Okay, so there was something that happened in Curitiba that I forgot to mention last time. Our new friend, Lorenn kept kicking (accidently!) Xana under the table everytime we went out for a meal, and Lorenn was embarressed about what Xana would tell people when they asked where she got the bruises ;-)!!

 

We got up early to check out of our hostel and headed down to the train station to catch the train to Paranagua. Now, things in Brazil are a little different to England when it comes to queuing - i.e. it doesn´t exist!! There were a few hundred people waiting for the train and despite the fact that everyone had allocated seats there was a lot of jostling for position and an almighty scrum when the gates finally opened. This also happens a lot when waiting for long distance coaches (again everyone has allocated seats, so what´s the rush...). We all got on with only a small delay (and only a few bruises from us swinging our backpacks around!) and settled down for the journey. In Brazil there are only a few passenger journeys you can do by train, so I think there was a lot more novelty value for the journey for most of the other (mostly Brazilian) passengers than there was for us. Every time we went into a tunnel half the train would start screaming and shouting!! The views were really nice, but we had a bit of fog, which stopped us seeing some of the more panoramic views. The train wound it´s way through the mountains towards the coast over some spectacular ravines. We arrived in Paranagua after about five hours and checked into our hotel. As we were unpacking, we heard a knock on the door and it was Lorenn. Her, Mineiro, Patricia and Olivia had all driven down from Curitiba to see Paranagua and us, which was really nice. We went for a meal in a cafe and had loads of different fish dishes to try.

 

That evening, after the guys had left, we went for a wander along the river front to find some food and found a bar with some live music (a guy singing and playing the guitar - very well), We ordered two hamburgers, one bacon and one cheese and some beers. The beers arrived and then so did four hamburgers. Wow, we thought, the portions are really big here. So, we tucked into the burgers and I had Xana´s ´extra´ burger. Then the bill arrived and had four items under the food section (without saying what they were) and that´s when it hit us - the waiter had thought Xana had ordered two normal burgers, one baconburger and one cheeseburger. not two burgers, of which one was bacon and one cheese! No wonder the waiter had looked at us strangely! Oh well, the portions were not so big after all!!

 

The next day we caught the boat to the local Ilha do Mel. It is supposed to be a very beautiful spot, but we couldn´t really tell as it spent nearly the whole day raining!! So, we spent most of the day sat in various cafés, drinking coffees and eating, looking out at the rain! It cleared up a little in the afternoon, so we went for a walk along the beach, which was very nice (although a bit grey!).

 

The next day we caught a bus to a nearby town (Matinhos) for a day at the beach. Sadly, the weather was again against us and had the effect of, combined with the run down look of Matinhos, reminding Xana of a Brazilian Great Yarmouth! We´ve decided that Brazilian beaches and us aren´t meant to mix this holiday! We then headed back to Paranagua and had a really nice meal in a local restaurant that seemed a bit too fancy for the surroundings (Paranagua´s riverfront gets a bit seedy at night, but has some lovely old buildings).

 

Next day we headed back to Curitiba by bus and Mineiro met us at the bus station (he had taken the day off to be with us), so we went for some lunch and then headed back to his place to watch a DVD on the making of an album called ´1 Giant Leap´ (an album featuring artists from all around the world playing on the same tracks, but without ever hearing each other - sounds very cool). Later Lorenn finished work, so we headed to a meat restaurant and had the biggest steak I have ever seen. It was supposed to be between four of us, but could easily have fed six or seven and in the end Mineiro took the left-overs home with him! I took a photo and will add to the blog next time.

 

Mineiro and Lorenn had been really kind during our stay in Curitiba, going out of their way to show us around and generally looking after us. It was great to meet them and we should meet up again with Lorenn when we visit her home state of Minas Gerais next month. Hopefully, we´ll keep in touch with them and their friends and have some people to visit next time we come to Brazil (planning our next trip already!).

 

We then caught the bus to Campo Grande. This was to be a 16 hour overnight grind, but it actually passed reasonably quickly, and before long we found ourselves in Campo Grande trying to sort out a trip to the Pantanal for the next day. Once that was sorted we had the rest of the afternoon in Campo Grande (a pretty non-descript kind of place) and got some food. Unfortunately, something in the food or juice Xana had (actually the same as what I ate) didn´t agree with her and she had to spend most of the rest of the evening being unwell.

