Few days in Sao Paulo

After Iguazu falls we had a few days to spend in São Paulo before flying to Chile. We had met João at the Christmas dinner in Penedo and he lives in São Paulo. He was kind enough to invite us to stay with him for the two nights we were in SP. How great is that!?

Many people had said that there is not much to do or see in SP and asked why we were going there. Well, we had thought we would go somewhere else before flying out but we wouldn’t really had time to travel somewhere else and then travel to SP so we headed there 😜

A happy hydrant greeting us in SP

Breathtaking Iguazu Falls and Das Aves bird park!

After city life in Rio, it was time to continue to Foz do Iguacu and the Iguazu waterfalls. We had only seen pictures of it before and it looked amazing. It was something that we felt we have to see!

A part of the falls from the Brazilian side

Rocinha - Rio's biggest favela with just a bad reputation!?

Rocinha is the biggest favela in Rio and there are different estimations of the population that vary quite a lot. The estimations are between 200,000 and even 400,000 inhabitants and it has a hmmm...well, not so good reputation. Nowadays almost all of the favelas are ‘pacified’ and the pacifying process started around 2008 with brutal force to clean up and take control over the favelas before the 2014World Cup and Rio Olympics in 2016, and nowadays they should be quite safe. We wanted to visit and see how life in Rocinha is. Markus had found a blog for few years ago about life in Rocinha and he noticed that the writer organizes also tours there. It seemed like the organization tries to help locals, tries to make living a bit easier, give different education to kids (such as dance, dj’ing, martial arts etc.) and show how Rochina is to outsiders. The description of the tours was promising. Not just normal tourist sights, but more of the normal life in Rocinha and local places. We booked a tour from favelatour.org together with Maria and Johan (the Swedish couple) we met in Peru on the Inka Trail. 

View over one part of Rocinha

Rio de Janeiro, Part 2: New Year’s Eve including thieves, Christ Redeemer statue and peaceful Jardim Botanic garden

Then it was time to celebrate New Year’s! We had read that most of the people wear white at New Year’s to bring luck for the upcoming year. If one wears black, one is doomed for the next year! We went around in different shopping centers in Rio to find the clothes and it was not an easy task! There were plenty of white clothes in the stores, but all stores were really expensive! If you think that the lowest level is at a ‘Tommy Hilfiger/GANT’ price level, you can figure out what the prices were in Rio. 😞 We don’t know where one could find cheaper stores there? Well, we managed to find something anyhow 😊

Rio de Janeiro, Part 1: Beautiful views from Sugarloaf Mountain, crowded Copacabana and other touristy places

We were both excited and a bit nervous entering Rio de Janeiro. Well, Markus not very nervous. Everyone had been telling us that Rio is a very beautiful and interesting city, but also very dangerous and that one needs to be careful all the time because there are so many thieves and people who have nothing to lose. Well, our (especially Edda’s) image of Rio changed during our 9-night stay in Rio. 😊 Even though the city is big, the touristic area is easy to comprehend and we felt also rather safe.

This is the Sugarloaf Mountain. More text and pictures will follow!

Different Christmas traditions with lovely and warm people in Penedo

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.

Pictures from Penedo's little Finland 

Drumming Salvador and relaxing Morro de São Paulo

Salvador

As mentioned in our previous post, we had first thought that we would go to Salvador one day earlier. But then we started to look what there is to do and see in Salvador and actually – not very much. Also, there were so many warnings on where not to go to avoid being robbed or mugged that it didn’t really feel like a welcoming city. That was one reason why we stayed one night longer in the cozy Lencois 😉

We searched where to stay in Salvador and we got basically two results: 1) Barra, the southern part of Salvador with beach access or 2) Pelourinho, their historic part of the city with colorful buildings. We had seen some beaches along our road trip, so we decided to stay in Pelourinho.

Street view in Pelourinho

Beautiful Chapada Diamantina and charming town of Lencois

After around 8 hours of driving on not-so-good roads, passing hundreds of bush fires and difficult gas station visits with language barriers we finally arrived to Lencois, a town in Chapada de Diamantina national park. We had checked that this town would be the best option for us to see the different places we wanted to see in the park.

On the top of Morro Do Pai Inacio

Driving through North-East coast in Brazil - Canoa Quebrada, Natal, João Pessoa, Pipa, Olinda, Porto de Galinhas, Aracaju

We had a few weeks road trip from Fortaleza to Salvador. On the way we stopped in several places, in some we stayed just for a night and in some we spent more time. Below you will see our route all the way to Salvador.

Cumbuco, Brazil - Kitesurfing, injuries and beaches

A direct flight from La Paz to Fortaleza would've been only around 2-3 hours. But those were extremely expensive, around 1500EUR per person! So, we took the 24 - 25-hour flight. Or it was four flights actually: La Paz - Iquique - Santiago - Sao Paolo - Fortaleza. Ush! All flights were with LaTam and all 4/4 were delayed by 1 - 1,5 hours. In Iquique and Sao Paolo we had to get our luggage, check them in again, and go through security and customs. Felt a bit unnecessary. In Santiago we tried to sleep on the benches but got maybe 30 min of sleep due to a) all noise around and b) the "very comfortable" benches. We asked if we could've bought entrance to a lounge but it was 49USD/person so we skipped it. But after all the hassle and 31 hours, we made it to Fortaleza, North of Brazil.

Trying to sleep at Santiago airport