Brasilia, Goiania, Fortaleza, Jericoacoara, Ceara, Brazil

We have a new home, at least for next 2 months. We rented a condominium from Fortaleza, a 2.1 million people city in the North cost of Atlantic ocean.

Before that wondered around the north cost visiting cities and fisher villages, some better and some worse.

We went from Brasilia to Goiania by car and enjoyed there a genuine Brazilian feasts and hospitality offered by Pedro's and Rosanne's parents.

The actual round trip started by a flight from Goiania to Fortaleza. From Fortaleza we headed up to Jericoacoare, which was supposed to be a hip, genuine fisherman village. However it turned out to be a overcrowded, tourist rip-off with 10 times prices and short sighted merchants extorting tourists. After wasting there 2 days we desided to move further and try to find a bit more friendlier and peaceful place.

We took a truck ride to nearby city called Jijoca and from there took a bus to Amontada, which is a inland city. After spending our night in cheap, shitty, and actually the only available hotel room we headed back to the cost.

The next stop was in Icarai (the Icarai close to Jericoarcoara, not the one close to Fortaleza). That was a total rip-off place, even worse than Jericoacoara. The local pousada owner offered us a standard room with triple price and then tried to extract from food about 10x price ... oh well, we used instead a local, small restaurant, and decided to move again next day when the bus came next time.

Next stop, actually against our plans and hopes, was called Moitas. It was about 40km North-East from Icarai. We were there the only tourists and got a really friendly welcome. They offered us a room (with about 20 small green frogs, 1 grass hopper making nightly music and some not so small ants), 2 lunches, a dinners and 2 breakfasts with the same price we had to pay just for the room in Icarai. Moreover, these people seemed to be actually making their living by fishing, unlike Jericoacoara people. The beack was also great and we got a nice swim in the sea. With too little sun block in wrong place I got my back burned seriously, however this was solely my fault.

Next day we took a bus ride back to Fortalaza. The driver, who was living in Moitas gave us the lift. After getting back we stayed a few nights in a pousada and a hotel. We had to leave the pousada after the toilet got stuck. Funny, that pousada owners were not at all concerned about the shit smell in our room and took no immediate actions.

One not so nice incident happened 2 days ago. We are still suffering from that. We got a really bad diaria and probably some kind of salt poisoning after eating in local Rodizio de Carne in the cost road of Iracema called Rua de Tabajaras. Rodizio is a kind of meat Buffet, fixed price as much as you can eat. However those smart guys had invented a clever way oif making a bit more money by making all the meat so hell of salty, that customers were forced to order A LOT of extra drinks. This nice scheme made both of us very sick.

Somehow we have started to wonder if most Brazilians are scum bags, naturally excluding our friends and the friendly Moitas people.

Oh well, after all we ended up to renting a condominium with a stove for 2 months. So, now we have officially again an address until our next move, which is likely to be the Samba carnival of Rio de Janeiro, and after that Argentina.

Be well! I gotta stop now because Päivi is dying of hunger and want some bloody meat.

Country: Brazil Keywords: Brasilia, Goiania, Fortaleza, Jericoacoara, Ceara, Brazil, Icarai, Moitas, Rodizio, Rua de Tabajaras, Iracema, Pousada .

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Visiting Pedro & Rosana

Our first day in Brazil. Pedro and Roseanne took us to a sightseeing through monumental city. The best part of the tour was - of course - a stop at a lovely restaurant by the lake Paranoa. We started to learn Portuguese by ordering "dois picanhas sangreados". The first round was well cooked but the next one succeeded.

Roseanne's sister and her husband plus husband's brother with his girlfriend joined us for a while. Unfortunately our Portuguese is not enough for a homely conversation yet.

Pedro helped us to buy a prepaid sim card which should work in most South American countries. We tried it by sending two sms messages to Finland to our parents and apparently it worked.

In the evening we relaxed at Pedro´s house and drank red wine. After that, a good night's sleep was guaranteed.

Now we are waiting for Pedro to come to lunch our and take us to the bank. We have to exchange some reales and open a bank account. Also a Lonely Planet would be needed.

We are likely to head North-East and drive down the coast looking for nice beaches and bungalows to stay in. The target is to reach Rio by the carnival time to meet there Pedro and Roseanne.

Country: Brazil Keywords: Paranoa, Brazil, Brasilia, Pedro, Rosana.

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Arriving to Brasilia, Brazil

We arrived last night at Brazil, Brazil. Being tired to terminal and airport life we have decided not to fly again soon. Brazil was the first and the only planned destination of our journey.

Pedro was waiting for us in the airport together with his wife Rosana. It was great to discover that they had not changed at all.

Actually people don't change and they can't change them self. It seems to be us who change the perception of ourselves and support that change by thinking that other people change. A good reason for a little paranoia concerning your friends, huh? :) Not.

We have been talking about going around South-America by car, but let's see. Better enjoy the hospitality of Pedro and see Brazil first. You never know if it's the place we have been seeking for to settle down.

It's around 7am local time. Hard to get rid of working rhythm and realise that I don't have to recover from jet lag instantly. Better go back to sleep with my wife.

See you,

Santeri

Country: Brazil Keywords: Brazil, Brasilia, Airport, Rosana, Pedro, South-America.

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From Amsterdam to Brazil

Here are a few photos from our honeymoon in Amsterdam.

We left our finger prints and photographs to the US while transiting to Sao Paolo. They also wanted to test the smell of our socks by making us to remove shoes, funny people, quite paranoid.

Had a nice wedding night in a boat home in Amsterdam, that was fun. Also coffee in coffee shop was nice (see the picture).

We finally left Amsterdam 1 day late thanks to our flight carrier delay causing us to miss the flight. Better avoid Continental airlines in future. In USA everything is very big, this seems to apply to stupidity as well. Oh well, we don´t have to go there again, anyway ...

Have fun and greetings from Sao Paolo airport (there are some more pictures in the album about that).

Santeri & Päivi

Country: Brazil, Country: Netherlands Keywords: Brazil, Amsterdam, Sao Paolo, Continental airlines, Coffee shop, joint, smoking, pot, USA.

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