After a wonderful few days in Ipanema, I left this early afternoon to come to the town of Buzios, which is located about two hours outside of Rio de Janeiro.   The car ride was certainly interesting!   The roads here aren’t like the big highway system in the US.   The driver drove here like he was in a F-1 or NASCAR race.   It reminded me of riding with my friends when I was a high school kid in Japan!

It was great to get outside of a big city (Rio has over 6 million residents) to check out the countryside of Brazil.  It was a definitely a nice change of pace.

Buzios is a quaint, cool and funky beach town.  It was supposedly “discovered” by Brigitte Bardot in the ‘60’s.  And, many people compare it to Saint Tropez in the South of France. 

I’m staying at this great boutique hotel called the Martin Pescodar, which is owned by a good friend of mine from Washington, D.C.  I love this place!  The hotel is so different than the ones I’ve stayed at in Rio the past two trips – the Fasano, Copacabana Palace and Caesar Park.  It’s not the type of 5-star service with customer service over the top – instead, it’s one with much more of personal  and unique style.  There are 18 rooms of many different sizes and shapes.   I’ll load pics I’ve taken of this hotel and the Buzios area on my facebook page.  If you’re looking for a cool and unique hotel during a trip to Brazil, I highly recommend this place.

The center of town is 3 kilometers away from the hotel.   I went there for dinner with the GM of the hotel last night.  Then, I ventured there by myself for a couple of hours this afternoon for lunch and to do a little bit of shopping.  A group of us are heading back there for dinner and maybe some clubbing tonight!   Peace.