Onto Curitiba

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Day 118 Monday 6^th February

Nothing much planned today and because we once again had a lousy night sleep we slept in till 8.30. After the crap breakfast yesterday neither of us felt like bounding out of bed and facing another but it is free with the room so I guess we shouldn’t complain. Probably sick to death of us bagging breakfast in hotels so we will try and restrain ourselves from this point on.

A bit slow getting ready today and didn’t manage to get out the front door till nearly 10. Wandered up to the nearby bank where we got some more cash out and then picked up a taxi to the bus terminal. Needed to get bus tickets for our departure tomorrow and you can’t buy them anywhere in town but only at the terminal which is 4 kilometres out of town. Thankfully the taxi only cost 12 Brazilian Reals ($7) but it still chews into the budget. What was more painful was the 260 Brazilian Reals ($150) for the bus tickets to Curitiba tomorrow, but then it is a 10 hour trip so once again I shouldn’t complain. I had to do my usual trick of writing the destination, date and time on a piece of paper to get what we wanted but the guy selling the tickets spoke a bit of English so it wasn’t a drama.

To save a bit of money we picked up the local bus that got us down to “Centro” near our Hotel for half the cost of a taxi. Headed back to our room to drop off our pouches containing our passports, as we don’t like carrying them around with us. It was of course stinking hot by this stage so we took advantage of our room’s air conditioning for a few hours. Headed back out in the afternoon for a bit of window shopping and after the last two days it was nice to see a few things open. Went for a good long walk around trying also to see if we could find a swish restaurant but other than glitzy tourist traps and kebab stalls didn’t see too much else. It is strange to see so many shwarma (kebab) stores and see Lebanese flags painted on walls, it kind of feels like we have slipped into Beirut. Was tempted on a kebab for dinner but they tend to be fairly small and I think are eaten as almost a pre-dinner snack and don’t come with tabouli and hommus but with chips stuffed inside. Chile sauce is served on the side and is fairly mild, but altogether they do make a nice change. We ended up back at the restaurant we went to on the first night and both got a similar feed that consisted of meat (I got a small T bone steak and Shelley got chicken) and it came with tomato, lettuce, rice, and chips. Shelley also got a bowl of black beans and I got potato salad. All this with two beers and water came to 27 Reals ($18), which made it not only filling but a bloody bargain. It is so nice to get the sides on the plate with the meal for no extra cost.

We waddled home about 8 so we could pack for our early bus in the morning.



Day 119 Tuesday 7^th February

The alarm went off at 5.30am and my first instinct was to pelt it across the room but we had to move on so we somehow dragged ourselves out of bed. We have got so used to late nights and sleep ins that it is getting harder every time we have to get up early. We had to get up this early every work day and now I don’t know how we ever did it or if we can ever do it again, I guess we are just going to have to keep travelling. Back in the world of reality we managed to get ourselves dressed, finished the packing and downstairs by 6. We checked out and had to get the receptionist to phone for a taxi, which turned up within ten minutes. It was still pitch black outside as we whizzed through down town to the bus terminal. Arrived by 6.30 and then had a short wait till our bus turned up, and before boarding we had to go through the most full on check in. For this trip the baggage was weighed, we had to present our passports and hand luggage was tagged as well. Some people in front of us had their hand luggage checked as well and we are unsure if all of this is done because we are very close to two other borders all if this is going to be the norm in Brazil.

For today’s bus trip we managed to secure the front seats so we had the huge window at the front and no one to recline on us. This was our first experience of a long distance bus journey in Brazil and discovered that not much changes once you cross the border. No matter how comfortable those seats seem when you first board after 5 hours they might as well be a plank of timber or a concrete bench. The air con on this bus was only applied in short burst some only as long as 5 seconds so this kept the bus nice and hot and stuffy. Thankfully the bus only stopped at major towns so altogether I think we only stopped about 8 times, but at one of the towns we got caught in traffic for nearly an hour due to an agricultural show. The countryside we passed through was generally all agricultural and had varying crops most of which I couldn’t really identify except for the occasional field of tobacco. Most of this country would have at one stage been completely jungle but there was little to tell of its past, (unfortunately). The road however was probably the most litter free we have ever passed through and we only spotted the occasional bottle or wrapper, and when I say occasionally I really mean it. We passed several gangs along the road mowing the grass beside the road so that the road from beginning to end had manicured lawns either side. We both felt like this was the road to Oz, it has to be seen to be believed. The only thing that bought you back from fantasy land was passing the police stations on the outskirts of towns and they would have a huge car park full of mangled cars, motorbikes, trucks and even a burnt out bus. Most police stations would hold about 50 wrecks but one we passed seemed to have about 100. This was a grim reminder of the realities of road travel on this side of the world.

