A sleepy little beach town on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic,
Buzios was isolated until the big bridge across the harbour in Rio was built.
After that access to the coast north of Rio became easier and more people visited and development started.
Bridget Bardot discovered Buzios in the '60s (she apparently had a Brazilian
boyfriend) and made it famous. There's a bronze statue of her on the
waterfront. The peninsula is quite narrow, so it's easy to walk from one lot of
beaches to the other side - and more beaches.
Ferradura, the location of the conference, is situated on a small enclosed
and sheltered bay. Unfortunately, it's lined with beach houses and new resorts
and buildings are going up all over the place. One good thing - restaurants and
bars are right on the beach! However, the pressure of all the people will
eventually see it become less appealing and more polluted. The Brazilians said
that a lot of the building was unregulated and corruption allowed building
where it had been banned. I hope they don’t ruin it any more.
The ½ day field trip took us to sights around Buzios, which has high-grade
metamorphics and has been seriously messed up. We found blue Kyanite (you had
to peer really closely), a pink beach composed entirely of garnet sand and lots
of bendy bits. The backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean and soaring frigate birds was
truly magnificent. I found myself scampering up a cliff face at one point to
see some amphibolites and thought ‘Hmm, how am I going to get down?’, but
thought my two rock climbing sons would be proud of me. And it was easy getting
back, so there was no need to worry.
Bad Hair Day
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| Bendy Bits |
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