Praia Brava
Nicole: can
you drink and drive in this country
Me: it’s
Brazil… (Therefore, a stupid question)
As a 26 year
old, aspiring athlete I strive to act as professional as I can both in person
and on social media networks. Ok more on social media networks than in person,
but I do try. I’ve spent the last three months training 2-4 times a day,
EVERYDAY with breaks on Sunday and the occasional Saturday off. I don’t have a
job, but I still wake up at 6:30 AM every morning, drag myself out of bed and
head off to the gym to train, whether I want to or not. The past couple of
weeks getting to the gym has involved an hour to two hour long bus journey over
a mountain. While I have never been confident in my ability to fly, the bus
drivers here in Brazil seem to be functioning off the belief that if they
accelerate and take a corners and speed bumps at neck breaking speeds they may be
able to fly through the air like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. While I have yet to
see a bus flying through the air, I have, on multiple occasions, thought we
would go flying of the mountain and plummet into the ocean below. (Note: if you'd like to hear more about the dangers of Brazilian transportation check out my friend's blog Tales from Deep Half)
After three
months of this and three competitions, I felt the need for a little break.
Lies. I was
supposed to compete this weekend in Arraial do Cabo (3 hours north of the
city), but the tournament was canceled so I ended up on a forced vacation instead.
No matter
what the reason was, this past weekend I was in Buzio, Brazil with Nicole, the
only other female in the house. Three months in Brazil, and this was my first
time out (I means seriously I don’t even go out around the house except to get
Acai).
The first thing
we did when we got to Buzio on Saturday was get coffee (I had been up for the
past 24 hours, but that tale goes in the untold stories of Brazil). Immediately
after that we walked down to Centro. Centro was a lot bigger than I expected
with a ton of hostels, places to eat and more Argentinians than Brazilians. We got
some cold beers and sat on the beach for a while before watching some break
dancers in the Plaza. I don’t even think we had dinner, we should have had
dinner because there was definitely several Caiprinha’s consumed that night.
Note: Caipirinha's are a popular Brazilian drink that has Cachaça, lime, and sugar. Basically, it’s
a glass of hard liquor with a ridiculous amount of sugar.
Me in my burge
On Sunday,
we rented a Burge (small car or big go-kart, however you want to look at it). For
R80 (about 40 bucks) they came and
picked us up from the hotel and we were able to keep the burge for 24 hours.
What they didn’t explain to us before paying was that it was a 4 gear stick
shift. Thankfully, my first two cars were both standard so I was able to pull
away without completely embarrassing myself (in front of the cute guy that was
showing me how to use the thing). After mastering the burge (because the clutch
was crap, emphasis on the clutch being crap and not my skills as a female
driver) we hit the main road (the only paved road) in the burge with a couple
of beers and headed out to the beach. It was my first time driving out of the
country and I have to say I’m pretty sure I was the only female in Buzio that
was behind the wheel! We made our way to Praia Bravia a beautiful secluded
beach with pink sand and…. More caiprinha’s. Perfect place to relax and enjoy a
book. So being me I went three hours away to a town with beautiful beaches only
to refuse to get into the water! According to Nicole the water sparkled and it
looked like you were swimming in gold. That in combination with the pink sand
made it a pretty awesome beach to visit.
However, while
leaving the beach we discovered:
1. We were lost
2. We needed gas
Which leads us to exhibit A:
Exhibit A: policia federal (not MY policia but policia all the same)
Exhibit B: answer to the question "can you drink and drive in this country"
Let this not be confused with the act of drinking. stoping. getting in a car. and driving.
This would be drinking WHILE driving
It was at
this point when we were somewhat tipsy and lost that I pulled over a cop car to
ask for directions. Not only did I get a personal escort to the gas stations
(again managing to NOT embarrass myself behind the wheel), but I also got a
phone number, and a “date” if you will for when Mr. Policia Federal got off
work later at 11 p.m. (note exhibit B).
After this
experience I kind of understand guy’s fascination with nice cars… that
definitely wouldn’t have happened had we been walking around with no need for
gas or directions!!
Further exploits
from Sunday night will be censored due to the fact that, “I’m a 26 year old,
aspiring athlete that strives to act as professional as I can both in person
and on social media networks”. Let’s just say the night involved several more
police officers a trip to two private beaches outside of Buzio and a return
escort back to our hotel at an ungodly hour of the night! Oh yeah there was 5 Argentinians in there somewhere as well...
Monday was a
day for recovery we got up, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then headed out
to Tortuga beach before returning the burge. Tortuga was another quiet beach
located next to some very posh hotels and restaurants. We had a cup of coffee
at a nice table the over looked the water (which was filled with people snorkeling).
Afterwards we had to return the burge and return to our mundane lives as
pedestrians! The fact that we were actually able to drive around definitely
made the trip a lot more fun since were weren’t confined to any one particular
beach/area.
Sunset from one of several overlooks
Another random beautiful spot were these guys were fishing
(never seen a spear gun before)
All in all
it was an amazing trip and a much needed break from living in a house with 20
guys all of them time. Well actually, I don’t live in a house with 20 guys
anymore, I live in Ipanema but that is a story for another blog post!
Praia Brava (with the pink sand and golden water
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