Current Date: Feb. 16, 2002 (2:42 p.m.)
Location: Sao Paulo hostel
Subject: The Boat Tour, the Israelis and the girls from Sao Paulo!

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002

The next morning we awoke pretty groggily. The first order of business was to go and get some cash since we didn't want to repeat the debacle from the previous night. Once again, it was easier said than done. We tried a couple ATMs close to the hostel but quickly realized that they didn't work. Damn annoying. We decided that we had to set out in search of Banco do Brasil, the same ATM that had worked back in Rio (and the one that I had used back at the airport in Iguazu). Well, finding that bank wasn't exactly a quick process and then when we finally found it, there was a 20 minute wait for people trying to take out cash. Basically anyone who isn't from Brazil on this "Unibanco" system is pretty much restricted to this one bank. So once again, it took us over an hour just to go through the simple process of getting cash.
With that small task out of the way, we were ready to get to a computer to send/check e-mail. I had not been able to check mine since waaaaay back on the last night I was in Iguazu so I thought people might be getting worried about me. One funny thing was that I got this e-mail from "Sammy the tool" that he had sent me after he arrived in Rio and couldn't find us...heh heh. Anyway, I had a bunch of messages, I sent a few (including a group one) and we headed out to grab some grub.
We ended up going to that same place, Chez Milou, that had been our first stop the previous night. It still had a cool atmosphere during the day, although it was far less packed. Anyway, that place served these unbelievable crepes. First, the way the made the "wrap" part of the crepe was super cool but WAY too hard to explain. But they stuffed them with meat, cheese, veggies and this awesome "sauce" that I have no clue what it was. It was phenomenal though. We met this older American woman tourist while we were eating and had a really good conversation with her...but she couldn't have looked more American. It was funny. Baseball cap with a huge brim, bright ugly clothes, and big sunglasses. And people wonder we everyone laughs at American tourists. Anyway, we also got some info about taking an island hopping boat cruise and decided that was what we would do that day. The problem was that it was already about 2:30 by then because we had used up so much time finding the ATM, e-mailing, and eating. We were missing the prime boat times but there was still another at 3:30.
After getting our tickets for the boat, we stopped and had a beer and walked around the Centro a little. Then we headed back to the hostel to change. While we were there, we met this young Israeli couple that was staying the room across the hall from us. They were travelling with two other friends of theirs that weren't in the room at the time but would enter the picture later. Anyway, we hit it off pretty well and decided that we would all go out together that night after Tony and I got back from the cruise.
So we head down to the dock where this boat is going to take off and all the boats that went out at noon are coming back. They are packed with people and look like they were pretty good. It didn't really seem like there were too many people waiting for the next round of boat tours. Well, finally we got on our boat and we were immediately pissed that we hadn't gotten on the earlier boats...it wasn't too packed and there were not really many people our age on it. There were a few girls but they seemed to be a bit young. As I think I mentioned before though, there seems to be a lot of young girls around here that are with older guys. We were starting to think that maybe we are just estimating the ages wrong. Other than those girls, there were a few older people and two couples that were our age. Well, the boat took off and we are having a couple drinks. The ocean is absolutely beautiful out there. Blue as blue can be and the warm sea breeze in our faces felt good. It's funny because at the beginning of the ride we started to complain a bit because the boat wasn't that packed. Then we remembered that it was beautiful Wednesday and we are in a boat off the southern coast of Brazil...we seriously didn't have ONE SINGLE THING to complain about.
Well, the boat ended up going to another peer and picking a few more people. Next we stopped and picked up a few more people and eventually the boat started to become a bit lively. At one of the stops, these three girls got on that were from Portugal and we ended up talking to them. Two of them were named Marta...I forget the name of the third girl. Anyway, they were all pretty nice. Both Marta's spoke English and all three could speak Spanish. We spent most of the boat ride hanging and talking with them. The boat made a few stops at a couple islands where we got to get out and go for a swim. The water was perfect out there. We stopped at this one beach (I wish I could remember the name) and we met this guy who looked exactly like Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. He was just a beach bum who ran a little beer/snack stand on the beach. He was sooooo cool. He even sang a couple Aerosmith songs for us...apparently we weren't the only ones who thought this guy looked like Steven Tyler. Tell you the truth, I think he went out of his way to look like him. Anyway, he was a true character. If I ever go back to Buzios, I'm sure of two things that I will do...eat Crepes at Chez Milou and go to Steven Tyler's beach.
