Another fine week in social paradise …

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Making New Friends, helping homeless dog and some historic towns of Parana

‘Known for its eco-friendly design, Curitiba is one of Brazil’s urban success stories – with pleasant parks, well preserved historic buildings, little traffic…Parana’s capital is a good pit stop but there is not much to hold your attention beyond a few days.’ Oh well, we beg to differ, at least with the last part of the Traveler Bible’s statement. In the end we got our attention occupied for a whole week in Curitiba;-) Read on to find out why.

What took us so long to leave this place? People, of course, what else? One again we found ourselves in a very welcoming home of Curitiba’s CS-ers with loads on our agenda, with BBQs, concerts, pubs and some fine colonial architecture to see. Ju, our new host picked us up from the bus terminal and took us to straight to a local culture centre for some surprise entertainment. Initially she was not sure if we would enjoy this kind of thing but hell yeah, who would have not enjoyed taking part in Samba Music Competition for an upcoming festival?? They do it every year – teams of music writers and musicians submit their festival theme and a samba dance school committee chooses the one they want to be represented with in February. Wow, just wow, we have never heard and seen anything like that. It was like a practice for an actual festival - which of course we would not see this time round - with samba queens and others dancing, bands playing music, loads of tambores and the audience just enjoying themselves with a beer or a capririnia. Loved it ,Loved it, Loved it. Once again, how a typical tourist could know about such events if not with help of local friends or a guide? Not possible.

After that we were taken to a super trendy bar, Ju and Drako’s favorite for some nice Brazylian food and meeting with a family. We already knew at this point that our new relationship will be just great. We spent many days in Curitiba, walking around, cooking dinners and enjoying our time with our new friends. Ju was able to take us around the Old Town one day and even stopped by an University of Biology Complex that is located in a beautiful jungle like park, with lagoon and cliffs around. Trully stunning place. The town itself was really beautiful too, with cobbled streets, colorful Spanish villas and some fine examples of colonial architecture. It is worth a stop to visit this city, no doubt. And the Bible was right about something – Curitiba is a fine combination of green and urban with very laidback lifestyle of its inhabitants. It is pleasant no matter what.

We spent many enjoyable evening enjoying there. There was a brilliant BBQ night when we met some of Ju and Drako’s friends; Mexican night when I cooked some quesadillas football night with yet another group of friends (funny enough Ju and Drako support two different teams from Curituiba); Polish food and vodka night when I cooked some traditional Polish dish (Ju is a 3^rd generation Polish descendant so her mum was rather pleased) and some clubbing night when we attended a concert of their friends’ band. With all that was going on we had little energy to do anything else. Social aspect of our stay was amazing and we really take pleasure in it!!! The days were slow and the nights were late, brilliant ;-)

One day we even made a difference. When we walked around shopping street we noticed a really beautiful but very skinny dog. It was unusual on its own as dogs in South America may be stray but they sure look good. Unless…they did not grow up on the street or are ill and cannot move around. This beauty looking like a Labrador was young and looked healthy but was extremely exhausted. We called her up and she came around, wagging her tail. We decided to buy her some food and in the same moment I found 20BR/10$ under my feet….Can I called it faith? We could not find any dog food as there were only shopping centre and restaurants around but finally we managed to find some big sausage rolls and she got all 3 of them. We gave her some water and walked away. Of course she followed us home, but we thought that maybe it was good. Ju and her family have been helping stray dogs. Having adopted a few them we were sure she would know what to do.

When we stopped by their block Ju’s neighbor walked by and asked about the dog. Apparently her close friend lost a similar one few months ago. The whole thing escalated, pictures were sent on the phone, FB photos looked at and we all were really convinced it was her. The neighbor lady brought a collar and leash (she has adopted 4 dogs herself) and the dog put her head obediently into it. It must have been someone’s dog. She did not know how to find food on the street, hence her skinny figure or maybe waited where she was lost for her owner to find her. The friend promised to come to pick her up…we possibly saved this dog and it made our day, really!!!

The weather started to be really stormy and our plans of visiting Ihla do Mel started to be pointless. We also waited for a good day to visit the neighborhood historic towns of Antonina and Morretes (21BR/10$ to Antonina and then another 4BR/1.5$ to Morretes). We loved the feel of both especially Morretes. With their little alleys, shady parks by the river and loads of beautifully preserved architecture it was a day well spent. We had to rush out though as buses did not go very regularly back to Curitiba. We managed to catch a last one back this afternoon (next one was late in the night) and could still admire beautiful scenery on the way. What we really wanted to do was to take a train from Morretes to Curitiba which is described as the most stunning train journey you can do in Brazil but once again weather was not on our side. When the storm broke heavy clouds of mist landed upon the cliffs and hills and we could see nothing. There was no point in spending money for this rather expensive train ride (32BR/15$ each one way). There is a lot of great art shops with souvenirs in Morretes if you are looking into buying some and they have great prices too.

With the weather being rather on a bad side we decided to go straight to Foz do Iguacu and finish our adventures in Brazil. We had in fact an invitation from my former work colleague to visit her in San Paulo but we thought if we did that then it would be only short ride to Rio and then Salvador and other attractions of this vast land. We already spent nearly 3 weeks here and we should really move on back to our original track. We already know that we want to come back to see the rest of Brazil with Rio, the north beaches and Amazon adventure included. Not this time though. On our last evening our friends took us to a Bday party and then to a trendy club where their friends played some music. We could see how the young and rich party in this town – another valid experience. To be honest we had loads of fun with them that night even though it was rather late night for me (4am again).

The whole experience of CS in Curitiba proved to be amazing… AGAIN. We just loved the spirit and lifestyle of Brazilians. Even though majority of the ones we have met have European blood in their veins, their culture is very latino. In Curitiba we made new friends, who we feel extremely close to and we hope to see them again sometime. Being travelers themselves we are sure it won’t be long. We loved every bit of our time there;-)

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Photos

with Samba Queen and Beauty Queen
these two are apparently completely different titles;-)

party at the Samba School
we had to register with our passport at the entrance in case some crime was committed...

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Another great blog
It is all about the people and thanks for the story about saving the dog. Good job.