Travel blog by Päivi & Santeri Kannisto

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.

Desperate Indonesians and bad tourism We started preparations to this trip already weeks before the actual d-day by visiting Indonesian embassy in Buenos Aires to get an appropriate visa. However, they advised us to kindly make a 15.000 km round trip to Helsinki for applying the visa there, and refused to serve us. Hmm. We decided not to do it even though there are heavy penalties for overstaying. If you overstay more than 60 days in Indonesia, they will put you automatically to prison for five years. We were wondering what happens if you get very sick or kidnapped, are you imprisoned also in that case because you cannot leave the country in time?

Aftermath comparison: Argentina vs. Finland Santeri has been busy composing music. We wrote a farewell letter to our Greentower neighbours in Spanish. This is our last day in Buenos Aires. We have spent here altogether eight months and will head next to Indonesia to visit Santeri's old school friend and enjoy the wonders of world including early New Year fireworks and coughing birds (bird flu).

Libre PDF   |   In English   |   In FinnishEsto es una versión simplificado para web y no contiene layout o fotos. La versión completa se puede consequir aquí para leer y imprimir. Brasil Bra$ilGuía de turismo para brasilerosPrimera edición.La edición original finlandesa fue publicada electrónicamente en 14.2.2005 (Päivi & Santeri).La traducción al castellano rioplatense fue publicada electrónicamente en 23.8.2005.

We made a one day ferry trip to Colonia, Uruguay, to fix our expired visas. It was the cheapest and easiest way to do that. Colonia is a very small village that seems to exist only because of Argentinian tourism. It is not worth the pain of sitting six hours in an old, Soviet-style ferry. The Buquebus ferry was actually exactly like George Ots that used to cruise between Finland and Estonia. The physical resemblance was not the only similarity. Purchasing tickets required queuing in front of four different desks and the conditions of the ticket were inflexible. The company did not allow us to change our tickets to a faster ferry despite the fact that the actual conditions written on the ticket clearly allowed that. There was also a nice Brazilian-type of surprise when leaving Uruguay. We had to pay 10 pesos extra to Buquebus as “departure tax”, an additional surprise fee.

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.

Download or buy the book | Happiness test | Suomeksi | In HebrewThis is a stripped html version of the original book without any layout or photos. Here you can find all books written by Päivi and Santeri Kannisto.La HabaneraThe Escape From The Rat Race1. edition.The original Finnish edition was published electronically on 22.1.2005.This English translation was published electronically on 2.7.2005 .Keywords: The Rat Race, happiness, happiness test, meaning of life, philosophy, choices of life, art of living, are you happier, how could you become happier, happiest, freedom, free, materialism, materia, possession, property, money salary, real estate, savings, life, living.

Listen to La Tango Santeri composed. 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.

We spent a few weeks in South Africa. Originally the idea was to stay there longer but we soon found out that this was not the place we were looking for. Anyway, we enjoyed our stay fully, especially the possibility to communicate in English and to be fully understood. The two major problems which changed our minds about this otherwise great country were unsafe and attitude toward women. Päivi could not walk alone after dark and even during daytime it was a bit uncomfortable.

After one month of experience Argentina seems to be the total opposite of Brazil. People are honest and friendly, and there is no cheating. In restaurants, prices are as told in the menu (and you get the menu), there are no service fees or taxes added and you get the change back correctly. The city is safe and there are very few beggars. We mingle in quite well because people are white-skinned and usually of European descent, so nobody actually pays any attention to us. So, no material for another Tourism guide à la Brazil unless we will get an inspiration to write about the secret sexual back stage of Argentina.

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.

Today is the last day of Rio Samba Carnival for us. We are not disappointed to the carnival but not too enthusiastic about it either. We discovered that the value for money was not at all satisfactory and the whole spectacle is utterly over marketed. Foreigners travel to Brazil to dance in Sambódromo with bunch of other people, but nobody can actually dance samba, not even dancers from whom coordination is seriously missing. The focus is in nice vehicles and colourful kitsch costumes made from plastic jewels. Samba in Brazil means tourist attraction. Locals flee from the city to avoid the noise and streets covered with piss, shit, and trash.

We arrived to Salvador, Brazil's most African city. People are blacker than black and African drums can be heard in the streets. The Carnival time is drawing closer and there are a lot of happenings around. The old town, where we are staying, is situated on a hill with magnificent views. We came here from Olinda, which was supposed to be a great colonial city, but we definitely prefer this one with beautiful old buildings and a great Negro (black urged us to use that term) atmosphere.

[Photo album] 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.