Oi Brazil!

---

Brazil scored immediate brownie points with its colloquial greeting of Oi - which I have enjoyed saying to all and sundry.

We choose to visit Curitiba simply because it was a half way point between Iguazu and Rio. While a beautiful town I got the feeling that it is not really visited by many tourists. We were certainly somewhat of a novely - the bakers gave us a free diary, the bus station attendent gave us oranges and we definatley got bigger portions in the restaurants. This could of course be the friendly nature of Brazilians but no one else seemed to be getting this treatment.

As well as a great place for freebies Curitiba is the start of what is described as Brazil´s most beautiful train journey - however our plans to take the train were scuppered by floods which have affected large parts of the region. Not to be deterred we caught the bus and had an extremely picturesque journey along winding roads, past waterfalls and through beautiful rain forest with parquettes flying over head.

We jumped off the bus in Morretes a picture post card type of town with cobbled streets, a river running through the heart of the town, church in the background, brightly coloured colonial buildings with a backdrop of tropical flora and fauna. All in all a wonderful introduction to Brazil.

---