We left the nice beaches of Morro de São Paulo behind us and took a boat to Salvador. In Salvador we had only few things to do. One was to send our winter clothes back home, have lunch and to make our way to the airport. This time our destination was Penedo, close to Rio de Janeiro. We had heard that when the home of Santa Claus is in Finland, hes summer cottage is in Penedo, so we thought it would be a good place to spend the Christmas.
But first we had to send our clothes. We saw where the post office was when we went to Morro de São Paulo and it was close to the harbor. We had sent packages already from Costa Rica and Peru, so we thought it would be quite easy...HAHAHAHHAAA...Wrong! Again with Google translate we tried to communicate with the post office clerk. It took over one hour to send the package! One package and one hour...! Luckily we saw that the postal code was wrong and we told her about it. Well...it was written right, but the post office's computer program does not understand that you cannot take numbers away even if the two first ones would be '0'. After a long time in the office we finally managed to send it. It was already lunch time so we headed with all our luggage to the HISSI and went up to find a place to have lunch. We found one small cafe and got something. Then it was time to order an Über to the airport. We got there just before a heavy rain and thunder. We had a nice 10 hours to spend before our flight to Rio and from there three hours with a bus to Penedo.
After a long journey, we finally arrived to Penedo. We had rented an Airbnb house from Reino. His parents were from Finland and he could speak Finnish and the most important, the house had a sauna! Reino's mother, Eeva, lived next to the house so we were more in contact with her and also she could speak Finnish. It was nice to be able to communicate without using Google translate all the time 😄 We knew that Penedo was started by a Finnish missionary in 1930, and there were quite many Finns that came there, so we hoped that there would be some Finnish traditional foods available.
The first impression was good. Next to our place we found a chocolate house 'Suklaatalo' and they had also a sign 'italialaista jäätelöä' (Italian ice cream) so we thought that maybe we find some Finnish Christmas food. In the evening we walked to the Pequeña Finlandia (Little Finland) to see what what they had to offer. At least there were many shops with Finnish names such as 'Joulupukin suklaa', 'Korvapuusti' and 'Joulupukin Aitta'. We walked in to them but got quite disappointed. We didn't find anything Finnish except the Finnish names. Some shops had some kind of bread they sold as typical Finnish, but we have never seen that kind of baking. Well, what can one expect when there is only around 20 "Finns" left in the area. 😜 The area was nice and with a lot of Christmas decorations though, but again we found some weird "Finnish" stuff. In front of the Christmas tree were two British toy soldiers that we do not use in Finland. It was anyway quite fun to see Finnish street names and text in different places. Well, this is enough with complaining 😈 we are in Brasil not Finland 😜 we just hoped for some familiar tastes at Christmas.
Markus' kitesurf friend Enzo, who lives now in Finland had introduced his sister Patricia to Markus in Facebook. Particia lives in Rio but is from Penedo like Enzo. On Christmas eve we got an invitation from Patricia for Christmas dinner. It was really nice! We were a bit surprised about it because we didn't know Patricia almost at all or nobody else from there. At home the Christmas is really family oriented and usually not even good friends are invited for Christmas dinner. We were wondering who would be at the dinner and would we feel like outsiders. We wondered also about the food and how much would there be vegetarian food for Edda. Well, we didn't want to be rude so we didn't cause any stress by informing that Edda is vegetarian on the same day as the dinner was. We had our lunch really late so that if there wouldn't be anything for Edda, she wouldn't bee that hungry. 😊
When we arrived in the evening we were welcomed by Enzos and Patricias mother Anne. We got a bit surprised when she said "tervetuloa" (welcome) in Finnish. It turned out that she is also Finnish origin. Her mother was Estonian and her father Finnish. The house was big and beautiful. They had also a nice Christmas tree and a stunning view over Penedo and Resende, the next city. We got champagne to start with and we noticed that at least the amount of guest is totally different from what we are used to. We were totally 23 persons and we are used to 6-10 people in Finland 😂 After a while we could hear some bells ringing in the dark. It was probably the bells of Santa Claus and all the children ran to see. During that time parents and other took the presents and put them under trees, bushes and behind the fence. When they were ready Santa's bells could be heard from the other side of the yard when he left. 😄 The children were really excited and opened the presents straight away. This is also different from our traditions. Usually we eat first and then Santa comes to visit and deals the presents, or if he is too busy, he just leaves them behind the door or under the Christmas tree. In Penedo we started to eat after the presents, maybe around 11pm whereas in Finland we are almost done with everything at that time. Well, not at Edda's family where last year dessert was served at 2am 😂
