The trip to the airport was an interesting one though so I'll start with that! Our taxi driver was an older gentleman who didn't speak a bit of English. After a long conversation with Dani (she made very well sure that he knew what to do with us!), the driver took our bags and we were on our way. We had arranged a car service to pick us up at the airport baggage claim area, but didn't know until we got to Rio that there were 2 terminals at the airport. So were we getting picked up at Terminal 1 or Terminal 2, we didn't know? We had a phone number for the car service though, so the taxi driver had it and was trying to call to find out for sure where we needed to go. Well, the number was busy, and he did not get through after many tries. So we're kind of thinking, he's going to drop us off and we'll just figure it out. So as we're coming into the airport, he stops to speak to a couple different airport personnel. You could tell he was asking a question a bit out of the norm by the responses he was getting, and after a few minutes we realized why. He was taking us into the parking garage. He wasn't dropping us off...he parked his taxi, and then out we went with him escorting us into the airport. He was pulling my bag, and we were just following along. We hadn't paid him anything yet so we weren't too worried about him ditching us! We went into Terminal 2, and he asked a number of people questions. There were several car services there, but none with our name on it. So after a little while, off we went, treking through the airport with the taxi driver still pulling my bag. He brought us all the way to Terminal 1 where we then looked around some more, he asked more questions of more people, and ran all over the place trying to figure out where we needed to go. We were getting picked up at noon, and it was right around noon at this point. And as we were walking along, we saw our name and our driver (Carlos) and we were all set to go! I am convinced that we found the nicest taxi driver in the WORLD in Rio de Janeiro - seriously who does that?! He wasn't even going to charge us any extra, but we gave him a very generous tip anyway, and I wanted to give him a hug!
So after all that, we got into another car and were off to our resort in Buzios. I thought that one of the coolest parts of the drive was right as we were leaving Rio. We drove through this industrial area, and there oil rigs and huge ships all around.
We arrived at our resort after about 2 hours. Our driver spoke 'so-so' English so we conversed with him most of the trip and enjoyed more of the Brazilian country-side. Colin slept; I read my book, relaxing vacation had started! We stayed at a Breezes resort that felt pretty new as the trees weren't fully grown. The resort had 3 nice restaurants along with pool-side dining, and an awesome breakfast and lunch buffet. We definitely did our share of eating on this trip! The pool was also huge! Our first night there we walked around and got acquainted, had a nice Italian meal, and turned in early. After barely sleeping the night before, we were tired.
Our schedule over the next 3 days went something like this...
Wake up around 8:00-8:30 and go to breakfast. After breakfast, get our swim suits on and walk the beach. After our beach walk, hang out at the beach some more or go to the pool. We read, played cribbage, talked, had some drinks, basically just relaxed. After a while, we'd go to lunch, and then after lunch spend more time at the pool or beach. One afternoon we went to the spa. I seriously didn't even know what time it was, we had no schedule. It was GREAT! Eventually we'd make our way back to shower up and head out for dinner. These last 3 days were the perfect way to end vacation!
Here are some pictures of the resort.
View from our balcony
Ginormous pool...there were several pools on this resort!
And the beach...
Our footsteps one morning
You can see the resort in the middle
We thought these rocks at the end of the beach were cool. We might frame this one in our house.
The waves were huge here. We didn't swim in the ocean at all, but enjoyed walking along the waves. It was just so peaceful.
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Holmquist Feedmill in Buzios =)
Colin and I before dinner one night
And our last night there! =) Having some caipirinhas on our balcony before dinner =)
Our stay in Buzios ended at 4:30 Friday when Carlos picked us up to head back to Rio for our flight home. After 9 days away, as awesome as this trip was, we were ready to be home, and missing the kids a lot. Our flight home was a bit more of a process, Rio -> Atlanta -> Detroit -> Green Bay. We didn't have any flight issues beyond the fact that when we arrived at Atlanta, 8 other international flights were arriving at the same time, so it took 2 hours to get through customs. We had just enough time to go to the bathroom and get on our next flight. Our trip home was about 23 hours, so when we finally got home it felt great!!!! Of course we have to extend huge thanks to my parents, sisters, and Kim for keeping the kids thoroughly entertained when were gone. The whole Pomeroy family had a wonderful vacation!
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