Around 1 in the afternoon when we were both going a bit stir crazy we stopped at a roadside café where everyone piled off the bus for a feed. This café was huge and as you entered we were given a slip of paper and once inside whenever we bought something it would be marked off on the paper so that as we left we would pay at another counter. We ended up buying some fried pastry “things” that tasted great and made us both feel a bit better. Because we don’t know a single word of Portuguese we didn’t understand what our driver said before he bolted off the bus so we weren’t sure how long we had in the café and we were constantly scanning around to see if we could spot anyone else from our bus. We ate our lunch in a hurry and then waited out the front for ten minutes for our driver to remerge.

We were underway at 1.45 and around 5 we drove through a large storm, which had us worried we would be arriving in town in a downpour, but thankfully Curitiba was dry. We didn’t actually hit Curitiba bus terminal till 6.30 making it an 11.5 hour bus journey. Our Hotel was about 2 kilometres away so we opted for a taxi instead of walking it, and we were able to get a taxi to our front door for 14 Reals ($8). We are staying at the Lancaster Hotel, which has all the appearance and feel of an old world hotel, but the room is great and the staff are really friendly. Our room is located on the 9^th floor and has great views over the town.

Before doing anything we both had a shower and then headed out on the town for a feed. Curitiba has a population of 1.9 million people so it is pretty huge and has heaps of high risers and lots of paved malls. We wandered up one of these malls which was a couple of blocks from our hotel, but found only overpriced tourist trap restaurants and so wandered further on. Ended up at Bom Dia (good Morning in Portuguese) a small corner café where we got a similar feed to what we got the night before and for a similar cheap price. We arrived about 8.30 for dinner and as we ate they started locking up around us, and by the time we left they had to open the steel shutters to let us out. We are noticing in Brazil that the eateries don’t stay open late like Argentina and that people do seem to eat earlier. By the time we got back to our room I was dead tired and crashed while Shelley sat up to finish her book.



Day 120 Wednesday 8^th February

Slept in till the decadent hour of 8.30 before stumbling downstairs to see what the Lancaster breakfast would be like. Couldn’t face bacon and egg, so we both tucked into a bowl of fresh fruit followed by a piece of chocolate cake. Didn’t have a lot planned for this city and so we took our time getting ready before heading out the door. We decided to have a bit of a wander around looking at the shops.

Back in 1971 a man named Jamie Lerner became Mayor and went about transforming the city. He started with creating large pedestrian malls throughout the city, which he had a huge battle with shop keepers who didn’t want to lose their parking spots out the front. He created large parks around the city with lakes to catch the rain water and then went onto start a recycling system in the town. The town budget couldn’t afford a metro like train line so he created dedicated bus lanes and had huge double accordion buses that ran every 30 seconds to move the people around. His vision for his town was unique and extreme for its era but it paid off tenfold and the town is still looked upon as a type of urban utopia. We had seen the buses flying around town and they are huge and decided today we would check out the pedestrian malls. The traffic is a bit heavy in places but no more than anywhere else we have been and the large pedestrian malls certainly are a nice alternative to the traffic clogged streets of towns like Buenos Aires, Santiago and of course Sydney.

We wandered around for a couple of hours finding a laundry in the process before we decided to head down to the bus station and pick up our tickets out of town. It was probably about 37 degrees by this stage and it was a long 2 kilometre walk but it gave us a great chance to check out another area of town. Picked up our tickets and then crossed the road from the bus station to the town’s central markets. The place was amazing and was filled with the most amazing assortments of fruit, veggies, and nuts as well as seafood and meats. We really struggled to find fresh fruit in Argentina and we were both feeling a bit deprived for it and so this was like heaven for us. We ended up picking up some mangoes, plums and a large bag of cashews, as well as stopping for an amazingly good cup of coffee, the first coffee for Shelley in months. She refuses to drink instant coffee so has basically stopped drinking the stuff, but at least at this café she got a proper decent cup. The fruit and veg was just so good in this place we could have bought up big time, but we are just hoping that this is a sign that better things lay ahead of us whilst in Brazil.

After splurging on the fruit we headed back, stopping at a large shopping centre that is built around the towns old train station. The place was done really well and included an old steam train with carriage parked inside the centre. Wandered around this place for a while before heading on home again. Late in the afternoon a huge storm ripped through the town and it rained cats and dogs for about a couple of hours so we were stuck in our room. When it finally cleared enough for us to escape it was nearly 8pm and we discovered that most places were closing up. All through our travels so far we have discovered that the restaurants and cafes don’t really open till around 9, and we get here where everything closes at 9, and so once again we have to adjust our eating habits. We wandered around for over an hour till we found a bakery where we could get some take away empanadas that we could eat back in our room. There are a lot of small dodgy looking diners that sell deep fried empanadas and other such things, but they don’t exactly look too clean or fresh and so our choice of take away was probably the safest bet.



