miller is but a forgotten footnote. Brigitte Bardot came to Búzios in 1964 and left behind an enduring legacy and the blueprint for the most sat-upon, hugged and fondled statue ever cast. Other people have left behind just a dog-eared paperback, or a little loose change in the sand. My contribution falls somewhere in between: I've brought the concept of Girls' Night Out to Búzios. I consider this my single greatest cultural achievement.

Not that women here hadn't always met each other socially, gone out to bars and restaurants and lived it up, had bachelorette parties, of course they had. Teenage girls have sleep-overs, their Moms take off for weekends in Punta del Este sans husbands. But those get-togethers are not deliberately designed as a counterpoint to Boys' Night Out. That was my contribution, my Gloria Steinem-inspired political statement. (Although let me say right up front that my husband is not a Boys'-Night-Out-er, he doesn't play poker, guzzle beer while watching either American football or Brazilian futebol, or participate in any way in any night out with any boys. So my Girls' Night Out was not exactly started as a political statement to get back at him. No, it was started because it was fun.)

I have been meeting with my dear friend Cristina once a week for at least the past eight years. Indeed, our GNO, as we call it (or GMO when we meet for breakfast, or GAO when we meet for that late-afternoon pick-me-up) is quite possibly the longest-lasting institution of its kind this side of the equator. The whole thing started when Cristina was recommended to me as a teacher for private Portuguese lessons. After three lessons it was obvious that we had considerably more to discuss than irregular verb conjugations! So we began to meet more socially. We told our husbands that our out-of-the-classroom meetings at night —  for dinner, with a little wine —  would serve to reinforce our language abilities. In some ways we really meant it. In some ways we knew we were on to something that would go far beyond grammar.  

Cristina and I have a real commitment to our Girls' Night Out, and there are reasons why it has endured as long as it has. We are disciplined about keeping our weekly date, barring emergencies, illness or travel. We are disciplined about alternating languages, one week Portuguese to upgrade my level, one week English to keep Cristina up to snuff. And we are very disciplined about respecting our self-imposed time limit of two hours. No doubt in my mind but that this disciplined approach is what has shaped an otherwise casual get-together into an Institution that has come to be known, and even envied, around town. 

We spent one whole year dining at a great restaurant called Patio Havana. We were really enjoying our evenings there until we realized that the waiters knew our orders by heart and stopped bringing us menus. Time to change! We've moved around a lot since then, switching days, places and times like two spies engaged in clandestine operations. For the last six months we've been very happy meeting for breakfast at a little neighborhood bakery. But just last week so many people stopped by our table — "Oh, must be Friday morning if you two are here!" — that we realized it was time to change again. Starting next week we'll be meeting at — never mind!