Curitiba - February 27th

Today we get our first long distance bus in Brazil, from Foz Do Iguacu to Curitiba.  Curitiba is the state capital of Parana state which stretches from Foz on the Paraguay border all the way to the coast.  So it is a full 10 hour bus journey, setting off at 07:00.

Being a bus journey there isn’t too much to write about.  As a comparison to the Argentinian ones though it doesn’t really compare.  This is mostly because we didn’t get any Dulce De Leche biscuits or an Adam Sandler movie.  These staples got us through many long journeys already, but this time we had to rely on the biscuits we had bought in a hypermarket in Foz, and the music on our phones.  However the view out the window at times was not that bad.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, either a road through rainforest, or more long flat plains like in Argentina, but instead we got quite a hilly road with some beautiful views down into valleys.  Curitiba is at 900m above sea level, so we actually climbed 750m during the day.

The only problem with our journey was that we seemed to hit Curitiba at rush hour.  For those that don’t know, Curitiba is a city of over 3 million, and although it is hard to get definitive lists of largest cities, it is probably one of the 100 largest cities in the world.  It is definitely larger than Dublin or Warsaw, yet it is a little known place.  However all that will change in 2 years’ time, as it will be a venue for the 2014 World Cup.  For now it is our home, and luckily our hotel is only a few blocks from the bus station.  This makes it walkable, and as it is threatening to rain, we hurry and check in.

The rain starts with a vengeance like most other days in this part of the world.  Tropical rainstorms seem to be the norm in the tropics.  Who would have guessed?  Because of this, and because it is convenient to our location, we go across the road to a big shopping mall to eat.  It has one of the biggest food courts I’ve ever seen, with all types of cuisines catered for.  We go for Japanese this time, and luckily our waiter warns us of the portion sizes, because the one plate we ordered was too much for two.