Curitiba

Friday night, I came home from work and made my way over the bus station. I decided to take a taxi because the station is in a bad area and I didnt know exactly how to get there. It was a good call because it was cheap. But the guy told me that traffic was so bad that he would have to leave me behind and then explain me how to get in. I was thinking that this would be really complicated and have at least one dark alley involved. But it actually turned out to just be the back entrance.

I got on the bus to go to Curitiba that night. It was a long process getting everything figured out for this trip because I have less time than I planned on. I didnt plan on visiting Curitiba, but the bus schedules and all worked out better to go there first and then to Iguaçu. Waiting for the bus, I noticed some interesting looking guys getting on. One that stuck out was tall and had a big cowboy hat on. When I got on, I realized that I was sitting in the middle of him and his buddies. These guys were real Brazilian cowboys. This dude had the hat, he was missing some teeth, some others had camouflage and other interesting clothes on, and they wore their sunglasses in the bus at night, I guess to stop the light from reaching their eyes. They could have just closed the shades! They had some Brazilian country type music playing from their cell phone and their accent was suuuuuper country. The cowboy hat guy kept asking why there was no water on the bus. He said it when they got on, and then in the middle of a conversation he brought it up again, and then left the bus to get some. It started to get old after a while.

They were talking like the whole night and the dude next to me kept taking my space on the arm rest and then some! I stood straight up at like 3 am and said--what the!! I didnt finish the phrase, but I said it in English for some reason. And then he said to his friends, it seems like we are bothering this kid. And then they kept going! And the dude behind me was snoring. I swear, if you snore, you should be thrown off the dang bus. It was a rough night of sleep. But I got back at the country dudes, dont worry.

We arrived at 9 am or so. It was cold! The first time all trip I have really felt cold. But Curitiba was a very cool place. It was raining a lot of the time and I lost my umbrella way back when. But it was not too bad. I saw the famous botanical gardens, the historical part of town (which was awesome), and walked around for a while. It is a city made up of tons of immigrants from Eastern Europe and other parts of Europe and it was cool to see this influence around. I had my last meal in Brazil (steak, rice, beans, and fries) and headed over to the bus station. I fixed my backpack up with a velcro thing instead of a zipper. I broke the zipper way back like in Colombia and broke it again in the past few days. I found some velcro amazingly enough in Curitiba and fixed it up!

That night I took a sleeping pill and got on the bus headed for Iguaçu. It was only an eight or nine hour trip, but I wanted to rest as much as I could. I got on the bus and this kid was chanting--swine flu! Swine flu! I think his little brother or something was on the bus and, maybe he was going to Argentina. It was pretty funny. The next post will tell you all about my trip to Iguaçu and my little encounter with the Brazilian federal police...again. :)