A little known place that would be ideal for vacation

A Little Known Place that would be ideal for vacation

Paris ! Symbol of romance and love . Vienna ! Home of music and culture . New York ! The city that never sleeps . Rio de Janeiro Football , Copacabana and carnival . Everybody knows these famous places , many have been there already , and those who still did not have the chance are most probably dreaming of a future visit and unforgettable holidays

And Penedo ? Who dreams of a vacation in Penedo ? And above all , what and where is Penedo ? Almost nobody knows . Almost nobody even cares . And

almost nobody has ever dreamt to spend some holidays there . What a shame ! Ok , Penedo is not well known , is even sadly neglected and ignored by most of the world 's population . But this is not what that place deserves . Let me explain why , and share my memories of a trip to Penedo I did a few months ago

Penedo is a cute little town in Brazil , not very far from its famous and big neighbour Rio de Janeiro . It is just about 200km or 2 .5 hours by car and one leaves behind the impressive and pulsating atmosphere of Rio with its beaches and numerous well-known sights and reaches Penedo with nothing even close to famousness . However , it is one of the most beautiful and weirdest places I 've ever seen and represents an ideal destination for relaxing vacations in wonderful nature

The city started with a curious history when it was settled by Finnish immigrants in 1929 . Its founder Toivo Uuskallio came there with his wife Liisa and a group of like-minded people with the idea to build a community that could live in peace and harmony with nature , including a strict vegan diet . He bought a farm from a local Monastery and soon the small group of settlers built up a village composed of the typical Scandinavian style wooden houses and started to plant corn , bananas flowers and loofahs . During the next decades more settlers from Finland followed and the community gradually gave up the vegan diet and started to farm dairy , pigs and fowl . Soon , also tourism became an alternative to farming and it was the founders wife Liisa herself who opened a first hostel in the settlement . Another curious fact about Penedo is that the city is the origin of Finnish sauna in Brazil ! Because of simultaneous development of massages and health treatments for visitors , the place can therefore be called Brazil 's first spa as well

Today the city offers still wonderful nature with forest trails waterfalls and fresh mountain air , with many possibilities to do trekking , cycling and horseback riding . In the picturesque scenery of the city centre , many shops sell regional food as well as handicraft artwork and tapestry . Calm and cheap hostels as well as good restaurants offering Brazilian , Scandinavian , German , Italian and French specialities make the place altogether an ideal spot for nature lovers adventure seekers and gourmets . And finally , weird places can be found too . Or would anybody...