Day 121 Thursday 9^th February

For some reason we both had a restless night’s sleep so it was hard for us to drag ourselves out of bed by 8.30 and stagger down for breakfast. We both had a fairly good feed of cheese and ham rolls and of course finished it off with a slice of chocolate and cream cake that anyone would have been happy with for their birthday. After this we headed up town and dropped our laundry off and was surprised that they said that it would be ready by 3 in the afternoon, “gee that’s quick” we thought as we left, but that just wasn’t to be.

Today we decided to catch the tourist bus around town, which is always a good way to see a lot of town in a short time. We walked up to the main plaza and for 25 Real ($15) each we could get a double decker bus around the town for 2.5 hours (if you don’t stop). The bus had 24 stops and we were allowed to jump off 4 times so we had to choose wisely. We were given a map with a brief rundown of each location so it was pretty easy to work out our choices. We were initially under the impression that the bus would stop at each stop for a couple of minutes so people could at least see the sights but this wasn’t to be. The bus seemed to be on a tight schedule and roared along as fast as it could and if no one wanted to get off it would just fly past places at 100 miles an hour. In some of the places the road was really rough and the bus just kept belting along so that we were tossed and shook around as if we were on a hayride to hell.

For our first stop we got off at was the botanical gardens which was a lovely formal park with beautiful manicured lawns, shaped hedges and a great English style glass house. This was our first introduction to the many varied parks in Curitiba and is just a small part of why this is a great city. We managed to jump back on the next bus that came along and passed a number of “themed” parks including a German park, a polish park (that John Paul II visited…of course), a Jacque Cousteau Park (Got no idea where this came from as Curitiba is an inland city), and a couple of parks that were converted from brick pits. In between these parks were the most amazing mansions and gated communities showing that this place had some serious money floating around.

Our second “jump off” was the towns Italian community and rather than getting a Leichhardt we got…well nothing. We both couldn’t tell the difference between this suburb to any other in town except it had a couple of Italian restaurants. Wandered around trying to make the place seem more Italian by speaking in an Italian accent “oh looka thera isa an italiano doga”, “oh so gooda thata they hava an italiano Subway food chain, straighta from napalia”….I guess you had to be there.

Got the very next bus only by the nick of time and our next stop was yet another park but adjoining this one was a motor museum. Got there at 1.20 and discovered that the museum was only opened between 2 and 5…would love to get a job at this place. Grabbed an ice cream in the park while we waited, which was worth it because it was a great little museum. Had a good collection of cars including an old Willys, an oldsmobile 98, and a straight 8 Buick. The motorbikes only consisted of a few Harleys, two of which were the 3 wheeled servy bikes, but that was better than nothing. I was going to talk to the curator and tell him about my Indian, but then I can’t even say thank you in Portuguese so I would have bucklies of discussing Vintage motorcycles with him.

By this stage the storm clouds were starting to build and we knew we would need to wrap the day up so we headed outside and after a short wait got the next bus on to our final a stop which was the telecommunication tower that overlooks the town. The tower was built back in the 1990’s and has a viewing platform, which had great views over the city. Curitiba is an amazing city and from the viewing platform you got a great view of how well laid out it is.

We got the lift back down and only had to wait a couple of minutes to get the bus back to where we started. It had been a great way to look over the town albeit at a speed and it gave us a good appreciation of how many parks were dotted all around the town and how grand the wealthy suburbs are. It was 3.30 by this stage and yet another huge storm was closing in on the city so we thought we would pick up our laundry and head home. When we got to the laundry the girl looked at us shocked as if to say “what are you doing here”, and in sign language explained that our laundry wouldn’t be ready till tomorrow. Luckily another woman there could speak a bit of English and when we asked for our clothes back regardless because we wouldn’t be here tomorrow she quickly arranged to have them washed and dried by 6. Just about every piece of our clothing was in this wash so we were more than a little grateful to get it done tonight as well as heavily mystified of why she said it wouldn’t be ready till tomorrow when there was nothing on our ticket that said that.

Anyway we wandered back to our room to see out the storm and at 4.30 we wandered down the road to a small bar. Got a beer that was half head, and if I had been back in Sydney I would have thrown it back at the barman, but we took it and then moved on. At 6 we made it back to the laundry and thankfully our clothes were ready. Had dinner at Bom Dia again and like last time we got a fabulous tasting and cheap feed.

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Photos

Curitiba
Bontical Gardens and the Glasshouse

Curtiba
Formal hedges at the Botanical Gardens

Curitiba
Old Town Hall

Curitiba
Plaza Santos Andrade

Curitiba
Mercado Municipal

Curitiba
Auto Museum - Harley

Curitiba
Willys 1942

Curitiba
Shelley's next car - Chev Impala

Curitiba
View for Telco Tower

Curibita
One of the long bendy buses

Comments

[traudy glasencnik]

Bloody!
Hahaha...you make me laugh scotty, dang. Lets face it, if you cant pull a beer properly, your in the wrong profession! Love the photo's and the fresh produce sounds good, eat up. xx