Curitiba and around
Next stop Brazil (for longer than an afternoon this time & with the correct stamps in our passport!) Slummed it on a semi-cama bus (no whiskey/blankets/pillows…or sleep!), but wasn´t too bad (you still have more leg room than on a plane). 
We weren´t quite sure what we were going to do in Curitiba and on arrival (at 7am) we jumped onto a train to Morretes. The journey is supposed to be one of the best in South America. It was fairly impressive – trundling through jungle, over bridges and viaducts, passing waterfalls etc, no monkies in the monkey puzzle trees though.
Morretes is a sleepy little colonial town famous for its barreada (type of beef stew & rice), so we stopped and had some of that before heading on to Paranagua.
Paranagua is bascially a bigger version of Morretes on the coast (well the main promenade is). Pretty promenade with decaying colonial buildings. We had intended to go onto Ilha do Mel, or into the jungle, but the weather wasn´t great & sitting on a beach (or under a tree) in the rain didn´t appeal so we headed back to Curitiba – on the bus this time – took half the time & a quater of the price, but not as picturesque.
Curitiba has lots of parks on its outskirts and at one we bumped into cayybaras – a larg ginuea pig. When I say large, I mean large, about a meter long and very solid looking. There were a lot of them around – including babies, which was cool.
The following day saw us heading out to Vila Velha – we didn´t know much about the place other than it had some sandstone formations. We had hoped to wander around them, but the place is very protected now and you have to stick to the paths and are driven from site to site. It was worth the visit though, and they were quite impressive.
Tags: Brazil, Curitiba, Travel
Jenni
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