 

Luckily, this morning she feels much better (if still a bit weak) and we are going to be able to go on our four day trip into the Pantanal in about half an hour. We then catch a bus straight to Bonito for a couple of days, before going onto Iguaçu to meet with Tina.

 

 

 

 

Hi,

 

Well, we arrived in Curitiba with no problems (although it was a long and bumpy bus journey - we had fully reclineable seats, but still got little sleep, so bumpy was the road) and checked into our hostel. We were a bit worried at first as the hostel front was covered in scaffolding and the buildings either side were just façades...but after we had checked in, everything was fine.

 

When we were in Punta del Este in Uruguay, we were in a restaurant and overhead some people on the next table who were Brazilian. As we were heading off to Florianopolis the next day and only had half the journey booked, we wanted to check with them how easy it would be to just turn up in Porto Alegre and get a bus the rest of the way. After they had confirmed that we would be fine, we started talking about where we were going in Brazil and one of the places we said was Curitiba. One of the guys said he was from Curitiba and gave us his business card and said get in touch when you get there. So, as we were now in Curitiba Xana gave him a call and we arranged to meet up that evening for a meal. The rest of the day we spent wandering around Curitiba, getting our bearings and working out what we wanted to do the next day.

 

That night Mineiro and Lorenn (his girlfriend) picked us up from the hostel and took us to a really nice restaurant that served ´Swiss potato´ (grated potato fried with various fillings). On the way we saw an amazing storm cloud that was hug and constantly flashed with light as lightning went off within it. Mineiro and Lorenn didn´t speak much English, which (combined with complete lack of Portuguese) led to a lot of translation work for Xana (including finding out that ´Xana´ is a very rude word in Brazil - must remember to keep calling her Sandra from now on...), but we had a very nice and friendly evening.

 

The next day, Xana and I bought a tourist line bus ticket that took you all round the city to the major attractions for about 3 pounds each. First up we headed to the Botanic Gardens for a view over Curitiba and a walk around a museum of an artist (see photos) who´s work is inspired by the destruction of the rainforests. Very interesting. Then we went to the Oscar Neiymeyer museum, which is an unusual looking musuem designed by Oscar N (who also designed the Brazilian capital, Brazilia). Inside were a huge number of exhibits that we didn´t have time to view in full. I thought the most interesting thing there, though, was the building itself, with it´s large spaces and ´eye´structure (again see photos). Next up was a telecommunications tower that had a viewing platform with views over the city. Curitiba is not the most eye-catching of cities when seen from above, but it did give a good impression of just how green the place is - parks everywhere and all the street are tree-lined. We then headed back into town and Xana stopped off at the hairdressers. Unfortunately, that night the mother of all rain storms kicked in to try and ruin the new hair-style (and very good it looked too). As we were being picked up by Mineiro and Lorenn, we had to dart into their car and sit and wait for the downpour to ease up. After it had, we went to a Lebonese restaurant where we had some great Lebanese (oddly enough...) food for about two pound fifty each! After another really nice night we headed back to Mineiro´s house for some drinks and a laugh about accepting offers to go back to people´s houses and being drugged and having bodily organs stolen!! Luckily we made it through the rest of the evening unscathed and headed home.

 

The next day being Saturday, Mineiro and Lorenn were not working and had some friends visiting from Sao Paulo state. So, after a saunter through the historic part of Curitiba, we met up with the four of them and, Mineiro began his role as unoffical tourguide! He was great at taking us out to some of the nicer parks and explaining what was there, when they had been formed and generally being a knowledgable guy (and was teased as soon as he admitted to not knowing anything!). We covered a couple of parks, the city Opera house, and finished up back at Mineiro´s house.

 

The next day we had to get up to go to Paranagua (a town on the coast) by train and Mineiro and the rest would be travelling down by car to meet up with us for a few hours before their friends had to head back to Sao Paulo. But, we need to check out from our hotel here in Paranagua in an hour, so I´d better go and pack and save Paranagua for another day...

