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

La Paz and The Death Road

We had two reasons to stay a few days in La Paz. One was that we had to because of Uyuni and the second was downhill biking. Markus wanted to do the Sorata single track which is a downhill biking tour through mountains and jungle with jumps, drops and narrow paths on the mountains. The only problem was the price. Because Edda didn’t want to do it, Markus had to go alone, and if there’s only one person, it rises the price. It had been almost double price and over 100$ more expensive that the Death Road a.k.a World’s Most Dangerous Road a.k.a Youngas Road. After a short pondering, Markus decided to do the Death Road.

Nice views at Death Road

Salar de Uyuni – surroundings we’ve never seen before

So, we finally made it to Uyuni. We had booked a one-day-tour with Red Planet. There are many agencies that organize tours to Salar de Uyuni. After reading the reviews, we booked ours with Red Planet because they seemed most reliable and consistent. We arrived to their office and could leave our bags there, change clothes, use the toilet, etc.

We were happy to notice that we received a private tour since no-one else had booked a one-day-tour for that day. :D We started by driving to a train cemetery. It had old, rusty trains that, according to our guide, had belonged to UK before and that USA used afterwards and then left there when they didn’t need them anymore. We climbed on the trains and took some pictures there.

Long way from Puno to Uyuni – how a strike changes your plans

For once we had a quite tight schedule for a few days. We had arrived back to Puno from Cusco to continue our journey to La Paz, Bolivia. We had booked one night in Puno because we could not cross the Bolivian border in the night. But then… We heard that there would be a strike/road block in Puno the next two days and no buses would come or leave Puno during that time. We had already been in Puno before and really didn’t feel like spending two more days there. Even if Johan and Maria would’ve also been there 😃

We discussed the issue with our hostel’s (HomeCenter Puno) receptionist and they told us that there would be a speed boat going from Puno to Yunguyo, close to Bolivia’s border. The boat should have left at 7am, but it left around 7.20am. The ride should’ve been 3,5 hours, but it was about 5 hours. We were expecting to come to a harbor, but instead we stopped in shallow water. Everyone was wondering what happened and then we noticed a small ROWING boat with two people in it. We then realized that the rowing boat was there to transport all apprx. 40 people and the luggage to the shore. The boat was leaking and the bottom was covered in water. We came to the main land and there the rowing boat couple wanted money. We had asked before if we had to pay anything extra and the hostel said no. We felt that it was not okay to ask the passengers for money – the couple should’ve asked the boat company for extra compensation instead.

Inca Trail – The longer way to Machu Picchu

After a not so well slept night, we woke up at 4.40am and packed the last stuff before starting the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with Bamba Experience. The typical Inca Trail is a 4d/4n hike on a path that goes through valleys and mountains. The highest point was only at 4200 meters so for us it was not a problem since we had been at high altitude places for the past few weeks. We had been waiting for the Inca trail with both excitement and fear. We guessed it would be really tough but with amazing views of the mountains and valleys.

View from Inca trail

Sacred Valley

We went to Bamba experience to ask few questions about the upcoming Inca Trail and to check if they would have Sacred Valley and Rainbow Mountain tours. They offered us a three or five site tours. They told us that the five site option would be quite hectic and that we wouldn’t have that much time in each place but the other didn’t contain the Moray (the famous round Inka terraces) nor Moras (salt mine/farm) and we wanted to see at least Moray so we choose the five site tour.

The circles of Moray we wanted to see