All in all, the boat tour was a hell of a deal. It lasted about 4 hours and there were free drinks. We met the Martas which was cool and got to see some great islands...and the whole thing only costed us SEVEN dollars!!! Anyone out there who is ever fortunate enough to go to Buzios...don't miss out on the boat tours.
We got back from the boat tour around 7 or so and it was time to catch a quick nap. When we got back to the hostel, the Israeli couple was in their room again but this time the two other guys traveling with them were also there. So when I got there I was like, "hey, we are still on for tonight right?" When I said that, the two guys who I had not met shot each other a glance like "Who the hell is this guy, and why is he comin' into our plan." At that moment I had no idea what their problem was and then the girl tells me, "Oh yeah, we also met these two girls from Sao Paulo that are in a room downstairs and they were going to go out too." Well, I immediately put the whole thing together. These guys didn't want us moving in on these girls that they had probably already laid a bunch of groundwork on. So there was instantly a little negative air between Tony and I and those two guys. Anyway, the girl told us they were going to go out to this club, "Zapata"and we told them we were going to take a nap, grab some dinner, and meet them there sometime after 12.
We caught some quick Z's and then it was time to get ready. I took awhile and wrote in my journal while we finished off the bottle of Gold Cup whiskey that I had bought back at the Wal-Mart outside of Sao Paulo. We decided that we would go out for an expensive, quality dinner that night so we headed to this restaurant that the two Marta's had told us about when we were on the boat. We were still pretty bombed at that point.
Well, on the way to the restaurant, we were walking down this main street of the Centro and I hear this guy call my name. I turn, and it is SAMMY THE TOOL from back in Iguazu!!!!! Amazing. So he’s like, “So, you were trying to get rid of me, huh?” I played it dumb…”What are you talking about?” He’s like, “That wasn’t the hotel name…I also wrote you and you never wrote me back.” So I said, “I told you I didn’t know if that was the hotel name for sure and I wasn’t able to find a place in Rio to check e-mail, so I only saw your message today.”(which was true) Anyway, he was kinda mad but I really didn’t care. We went our separate ways and that was the end of Sammy the tool. I forgot to ask him how that mosquito net was treating him:)
Anyway, after that hilarious encounter…which was even funny for Tony since I had told him the Sammy story…we went and had a GREAT dinner. We pulled out all the stops. A bunch of drinks, expensive meat, dessert…the whole nine yards. What’s amazing is that the total for the ENTIRE thing was about 40 bucks. I just can’t get over how cheap food is here. We had an AMAZING meal and it was only 20 bucks each. What a great country.
By the end of dinner, I was pretty drunk and pretty tired and started to hit the wall. We decided we needed to get out of there. On the way down to Zapata, I met this girl (who I took a picture with) and that whole thing fired me up. We went into the club and found the Israeli couple, their two guy friends, and the two girls from Sao Paulo. We all danced together for awhile and it was cool. One of the Sao Paulo girls seemed to be interested in me and it was obvious it was really pissing off the Israeli guy who was trying to step to her. I was loving it…this guy had probably spent the better part of the day on this girl and I came in a stole her in about 15 minutes. Well, he kept on trying to box me out from dancing next to her and she kept on fighting around it…I’m still not sure if she was aware of what was going on. Anyway, they eventually put on a merengue song and right there I knew it was over. I started dancing with the girl and then we started hooking up. That guy was totally FUMING and there was nothing he could do. I was pretty bombed so I didn’t care. In fact, I found the whole thing pretty funny. Well, after that, the Israelis had had enough so they decided to get the group to leave. The other girl from SP was still with the other Israeli guy so the girl I was dancing with had no choice but to go with the group…which she was not happy about. She told me to come by their room the next day.
Somewhere in the midst of all that, I saw Tony off to the side somewhere hooking up with some blonde girl. By the time the Israelis took off, I couldn’t find Tony anywhere. I stayed at the club dancing and talking to people for another couple hours. I ran into this group of girls that we had danced with at “Fashion” the night before. Another weird thing was I met this girl in there that was wearing a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt. How random is that in this little small town in Brazil. She had no clue what the Cowboys were. Pretty weird.
Eventually I stumbled out of “Zapata” in search of Tony or whatever else I could find. I think it was around 4 or so. Most places were closed or closing. I headed through the centro back towards the hostel. I asked this girl about any places that were still going and she told me to check out Amnesia. I turns out it was just down the street from the hostel so I went to check it out. I met some people milling out in front of the place having some beers. I ended up hanging out there with them for about 45 minutes and never even went into the club. By then, I was too tired. I headed back to the hostel to turn it in. When I got there, Tony still wasn’t back yet so maybe he was having an awesome night. Either, way, it was a hell of a day. Great boat ride, good dinner, and a great night out at the clubs. I was falling in love with Buzios. I was convinced I wanted to stay an extra day so I decided I would talk to Tony about it in the morning.

AC