Hotel Executive Curitiba

... the NYC burger chain, and learned there that most athletes from NYC are white with blond hair and blue eyes. Also, all their sports teams are called the Giants.

Having travelled 14 hours, it transpired that we were still an absurd distance from our hostel (probs should have checked that before we came, but it was the only hostel here) so we had to get a taxi. Today, we´ve been wandering round curitiba. Saw their famous botanic gardens, which were pretty good, and some churches and ...

We have progressed to Curitiba, pronounced Curchiba for some reason. It is regarded as one of Brazil's model cities for quality of life and has something of a European feel, with leafy squares and a street that is open 24 hours (except Sunday!). It is also the start of one of the world’s most spectacular railway journeys.

The outskirts of the city are much like any other large urbanization; sprawling buildings of variable quality, the concrete and brick ...

... br>On a good note, I got to go back to Mustang Sally's for dinner tonite. It is the best burger joint that Jacqui and I have been to in Brasil. Today I had the Jack Daniel's Burger (made with ground Sirloin) and the polenta fritas covered in cheese and BBQ sauce :) It never fails, no matter what we've ordered ...

... Johnny Cash). Today I checked out the Municipal Market in the morning and then went to get a nice view of the city from the Merces Tower. Tomorrow, I'm headed to my favorite beach in Brazil (Ilha do Cardoso) for a few days to meet my friend from Rio. It'll be nice to finally be on the beach! Then I'll continue to head south towards Uruguay.

... see on the outskirts of town for those who want to take a tourist bus. We decided to try to get to one of these sights, the Oscar Neimeyer Museum building (see photo), on public transport ... we were sent to four different bus stops before we caught something in vaguely the right direction from one of those wonderful bus shelters ... walked back! Of course, our lack of Portuguese does not help. Coming back into Brazil reminds ...

... anywhere and the girl steps in and says in english can I help maybe. So after that we get to talking she just met the boys at the bus staiton she is a journalist from spain originally in town to report on the festival. They are all going to dinner and I am not one to turn down a dinner invitation. So we go to a really nice fish restaurant and then on to the evenings music again really nice people, nearly everyone I meet is so nice its amazing. Most ...

... the train at 8:00. Needless to say I was not impressed about the early rise - as anyone at KV knows, I´m not really a morning person! So on the trip on the way down, I could seriously barely keep my eyes open - in fact I basically dozed on and off the whole way down. Because it was so early in the morning, there was a lot of mist in the forest so much of our view was obscured. it was really frustrating, because you could see a valley ...

... to the owner to cover my current stay and to buy me time until I could find work as an English teacher and slowly pay her off, however to no avail she wasn´t interested. it was pay or call the police (not good as i´d already over stayed my visa by a month). she gave me until noon the following day to come up with a way to pay, this being a Friday. Frantic e-mails were sent out to any one that i thought could help. A couple of guys I had previously partied with ...

... Our favourite? It's hard to say. Chile has the most amazing and varied scenery, Argentina the great price/quality ratio and Colombia the feeling of discovering somewhere exotic where there are still very few tourists. On this trip we haven't managed to see Venezuela, the Amazon or the central and north coast of Brazil, so hopefully one day we'll revisit this great continent. Two travelers, two backpacks, two day packs, into a taxi! The airport here we come!!

... aussah. Auf der Veranda hingen ein paar Haengematten und der Garten war tropisch angelegt. Um zu Abend zu essen, haben wir eine kleine Nachtwanderung gemacht, gut dass ich meine Taschenlampe bei hatte, ansonsten haette man die Hand vor den Augen nicht sehen koennen. Nach zwei Caipiroschka mit Maracuja war ich ganz schoen angedudelt und hab mich lustig mit den Franzosen unterhalten. Erstaunlich wie viele Leute doch via englisch kommunizieren koennen. Das ...