Travels of Päivi and Santeri

These photos are about our wedding anniversary in Sydney, Australia. The following review was originally posted to Lonely Planet’s thorn tree forum, but it has expired. The photos related to that review are at the end of the story.

Bad timing. We discovered desperate Indonesians and bad tourism when visiting Bali and Gili Air right after the Kuta-beach bombings.

Is time money? People have to sell less time in Buenos Aires to buy the same amount of time than in Helsinki.

Lee Brasil Bra$il! - Guía de turismo para brasileros. Queremos recordarte que esta guía es sólo para los brasileros que trabajan con los turistas.

Argentinians want to be respectable, but breaking promises and being always very late is considered OK because it is “relaxed”.

Dear friends, We have been busy translating La Habanera into English . It´s ready! Päivi has also started to translate our Brazilian tourist guide book into Spanish. It takes more time and will be published later. The Pätölä satire (in Finnish only, sorry) has now been wholly released.

This is a travel book of three different journeys. All of them are tied to each other and happening in the same place, at the same time. They are: the journey into ourselves, the journey to the other side of the world, and the journey to find the meaning of life outside Rat Race.

We have settled down in Buenos Aires and will stay here as long as it feels good. We have a nice apartment, new friends and an easy-going lifestyle so there is absolutely no need to hurry onwards. Besides, our New Year promise devotes us not to develop ourselves in any way and travelling further might compromise that promise somehow. And there is a lot to see in Argentina itself.

Visiting Cape Town and travelling around Winelands, Cape peninsula and Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

After one month Argentina seems to be the total opposite of Brazil: people are honest and friendly, and there is no cheating.

So long, Brazil! Our very last day in Brazil: 9.2.2004. 02:00 Two beggars asked for a cigarette in Copacabana, Rio. Santeri said no as usual. The beggars started to behave aggressively and grabbed Santeri's hand. We escaped unharmed.

The last day of Samba Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The value for money was too satisfactory and the spectacle is was over marketed.

Salvador de Bahia is Brazil's most African city. As the Carnival time is drawing closer, you can see it in the photos.

We just spent three relaxing days in a lovely beach village Gaibo which is situated some 30 kilometres south of Recife. The trip to the place was not enjoyable, though. We used four vehicles: bus, metro, diesel tram, and another bus. It took us half a day to get there from Recife.

Santeri´s forewords: oh well, after reading this text made by Päivi I remembered again the Finnish way of being happy with someone else's problems and drawbacks. Hope this text makes our Finnish friends happy. Frankly I have to add here that we have had hell of a nice time here in Fortaleza and enjoyed every moment wholeheartedly.