 

 

Hi,

 

Well, we left Cambara do Sul with no problems, and, after a quick bus change (and a lot better roads), arrived in Canela. This is another inland town which is well known for walks and, with it´s neighbouring town of Gramado, for it´s Christmas decorations (see photos). The decorations are pretty tacky (an almost twenty foot Santa Claus!) and this is the first time in South America we have seen any serious Christmas decorations. Both towns (but more particularly Gramado) also have heavily alpine influenced architecture. Apparently a lot of Germans emigrated to this area and have obviously brought a Bavarian feel with them. In both towns the main church/cathedrals had nativity sets and large christmas trees.

 

Anyway, on the first full day in Canela (a Sunday) we had hoped to book some treks for the following two days, but all the agencies were closed (not ideal for their main holiday season!), so we had to spend most of the day mopping around town (not a particularly big place). We went for a look in the main church and saw the nativity set there. There was a family also in there and they were definitely Brazilian - the two small children were dressed up in hat and scarf, despite it being maybe 15 degrees outside! In the evening, for something to do, we caught the bus into Gramado for a look. This place is a lot more touristy, with a lot more Christmas decorations and Alpine looking buildings. We had only brought a small amount of cash with us, so couldn´t afford to eat in the better looking places, but found a small Italian place that served up some duff pasta...

 

Luckily, the next day all the agencies were open and we managed to book a full day hike for the next day. That afternoon we caught a taxi up to a nearby park for a ride on a teleferico (a small cable car type thing) that overlooked a large waterfall. We then walked to the base of the waterfall (nearly a thousand steps down!) and had a bit of walk around the nearby park. It was mainly aimed at Brazilian families, with lots of stalls to buy things, burger bars and paved paths. The only way back to town was to either get a taxi again (about a fiver) or wait until 6pm for a bus that went directly from the park, so we decided to start walking back towards town in the hope of catching a different bus once we hit the main road. Luckily, as we were walking along, after about half an hour, a local stopped and offered us a lift back to Canela. It was a good job he did as the main road we were aiming for was only about 15 minutes outside of Canela and would have involved another almost 2 hours of walking to reach! Very friendly guy.

 

That night we went to a pizza place called Toca da Bruxa (´the witches hut´). It was an all you can eat place where you sat while the staff brought different pizzas to your table and you could take a piece if you wanted. There was a green/yellow/red flag system that indicated to the staff if you still wanted more savoury, sweet or had had enough. Yep, in Brazil sweet pizzas are very popular. We´d first noticed them at the pizza restaurant in Cambara and here there were loads of different types. The pizza base was the same as normal, but with different types of sweet toppings. Some more more ´normal´ combinations (chocolate and strawberry), but some were a bit wierder (mozzerala cheese, chocolate and condensed milk!). We tried a couple which weren´t too bad, but they are a bit of an acquired taste! We left feeling very full and wondering if we would regret carrying round all that extra weight on the trek the next day...

 

The trek was very good and very hard. It involved a gentle start through a nearby park and then a steeper climb up to a farm where a seveny year old guy (Snr Divino) had been working all his life. He has cattle, grows his own vegetables and keeps bees. After working for so long on his farm he is very fit and looks younger than he his. He has decided that he needs to start taking it a bit more easy (fair enough!), so has recently started taking on more help. After a stop for lunch at the farm (which our guide, Wagner, was carrying for us! - the lunch, that is, not the farm...), we headed down (through dense forest with almost no trail) into a horseshoe shapped valley and clambered along a rocky river. Unfortunately, the water level was a bit higher than normal and there were a few bits where we had to jump across quite wide gaps between rocks. At one of these points, Xana had a bit of a slip and ended up with her feet under water. Wet boots again! About ten minutes later we had to climb across some slightly submerged rocks and this time Xana slipped completely and ended up going in up to her waist! Luckily she wasn´t injured or anything, just a bruised ego and some wet trousers... Not very nice to have to do the rest of trek wet, but we were cheered up when we saw some wild (although still pretty friendly) mammals. We weren´t saw what they were called in English, but they looked a bit like raccoons, with ringed tails, If anyone knows from the photos, please let us know! We also heard some monkeys shouting across the valley. We then had a long climb up the valleyside to the final viewing point, where our lift was weighting to take us back into town. It was a really nice day, with a good reward at the end. It was technically more difficult than we thought it would be (the river and hacking through the undergrowth), but well worth it - hopefully Xana´s boots will have survived another soaking! By the way, the tattooes on Wagner´s arms mean ´sport´ and ´adventure´ (he´s a big fitness freak - he climbed the 900+ steps from the waterfall with a grown woman on his back and he headed for a swim and the gym after we finished our trek) - we thought we might get some done for us with ´bed´ and ´food´!

