Búzios – A very Lovely Beach Resort Area – Lover of Wine – Travel along on our adventures

Armação dos Búzios (or Búzios) was our stop on day 10 along our adventure. Búzios is a Brazilian resort set on an ocean peninsula east of Rio de Janeiro. It’s known as an upscale vacation destination with numerous beaches. However, it has a long history going back to 1000 CE when the first indigenous population settled and created a small community. In the 16^thcentury, the first Europeans arrived. The next several hundred years had fisherman, pirates, African slaves, and various Porgugues, French, English, Spanish making inroads to the area.

Here we are on the pier getting ready for our tour.

Whales were also hunted to extract their oil, which was used both for lighting the city of Rio de Janeiro and for export. The bones of the captured animals were buried on a beach located next to Praia da Armação and has become one of the most famous beaches in Búzios today. Later, the area was used for farming and cattle raising as fishing has been prohibited on this stretch of coast. After prohibition ended, the local economy remained based on fishing and small-scale agriculture for a long period, until the middle of the 20th century when a famous actress, model and activist who started her career as a model, Brigitte Bardot took refuge in Búzios to get away from all the paparazzi who followed her everywhere.

Búzios was a perfect spot to get away from them and while she had a very enjoyable stay, her presence soon spread around the world and tourism began to become the most important economic activity in the region.

Three Fishermen Statues just offshore of Armação Beach is a perfect tribute to Búzios’ long history as a fishing community. At high tide, the full-size figures are knee deep in water as they tug together on a fishing net.

Today Búzios has a stable population of about 30,000 but during summer the population more than triples. It’s not easy to get to the area as you have to fly into Rio De Janeiro and transfer to the city.

There was a lot of cactus growing throughout our trip

Our ship was anchored off the city so our first views were of the beach areas and lovely city as it moved up the hillside. Once ashore, we joined our tour group for a bus tour of the area with stops at various pictures spots and lots of information from our guide as we travelled along.