Roochelle Park Curitiba

Arrived in Curitiba today so I can have meetings with a potential supplier on Sunday. Depending on how that goes, I'll either need to go and have another meeting in Sao Paulo on Monday, or go somewhere else in Brasil to meet with another supplier. Either way, looks like I won't be getting home until Tues or Wed now ...

... Oscar Neimeyer Museum which is a really interesting art museum. At night, I went to a couchsurfing meeting at a bar. To my surprise, there was a band playing country music there! I was even more surprised when half the people at the bar knew the lyrics to all the songs! Apparently a lot of people in Curitiba like country music for some reason ...

After the first days we wanted to discover the region around Curitiba and so we wanted to rent a car. It was difficult to find one because we found all to expensive. Than we found Rent a Car Curitiba and they make promotions. So we could rent ...

<br> Continuing on towards Curitiba we have at last found one of the toll stations that shows that dual wheels count as type 2 in terms of tolls and so now we know what we have to pay. It was a day of varied scenery, but almost all day was wet. On arrival at ...

... the security guard got out this old scribbled bit of paper with English and Spanish on which basically said 'wrong place' but eventually we found it at the back of the bus station and all was sorted......As it was my b'day tomorrow too, Ads bought me as a pressie a Twix Mc Flurry so I was in heaven, it is amazing how when you are travelling something that would be so small and menial at home means a hell of a lot out here!! A wicked b'day present which didn't last long, thanks Ads!!

We went straight from the Sao Paulo airport on an overnight bus to Curitiba. Curitiba is a town in the state Parana. Here is a picture of the huge beer we ordered it came in a beaker with an ice reservoir inside to keep it chilly. Here are some pics we took of the city at night: We went on the tourist bus ...

... turned out to be a couple of tumbled down walls overlooking the sea - thank goodness we hadn´t paid entrance to see this. We continued on and found one of Paraty´s closest beaches - not as deserted as the photos we had seen but yellow sand none the less. We chilled here for a few hours before heading back for dinner and sampling a locally brewed beer in Paraty´s ´Che Bar´- (dedicated to Cuba and all things Che!). We awoke the next ...

... high mountains dropped to luscious lowlands. We moved over viaducts and beautiful mossy bridges, and closed our ears as kids screeched at the tops of their lungs through each successive tunnel. Locals ride the rails in droves to Morretes on most weekends to try the local specialty "barreada", a type of meat stew accompanied with fresh seafood and mixed with "farinya" (Brazil's substitute ...

... to my move to Brazil, I had been exchanging emails with Paulo. One day I sent a recent picture of me. I never heard from him again. I thought it was weird...tried sending emails again, but to no avail. I then discovered that all the emails and anything internet-related is shared. So his email was also accessed by his wife. Well, imagine someone who you already consider your mortal enemy and rival sending your man pictures by email? Well, I wish someone had ...

... but then he talked with us a lot. There were also some other friends of him, and they told us ... That is Fred Mills a very very famous musician. He is international famous and he has played all over the world. Mhmmm Nice to meet you Fred Mills :) And I got a Autogramm :) And if we are really lucky he will send us a CD of himself.