 

Today we are leaving Canela for Curitiba (a large city nearer the coast). It supposed to be one of Brazil´s urban success stories, so we shall see how it looks. It´s also got a nice train trip to the coast (to Paranagua) where we hope to stay for a couple of days, maybe visiting the nearby Ilha do Mel (Island of Honey). The bus doesn´t leave until 4 this afternoon (and arrives at about 8.30 tomorrow morning!), so we´re just internetting and hanging around for now.

 

 

Hi,

 

Well, we made it to Torres relatively painlessly and checked into an average hotel which had probably the best shower I´ve yet seen in South America - hot, plenty of water pressure and high enough for me to stand up right underneath it. A rare hat-trick. Torres itself is a small seaisde city with a friendlier, less busy feel to it. We only had one full day there so, in the morning, we went into a few shops and managed to find a cheap shirt suitable for the beach for me and a bikini for Xana. After approximately four months of looking for a new bikini (not elapsed time, but actual time spent in shops...;-) ) Xana has found something suitable, so we were definitely onto a winner here. In the afternoon we headed to the beach and caught a few rays and saw some people para-gliding off a cliff (under which was some sort of religous shrine, lots of plaques and ´black madonnas´). We had to get up the next morning before 5am to head back up the coast to catch the only bus that headed into the interior to our next stop, Cambera do Sul. It wasn´t too painful (even if we did have to stand for the last hour and a half over very bumpy roads!) and we made into Cambera around lunch time.

 

Cambera is a very small town (it doesn´t even have a laundrette, which is starting to prove a problem...) up in the hills near some national parks. We sorted out a couple of hikes for the next day with some local agencies and then had a really nice pizza in a restaurant that had a record player and a selection of vinyl (mainly 60s and 70s stuff) that you could chose from to accompany your meal. The staff were really friendly there as well.

 

Next day we got picked up from our pousada and driven the half an hour up to the national park for a couple of walks around the top of a canyon. The canyon was not very wide, but had shear cliffs and there were some pretty impressive views. We also saw a sign that said that the National Park was created by god and so should be treated with respect! The Brazilians are very big on god and often say ´god willing´ or ´thank god´. In the afternoon we went on another walk to a waterfall where we could climb down the waterfall and sit right under the fall itself. The weather was pretty warm, so it was good to be in the water again.

 

Yesterday we were on a full day hike which involved an hour and a half mini-bus journey to another national park and then a hike down, inside one of the canyons. This involved crossing and re-crossing the water, which, at times, reached up to mid-thigh level on me, so we were pretty soaked by the end of the day. We saw a few poisonous snakes and one huge (big as my hand) spider as well! Unfortunately, there was no great view or anything at the end of trek and we then had to make our way back the way we came (and then it took two further hours to get back to the pousada), so, although it was very nice, we not quite sure it was worth the effort. We´ve defintely seen more impressive sights on our trip so far!

 

Today we are just relaxing and trying to dry our clothes out from yesterday. The weather is pretty crappy today (lots of short, but heavy showers) so it´s proving kind of difficult! Tomorrow we move on to another nearby town for some more trekking.

 

Hi,

Well, I think it´s fair to say that our time in Florianopolis has not been a roaring success. You´ll see why shortly...

 

After our 10 hour journey to Porto Alegre we were lucky enough to get on pretty much the next coach out of there to Florianopolis. The night coach was pretty comfy, with seats that recline most of the way back and lots (almost enough!) leg room. They also feed you as soon as you step with a meal that shows most airlines up! We arrived in Floripa (as it is known for short) at around 3pm and then had the fun of trying to find a bus to our hostel. The temperature was well into the thirties and we had all our rucksacks to lug around trying to find the right bus stop. The bus people were all pretty unfriendly and unhelpful (one word answers, not telling you where to get off, that sort of thing), but (after one change) we eventually found our way to the hostel. It was right by the sea and we were offered a small loft-type room in a dorm of around thirty. As we had originally been booked into the sister hostel up the road in a dorm, we thought the space to ourselves would be good. Unfortunately, the loft wasn´t big enough to stand up in and consisted of two mattresses on the floor and a tiny space to put our rucksacks! Still, for £7 a night each we thought we would stick it out.

