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 The old TV with bad reception has been replaced by a snazzy flat screen model, products are being upgraded, but the place still thankfully retains its seedy, neighborhood-y feel.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.

Bakery 1 and Bakery 2

At the very bottom of our street is Bakery 1, Sonho de Búzios. It’s unpretentious, badly decorated, and poorly lit by ugly fluorescent lights. It sells beer, cigarettes and batteries alongside bakery products, offers a few precarious tables with uncomfortable plastic chairs, and always has an old TV with bad reception nattering away in the background. Bakery 1 sits behind a bus stop at an extremely busy intersection, and enjoys both a steady walk-in traffic and a solid stream of neighborhood regulars. When Mark and I first started using it, it was just to buy the Sunday edition of O Globo, Rio’s New York Times. And I wouldn’t stay longer than was needed to make the purchase. The place was just too creepy. But little by little, with the familiarity bred by routine, we started to stay for a cup of coffee, or some fresh-from-the-oven rolls heated up on the greasy grill and slathered with butter. We got to know Angela and Beto, the siblings who run the place, and whenever we feel like a simple breakfast you can be sure Bakery 1 is now our first choice.

cavacas

biscoitos champanhe

And we have discovered that they are not without some excellent baked goods. At 3:30 every day they put out about a dozen cheese baguettes, which have nothing to do with real baguettes, but are marvelously tasty, cheesy breads. Sometimes there’s nothing like a pão na chapa com queijo minas, a grilled cheese sandwich on a fresh-baked roll, and using a very good quality cheese from the state of Minas Gerais. And if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth, but don’t want something too sickly sweet, their cookies are perfect, particularly their cavaca, which balances its sweetness with herbs, and what they call biscoito champanhe, a personal favorite that reminds me of ladyfingers.

A mere five-minute walk from Sonho de Búzios is Bakery 2, Golden Bread. This is a bakery firmly set in the first world, straight out of Soho or the Left Bank. The decor is shabby chic demolition, the music low and jazzy, and the smells wafting from the kitchen guarantee high quality baguettes and croissants. This bakery even has its own Facebook page! No question but that Golden Bread has become the place to meet and greet, to see and be seen, to shake hands and do deals, or just to sit and pass the time with friends. Golden Bread is in the lovely Porto da Barra complex of restaurants and galleries and stores, and delivers consistent quality with lots of style. When I go there of an afternoon and order "the usual," it’s a sandwich of smoked salmon with a warmed caper sauce. Between my sandwich, a sinfully rich chocolate dessert and Billie Holiday on the sound system, Bakery 2 serves up my kind of heaven.

It has always been said that Búzios is a place where rich people go to play at being poor, and poor people go to play at being rich. This is indeed the irony of Bakery 1 and Bakery 2. While lots of newly upper-middle-class and rich folks flock to Golden Bread, perceiving it as the "rich people’s bakery," take a good look at the clientele of the hole-in-the-wall Sonho de Búzios. You may not know them, but some of those guys hanging out in their torn shirts and dirty sandals are multi-millionaires and billionaires. Not wanting to choose sides, Mark and I keep a foot in both bakeries.