Búzios, Brazil

            Friday, 13 Mar 2020 – The ship was scheduled to anchor off the coast of Búzios at 8:00 AM.  Búzios is a Brazilian resort set on an ocean peninsula east of Rio de Janeiro.  It's known as an upscale vacation destination with numerous beaches.   In the early 1900s Búzios was an almost unknown village of fishermen.  It remained as such until 1964, when the French actress Brigitte Bardot visited Búzios.  Since then, Búzios became popular with the Brazil’s high society, who wanted to escape from the chaotic city life of Rio de Janeiro and enjoy over 23 beaches that the peninsula offers. Today, Búzios is a popular getaway from the city and a worldwide tourist site, especially among Brazilians and Argentineans. 

Shopping Area

            After breakfast, Jesse and Sally went ashore.  Mainly, Sally wanted to look for Aloe Vera gel, plastic gloves, and face masks.  Búzios is very modern, with numerous shops and boutiques lining the street.  However, it was hot in the sun, and we mostly walked on the shady side of the street.  We found a pharmacy which sold Aloe Vera gel, but not plastic gloves or face masks.

            In mid-afternoon, Sally downloaded her e-mail, which included a message from Cruise Critics with an attachment outlining the cancellation of cruises by various cruise lines.  It stated that Oceania Cruise had “suspended cruise operations through April 12.”  Since nothing had been announced on the ship, we really didn’t know how this notice applied to our cruise.
            Before dinner, we went to the Horizons and danced for a little while before walking to the Terrace Café with Tom and Ruth.  Just as we sat down at a table for four, the captain announced over the speaker system that Oceania Cruise Line was discontinuing cruise operations, effective 13 Mar 2020, and all passengers would be disembarking the cruise ship in Rio de Janeiro.  Passengers who had booked their air travel through Oceania would be rebooked and notified of the final air itinerary within 24 hours.  Others would need to contact the airlines directly or their travel agents to rebook their flights home.  Since Tom & Ruth were on the around-the-world cruise, and had booked their air travel through their travel agent, they were totally shocked and not at all happy!  Throughout the meal, they were attempting to contact their travel agent.
            The cruise director also made an announcement that the boutiques would be staying open until 11:00 PM, and that any purchases on the ship would have to be made before then.  Earlier, we had been advised not to purchase items from the boutique while in Brazilian waters because a 25 percent Brazilian tax would be added on all ship purchases.  However, we still had about $900.00 worth of cruise credits which would be lost if not spent on the ship; therefore, on our way back to our stateroom, we stopped by the boutiques.  Passengers were lined up to purchase expensive watches, jewelry, clothing, handbags, and anything else they could find.  Sally said she refused to spend money just for the sake of spending it, so she went back to our stateroom.  Jesse looked at watches, but they did not have exactly what he wanted.  When we opened up our e-mail, we had a message from Sally’s son, Mark, that Oceania cruises had called looking for us.
            Although Sally had started to get ready for bed, Jesse talked her into purchasing a few items with our cruise credits.  Sally found a handbag, wallet, and two pairs of earrings.  We were standing in line behind Julie.  After a while Jesse suggested that Sally go back to our stateroom, and he would stand in line to make the purchases, while chatting with Julie.  He would use whatever funds that were left on the account to purchase a watch.  Jesse learned that the $900.00 that we were spending was a comparatively small amount, as many other passengers had cruise credits of $2000.00 or $3000.00!
            Upon returning to the stateroom with our merchandise, Jesse figured out that we still had $103.00 cruise credits left on our account.  Therefore, Jesse went back to the boutiques to make another purchase.  By then, most of the watches were sold out, but Jesse found a $100.00 coin purse ($125.00 with the Brazilian tax) that matched Sally’s new handbag.  While he was paying for the coin purse, a woman brought a bag to the counter that someone had left there.  The bag belonged to Julie, and the clerk asked if I would mind returning it to her.  When I stopped by Julie and Canute’s stateroom to drop off the bag, Julie wanted to show me how much packing she had to do.  Since they were staying in a suite, they had about four times as many clothes hanging in their closet as we had!