 

The hostel was full of teenager/early twenty surfer types who wanted to ´party´ all the time, so we didn´t spend a whole lot of time talking to them, although there were a few nice ones dotted around. On the 31st the hostel we were in was throwing a party, so, as it was right by the beach we went out for a meal and then went back to the party. Unfortunately, the music was pretty awful, so we had a few drinks and waited for midnight to roll round. At midnight there were fireworks going off all round the bay, which was pretty cool. Also, there were hundreds of people on the beaches jumping around in the water, so the midnight bit was quite good. The fireworks were going off right over the beach (more often than not, let off out of someone´s hand!) and there were a few near misses from badly aimed ones! After that we got talking to a German girl and the Brazilian family she was staying with, who were pretty nice. We made up until about 3am, so not too shabby.

 

On the 1st, we went to the beach and generally chilled out. The next day was Xana´s birthday. Unfortunately (I seem to be using that word a lot at the moment), it was also our last night at the hostel and, as we had no intention of staying there any longer (as it was so busy and dirty over New Year´s), we spent a fair portion of the day either on the net looking for accommodation or, once we had found that nearly all the decent looking places were fully booked until the 10th, walking around hotels and B&Bs in a nearby village to see if they had any rooms! Luckily we did find somewhere that was 4 times the price of the hostel, but as it was run by a really nice Brazilian/American couple, had it´s own pool and we would have our own mini-apartment with kitchen and bathroom, we decided to take it. This all involved walking around in nearly 35 degree temperatures and a few guessed bus journeys, so we weren´t in the best of moods when it was all over, but at least we had a better place to stay. That evening we had planned to go to a sushi restaurant in a nearby village. It involved jumping on a bus, but, once again, there were no signs to say when we had reached where we wanted to go, so we zoomed straight past our destination, had to go to the end of the line (luckily only 15 minutes further on) and come back! We found the restaurant with no problems and it was definitely the highlight of the day. The sushi was great and there was lots of it for very little cash. We then treated ourselves to dessert in a nearby restaurant and were just about to head home when it started raining - hard. We got some coffees in to kill a bit of time, but started getting worried about missing the last bus, so headed out into the rain. Xana was wearing one of her nice dresses and was soaked pretty quickly. We made it to the bus stop and, you guessed it, the rain promptly stopped! On the bright side, the bus turned up soon after and took us back to the hostel to dry out.

 

So, not the best way to celebrate Xana´s birthday...but not much we could have done about most of it.

 

On the third, we packed up our stuff and headed off to our new place. It was a few miles up the coast and took two bus rides to get there. It was really nice to have our own space again and the owners made us feel really welcome.

 

Unfortunately (!), the weather then turned against us and the last few days have been really mixed. Lots of cloud cover and occassional sun was not what we had in mind for Brazil in the summertime!

 

We went into Floripa city to get some cash out (the owner gave us a lift, thankfully!), but most of the banks wouldn´t accept our cards and when we found one that would it only gave us it in 10 reais notes (about £2)!

 

Yesterday we tried to go up the coast to another town, so it was back on the buses again... It took us an hour and a half to get there, the weather was crap, we got some of our stuff wet when the sea came in just as we were packing up and then we had to wait an hour for a bus and it took us three hours to get home!! Not ideal...

 

Today has probably been the best day so far. The weather has been good enough to spend some time on the beach and the owners held a bbq at the pousada, which was really nice. Unfortunately, Arsenal had to go and ruin it all by beating Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd round. The first Liverpool game I´ve got to see since we´ve been away and they get beat...

 

So...enough of the negative stuff. Tomorrow we head off down the coast to Torres for a couple of days and then inland to a National Park to do some trekking. Hopefully our luck will improve, the transport will run smoothly, the accommodation will be nice and weather perfect. We´ll see...