Curitiba

Tuesday 19th - Friday 22nd Feb

So Sao Paulo was good. I'd seen the biggest city in Latin America and ended it with some pretty spectacular Brazilian cuisine.
But now I was destined to move on, and I didn't fancy a 13 hour bus straight to Florianopolis, so as I have so long I thought - 'Curitiba?'

Not many people visit Curitiba, well tourists don't but old women do who take their dogs on 7 hour bus journeys (who does that?!) and I for one would urge anyone to go. I arrived at about 6pm and got a cab immidiately to the hostel. I was staying at the cheapest hostel in Curitiba according to hostelworld (by the way, THE greatest and most handy website I've ever used): Backpakers Hostel Curitiba. It's a 10 minute walk from the historical centre and didn't take me long to love it. I was staying in a 6-bed dorm to myself, with a balcony and I could get full wifi lying in my bed - hostels like that don't come around often! Oh and they had a pet cat that was absolutely badass.

I didn't do much that night. I made dinner and ventured to a rock n roll bar called Bop n Roll that offered a range of quality beers, played extreme sports on the tv and above all played Creedance Clearwater Revival all night! I targeted to see as much as possible the next day. I had read in my book that Curitiba offered the 'best' city tour in south america, so I was bloody well gonna do that wasn't I? And there wasnt anything gonna stop me (as you'll soon learn...)

I started the tour at 11 (after the worst breakfast I've had in a long time) and thought it was pretty sublime very quickly. Curitiba is a very clean city (for South American standards it's increible). It was like being in California. However it didn't quite live up to it's 'most environmentally friendly city in Latin America' title, as - with everywhere else in South America - everyone used plastic bags! The plastic bag business is raking it over here!
So yes, the tour. It starts at a church that looks like a cake (seriously) and it takes you through the colourful streets until it eventually goes out of the city on it's 44km journey. For that distance, I wasn't complaining about the £9 fee. I got off at the Botanical gardens (as with everywhere, free) and had a nice little walk around. It's really nice there and you get some great views of the city. I hung around for a while, appreciating their intercontinental plant range as well as walking around the large pond. From there, I got back on a different bus (the system works that you pay for 5 journeys, so you can see everywhere and visit 5 of them - which is more than enough) and got back off at the zoo/Islamic area (free). I didn't know if I'd made a mistake there, but a lot of the arcitecture was really interesting and I had some fun laughing at the crazy parrots and turtles. I wondered why I actually got off at that stop, maybe I felt that the whole Arabic feel kinda reminded me of London and I'd got a little fed up of the whole GOD IS AMAZING LOOK AT THIS CHURCH message that is stamped across all of Brazil. The next stop is why you should come to Curitiba: Tangua Park. I didn't spend a penny there and it was as beautiful as any park I've ever visited. They had a waterfall there and a cute wooden cafe that sat at the mouth of it. I walked around the park for a while and realised that maybe I was getting a little lonely as I was actually talking to myself and taking pictures just pulling funny faces... 
Oh and for the runners, if you're in Southern Brazil I'd say Curitiba is your best bet for some quality runs, the parks are grand and the weather was really good when I was there. 
As I had only 5 journeys on my ticket I made that my final stop as I got back on the bus and took snaps of the remaining places. It actually pissed it down for the remainder of the tour (then it stopped totally) but I refused to get down from the from and got drenched in the process! I decided that tomorrow I'd use my final journey on a visit to the oi! tower to see the whole city, which i did the next day.
I'd been put in contact with someone that lived in Curitiba from Ross (who I stayed with in SP) and she'd told me about an international students party that was pretty close to my hostel, so I attended that and it was probably the first event of my travels that you could say 'changed' my mentality. I went there alone and met so many people, mainly a French history of art student (I know!) and a gay brazilian banker. I was chatting away with them for hours until the end where I met the best person I've met all my trip - Gasper.
Gasper was born in Brazil, moved to Tasmania and then to Scotland, back to Brazil, back to Scotland and now is back in Curitiba so arguably has the weirdest accent ever. But he invited me out the next night and made me feel very welcome - Curitiba had the student life that I hadn't seen anywhere else (and no Ozzies or Brits!).

The next day I didn't achieve as much as I had done the day before, as I got lost and ended up walking about 6km to the open opera house and got the bus to the oi! tower. Oi! is the big telecom company here and it's how Brazilians say hi. I have to remember to not say that when I'm back home!
Although the view was good, it was R$3.50 and the view in SP was free, so I was a little pissed off but hey. I walked back to the hostel and it was early evening so I went on a run to the Oscar Neyamaar (appreciating art and history in your Essex running vest and shortest shorts as you do) and then continued my run in to the city - until I got lost, exhausted and kinda dehydrated!
I returned, hung out with the cat for a bit and had schedualed to go to Gasper's at half ten, and I decided that tonight would be my last night... And that I'd get a bus at 5am!! So I got everything ready and headed to Gasper's.
The night was really good, we were all playing drinking games and in all there were probably 15 languages around the table! All were either students or doing some kind of volunteering over in Curitiba, so there was a nice vibe from everyone. Gasper says the gaybars are the best in Curitiba so after out second visit we were in the gaybar and partied it up with Curitiba's proudest men and women. I was enjoying it so much that I looked at my watch to see it was 4am so I rushed off, taxi to hostel, bags, taxi to bus station - 4.40am. Booked the bus and ate my apple as I was still drunk.
It's a 6 hour journey with some nice views that I didn't totally get to appreciate due to my 'mad one'.

Impression of Curitiba - go there! I think it's a wonderful place and if you're backpaking then don't skip it. Even if you're there for just one night I think you'd have a soft spot for the place :)