Curitiba & Morretes

09/09 - 11/09
Curitiba was our mid-way stop between Rio and the Iguaçu Falls. We weren´t quite feeling up to a 22 hour bus ride yet, so we opted for the 12 hours to the capital of Paraná state. Curitiba is one of the three cleanest cities in Latin America (not sure how they measure that exactly) and is regarded as one of Brazil's model cities for quality of life. The culture here is heavily influenced by its large immigrant communities including Japan, Poland, Germany, Italy and the Ukraine; and seemed like a nice point to break up the journey...

We hadn´t booked anywhere to stay but knew we had the whole day to find ourselves something reasonable, and so took a taxi to a road we knew housed a couple of hostels. The driver however, didn´t seem to have a clue what we were on about (something we´re getting used to) and so we jumped out about mid-way down the street, in front of the swanky looking San Juan Hotel.

On entering to enquire where the hostel might be, the manager (whose name we forgot to get, so for the purposes of this tale will call ´John´) told us that being a weekend, he could do us a special rate for one of their best suites. The five little stars on the plaque outside told us it would be a waste of time, but Sarah being Sarah, she went for a bit of nose anyway. As expected, it was quite pleasant, and John offered us a night for 30 quid, with an extra breakfast thrown in for good measure as we had arrived early. Hard to argue with that really. John, as it turned out, was quite a decent lad, spoke good English (a luxury by this point) and spent a good amount of time with us to hand out directions and handy hints and tips about what to visit.

So that first day, we just had a stroll around the centre, and then on checking out the following morning, left our bags at the hotel and, by Jonh's advice, headed by local bus to the Botanic Gardens. This is where our little mate Augustus came into play. He sidled up to us slyly at the bus stop and asked us where we were from and where we were heading. Obviously, being pessimistic Brits, we thought he was out to either mug us, or swindle us in some way. Quite the opposite in fact - he told us we were better off getting the tourist bus and a 15 Reais (4 quid) ticket that takes a 42km route around the city and allows 5 jump-on/offs. (Obviously we're feeling pretty let down by John at this point). Augustus got the local bus to the Gardens with us, jumped off where we needed to, and presented each of us with tickets with four stops left on each. A "Brazilian Gift" he said. Good lad really, and in no way reminiscent of a common thief or conman.

The Botanic Gardens comprised strangely enough of some gardens, and a large Greenhouse structure, apparently modelled on Crystal Palace in London. Strange inspiration to say the least...

The Tourist bus then took us to get shots of a space-ship like Art Gallery (The 'Museu Niemeyer), we jumped off at Tangui Park (a nice open space out in the sticks with a large man-made waterfall thingy), their equivalent of the BT Tower (unimpressively small though), past some more lovely looking open park spaces, and 24 Hour Street (the name says it all, although for what it was, they really shouldn't have bothered). A nice day out all in all, and at Zero pounds, good value too... We finished off the day with a few beers and some dinner at a local streetside cafe. That evening, we took our overnight coach in the general direction of Iguaçu Falls.

14/09
On our return from the falls, we had return tickets booked for the Train to Morretes; described in the book as one of the "most impressive railways in South America". A bold statement, although in fairness, trains are few and far between out here so it didn´t have much to beat. So, at 8am we boarded the pretty basic carriage and chugged away to the outskirts of Curitiba and into the surrounding hills. It was pretty stunning to say the least. There were long tunnels carved through the mountains, and suddenly you would appear overlooking deep gorges and forest streams. It also passed through a number of mountain villages where the local kids chased the train and did lots of waving and stuff. One little boy however let the side down and gave the middle finger. There's always one. Generally though, all very nice, if a little long. It was a hot day (up to 30 degrees we were told), so by the time we arrived in Morretes four-and-a-half hours later, we were a little weary to say the least.

Quickly befriended at the train station by a local girl, she took us up to town centre and pointed us in the direction of a good restaurant overlooking the river. She then informed us that it was possible to get an hour-long bus-ride back to Curitiba if we so wished. The return train tickets in our packs chuckled quietly at us. Lunch was nice, in a slightly predictable Brazilian way (meat/rice/fries/potato salad) and after a short stroll around the pretty colonial town it was time to board the train again.

The setting sun made for some really nice views and picturesque moments as we clawed our way back through the mountains, but as you will see from the photos, we were eventually forced to find ways to amuse ourselves (it´s one of those ´you had to be there to see the real entertainment´ moments). Luckily, the return clocked in at a mere two hours and fifty minutes, so we had a couple of hours before our next bus left for our next destination, Florianopolis.

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