Brazil: Curitiba, Barra da Lagoa & Parati

Hello all.
We did the mission over the border to Brazil that same day and headed over to Curitiba for no other reason than that, it was there. Highlights were, bird & monkey park in the middle of town, cheap Havanianas, & an amazing train ride to the coast through the Atlantic rainforest.

We also enjoyed a number of the local brews in the historic centre of town.

After Curitiba we headed to Santa Catarina island. We stayed at a family run pousada near the beach run by Nelson and Graciela, who made us sit down with them and eat lunch the moment we arrived, sweaty, exhausted and starving. Nelson, grinning, also handed me a rolling pin one night Darryl came home late after I had been worried for hours(he always seemed to know the right thing to do)

They hosted backpackers from Israel, Germany, the UK, Brazil, Argentina, France & Romania. There were so many languages flying around it was difficult ot keep up and our portuguese goes no farther than our phrasebook. Nelson made us caipirinhas, a perfect Brazilian drink made with sugar cane alcohol and limes. After one or two, it didn't matter that nobody understood you.

We spent a week here drinking, swimming, hiking to hidden beaches and attempting to surf with Gustavo, Roland, Ovi, Rob, Saskia & Seamus.

We also stopped in Parati, a town with a rough past as an outlet of the country's gold in the 1700s

Unfortunately it rained almost the whole time we were there, but we rented mountain bikes anyway and rode to some waterfalls and a farm where they make (and give generous samples of) the potent cachaca used in caipirinhas.

Holding up a wall, waiting for a bus to Rio.

Love, d&j