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Published: February 28th 2014
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Leaving SP marks the start of quite a hectic couple of weeks travelling. We had 4 nights/5 days there but from now until our pit stop in Buenos Aires its more like 2 nights accomodation and then a nightbus. The pattern goes - arrive somewhere early by the nightbus, check into hostel at some point, 2 nights accomodation then check out, leave our bags at the hostel then get the night bus to the next place. It can be a bit of a hassle I guess but when we add up how much money we save and how many days we save on not having to sit on a bus all day it makes perfect sense. I think our longest journey so far is 14 hours, but getting on at 8pm and waking up at 10am doesnt seem half as bad as getting on at 8 in the morning and arriving at 10 at night!
Our bus from SP wasnt that long and we arrived to Curitiba, a city inland and south a bit, at 510am. We had decided to take the Serra Verde express train, Brazils most famous scenic train route which goes round the mountains. With this in
mind, we had to get the 745 bus to get to the town Morretes, so we could buy our return train (it worked out cheaper and quieter to do the reverse route from the majority of tourists). We arrived to the left luggage area only to see the attendant didnt arrive until 730am. With nothing to do and only 5 hours kip under our belts, we thought we may as well settle down for a sleep! We put our bags in the lockers and set down on the floor. Looking back we must have been a sight, but it seemed the most natural thing to do! About 630am and a security guard must have started who came in to move us on, the jakies that we must have looked! Once he realised we werent actually homeless and were just waiting on getting a token all was fine, he gave us one then we were on our way. Gary was still feeling unwell at this point so I successfully co-ordinated all the buses (!) and soon we were on our way! The bus was another 2 hours so you can imagine how exhausted we were feeling at this point. Gary fell
asleep straight away but I managed a wee bit and the views I saw from the mountains were amazing. It was only a matter of time until I too passed out and fortunately woke minutes before we were due to get off the bus! Arriving at 10am and the return train journey being at 3, I thought we might have too much time on our hands in a wee town particularly as we had a mini casualty on our hands. I couldnt have been more wrong and we had a great day. By the time we had located the station, bought our tickets and wandered around admiring the place, we stumbled on a wee shaded area nearby to a river and we just sat and chatted, playing cards and having a laugh. Oh and never forgetting eye spy! Amazing the things you do for fun when you have some time. It was nice just to relax.
The heat was unbearable in the town for some reason. After Rio things cooled down a lot, and in SP things were ideal, about 27ish maybe up to 30 but nice for exploring. I dont know what temperature it was there but
well into the 30s and so humid the air felt thick and heavy. After our cards session I somehow managed a portugese/spanish/english conversation with a pharmacist to get gary some medication for his stomach and it seems to have been a successful trip. By the time we got our Lanche and walked back to the train station it was nearly time to go.
The train was a choo choo train - steam engine right? So I'm sure uncle Iain would have been fascinated. Quite old and no air con and i dont think it reached over 30kmh but the breeze was welcomed. The cold Guaravita even more so! In total the train took 3.5 hours to return to the city. The views over the Sierras were incredible, words or photos cant really do justice and Im not even sure the photos were great as I was hanging out the window half the time. Google images for better ones! Once we left the mountains we actually got a pretty interesting journey through the outskirts of the city. It went from seeing almost slum like housing to really nice areas and then back to slum conditions. The rich and poor divide
is alive and well in Brazil.
After our mammoth journey we were absolutely done in so at 630 it was time to finally get to the hostel. We were met with a huge house and a pleasant couple who ran it. Garys stomach pains seemed to be the worst in the morning and at night, so again he wasnt feeling too good and we just wanted to cook and get to our beds. After a failed attempt at finding the "nearby" supermarket we returned scunnered but the guy who ran the place said he had to go by car to collect some stuff so I got a ride with him to the supermarket. In the half hour or so we were away I got a great chat from him about Brazil, Curitiba amongst other things. In moments of low patience it was what I needed and I was so thankful for the ride as I dont think I could have handled walking all the way there again! He even gave me 2 eggs for my salad as the supermarket only had 12 packs. What a guy!
The next day was time to see Curitiba, a city of about
4 million which we knew relatively little about. I knew that it had been given some kind of Eco city status (?) and that it is hosting some world cup games. It definatly has a more European feel to it, it is most definately wealthier with much better housing and many government buildings there. they say in general that southern brazil is wealthier thAn the north, south being anything past sao paolo. They have lots of parks, sustainable projects and even have univcersity for all things green and eco. It reminded me of Bilbao. We had a casual stroll around the city, and I dosed up on my chocolate fix with a Brigadeiro - not really sure what it is but basically chocolate filled with chocolate. Did I mention the food here is amazing?! By pure chance we stumbled upon a gem of a park, right in the centre. Not only a great place to relax but it only turned out to be a mini zoo! First we spotted some pelicans then found a bird area which had all variety of birds. The animals you get to see here are really interesting because they are native and specific to brazil
who of course have an amaing biodiversity. After seeing some tortoises and going a wander we only went and seen they had a monkey island!
Animals never fail
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