We had also a funny secret Santa game here. Everybody had his or her name drawn and then one could either choose a present from a table and open it, or, if someone had opened a present already you could steal it. Markus got a bracelet and everybody got a good laugh, but it got stolen so Markus got the chance to steal two good looking craft beers that one had got. But, surprise surprise, there were also others that wanted them, so they got stolen from Markus. He opened a new present, and everybody burst to laugh...and for a reason, Markus got a super girly ring holder. 😅 Edda got a Pink Floyd t-shirt but it got stolen so she opened a new one and got a Penedo t-shirt. There were funny presents and few good ones and we had a really good time. After this we had more food and talked with the other guests. We also met João, who kept us company and it was nice to talk with him. We left from there sometime between 12 and 1am.
The next morning João came to pick us up from our place and took us to a "secret" waterfall. Locals go there all the time but tourists do'not know about it. When we got there there were only two people but they left quite soon so we had the waterfall all to our self. It was not a big waterfall but quite nice and really cold water. 😜 When we left from the waterfall, locals started to come there and João told us that even if it gets really crowded at the small waterfall, they do not go to the "tourist" waterfall. The rest of the day we just rested at our Airbnb and had a very good sauna in the evening.
We had planned that we could visit some other place between Penedo and Rio, but with buses it had taken the whole day and we would had only one day time in some other place, so we decided to go straight to Rio. We found a good deal so booked one hotel for two nights before our Airbnb in Leblon/Vidigal.
Pictures from Penedo's little Finland
Sign at Penedo's bus station
But first we had to send our clothes. We saw where the post office was when we went to Morro de São Paulo and it was close to the harbor. We had sent packages already from Costa Rica and Peru, so we thought it would be quite easy...HAHAHAHHAAA...Wrong! Again with Google translate we tried to communicate with the post office clerk. It took over one hour to send the package! One package and one hour...! Luckily we saw that the postal code was wrong and we told her about it. Well...it was written right, but the post office's computer program does not understand that you cannot take numbers away even if the two first ones would be '0'. After a long time in the office we finally managed to send it. It was already lunch time so we headed with all our luggage to the HISSI and went up to find a place to have lunch. We found one small cafe and got something. Then it was time to order an Über to the airport. We got there just before a heavy rain and thunder. We had a nice 10 hours to spend before our flight to Rio and from there three hours with a bus to Penedo.
Trying to post winter clothes home
After a long journey, we finally arrived to Penedo. We had rented an Airbnb house from Reino. His parents were from Finland and he could speak Finnish and the most important, the house had a sauna! Reino's mother, Eeva, lived next to the house so we were more in contact with her and also she could speak Finnish. It was nice to be able to communicate without using Google translate all the time 😄 We knew that Penedo was started by a Finnish missionary in 1930, and there were quite many Finns that came there, so we hoped that there would be some Finnish traditional foods available.
Our house reminded us a bit of a Finnish summer place
The first impression was good. Next to our place we found a chocolate house 'Suklaatalo' and they had also a sign 'italialaista jäätelöä' (Italian ice cream) so we thought that maybe we find some Finnish Christmas food. In the evening we walked to the Pequeña Finlandia (Little Finland) to see what what they had to offer. At least there were many shops with Finnish names such as 'Joulupukin suklaa', 'Korvapuusti' and 'Joulupukin Aitta'. We walked in to them but got quite disappointed. We didn't find anything Finnish except the Finnish names. Some shops had some kind of bread they sold as typical Finnish, but we have never seen that kind of baking. Well, what can one expect when there is only around 20 "Finns" left in the area. 😜 The area was nice and with a lot of Christmas decorations though, but again we found some weird "Finnish" stuff. In front of the Christmas tree were two British toy soldiers that we do not use in Finland. It was anyway quite fun to see Finnish street names and text in different places. Well, this is enough with complaining 😈 we are in Brasil not Finland 😜 we just hoped for some familiar tastes at Christmas.
