Curitiba

Curitiba is a fabulous city. It’s very pleasant with lots of parks and tree-lined cobblestone pedestrian walk-ways. There is an old historic square with a cathedral, like you would imagine, and old colorful buildings - very charming. It’s known for being extremely organized and Brazilians think it is a model city, but not Brazilian:) Actually, most of its immigrants were from Germany and Italy. There are a lot of blond people and it really did feel different from the Brazil everyone imagines.

They have a tourist bus that leaves every 30 minutes – on time!! It goes to all the attractions in the city and outside as well because they have German, Ukrainian, and Italian memorials/parks to visit, as well as a botanical garden and Opera house that were very nice. You could get off and visit and then get on the next bus that came by. The famous architect here is Oscar Niemeyer. He designed most of the buildings in Brasilia (the capital of Brazil) and has a museum in Curitiba too, in the shape of an eye. The outsides of his buildings are always very modern and unique. They are not my style, but they are definitely interesting.

From Curitiba you can take a train down to the ocean and then a ferry boat on to Ilha do Mel (Honey island). This is what I really wanted to do. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating to go all the way to the island. But I did get to take the train, which was gorgeous! They built it in the 1870s in order to get products from the plateau, where Curitiba is, down to the water. In order to do this, they had to build right through the rain forest. The train swerves through the Sierra do Mar mountains past huge banana leaves, lush vegetation, and rivers/waterfalls. It’s not exactly the same as the Amazon rain forest, of course, but it was a wonderful way to be able to see something similar and have spectacular views at the same time.

Things I've noticed so far:

The breakfasts at the hotel are usually included and are wonderful! They have lots of fruit and cakes, yogurt, bread, cheese, meat, coffee, etc. I've eaten lots of mango, papaye (pa pa pa paye!) and pineapple already.

Cappuccinos in Brazil mean chocolate as well. So they are basically like mochas with whipped cream - not the traditionl way.

There are lots of cafes that sell coke in glass bottles instead of plastic ones or in cans - great!

People put KETCHUP on their pizza! To be fair though, this is because there is no tomato sauce on the pizza to begin with. I'm sure there are some great traditional Italian restaurants where we can find wonderful pizzas, but so far I haven't found one. I miss real pizza.

The napkins are SUPER small! They have these little plastic napkins that you need to take 5 of if you want to cover your lap - you wouldn't like this mom:)

To be a young Brazilian woman you must have long hair and long hoop earrings.

Overall, Curtiba is an excellent city; I hope to go back several times.



Murder on the Parangua Express!