Two reasons for the grumpy face:
1) Edda had a task to take similar pictures during our trip, as they did in her bachelorette party
2) We felt cheated with the "Finnish" Christmas town 😜
Markus' kitesurf friend Enzo, who lives now in Finland had introduced his sister Patricia to Markus in Facebook. Particia lives in Rio but is from Penedo like Enzo. On Christmas eve we got an invitation from Patricia for Christmas dinner. It was really nice! We were a bit surprised about it because we didn't know Patricia almost at all or nobody else from there. At home the Christmas is really family oriented and usually not even good friends are invited for Christmas dinner. We were wondering who would be at the dinner and would we feel like outsiders. We wondered also about the food and how much would there be vegetarian food for Edda. Well, we didn't want to be rude so we didn't cause any stress by informing that Edda is vegetarian on the same day as the dinner was. We had our lunch really late so that if there wouldn't be anything for Edda, she wouldn't bee that hungry. 😊
When we arrived in the evening we were welcomed by Enzos and Patricias mother Anne. We got a bit surprised when she said "tervetuloa" (welcome) in Finnish. It turned out that she is also Finnish origin. Her mother was Estonian and her father Finnish. The house was big and beautiful. They had also a nice Christmas tree and a stunning view over Penedo and Resende, the next city. We got champagne to start with and we noticed that at least the amount of guest is totally different from what we are used to. We were totally 23 persons and we are used to 6-10 people in Finland 😂 After a while we could hear some bells ringing in the dark. It was probably the bells of Santa Claus and all the children ran to see. During that time parents and other took the presents and put them under trees, bushes and behind the fence. When they were ready Santa's bells could be heard from the other side of the yard when he left. 😄 The children were really excited and opened the presents straight away. This is also different from our traditions. Usually we eat first and then Santa comes to visit and deals the presents, or if he is too busy, he just leaves them behind the door or under the Christmas tree. In Penedo we started to eat after the presents, maybe around 11pm whereas in Finland we are almost done with everything at that time. Well, not at Edda's family where last year dessert was served at 2am 😂
We had also a funny secret Santa game here. Everybody had his or her name drawn and then one could either choose a present from a table and open it, or, if someone had opened a present already you could steal it. Markus got a bracelet and everybody got a good laugh, but it got stolen so Markus got the chance to steal two good looking craft beers that one had got. But, surprise surprise, there were also others that wanted them, so they got stolen from Markus. He opened a new present, and everybody burst to laugh...and for a reason, Markus got a super girly ring holder. 😅 Edda got a Pink Floyd t-shirt but it got stolen so she opened a new one and got a Penedo t-shirt. There were funny presents and few good ones and we had a really good time. After this we had more food and talked with the other guests. We also met João, who kept us company and it was nice to talk with him. We left from there sometime between 12 and 1am.
Santa is hiding presents 😉
View from their terrace over the town and city
Markus finding a funny Christmas gift😅
The next morning João came to pick us up from our place and took us to a "secret" waterfall. Locals go there all the time but tourists do'not know about it. When we got there there were only two people but they left quite soon so we had the waterfall all to our self. It was not a big waterfall but quite nice and really cold water. 😜 When we left from the waterfall, locals started to come there and João told us that even if it gets really crowded at the small waterfall, they do not go to the "tourist" waterfall. The rest of the day we just rested at our Airbnb and had a very good sauna in the evening.
Our sauna didn't have a lamp, but the candles gave a nice atmosphere
We had planned that we could visit some other place between Penedo and Rio, but with buses it had taken the whole day and we would had only one day time in some other place, so we decided to go straight to Rio. We found a good deal so booked one hotel for two nights before our Airbnb in Leblon/Vidigal.
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