My favorite animals of Brasil, pre-Iguaçu

Max!

Hiboux!

Very stuck-up looking autruche.

Chicken from the farm.

JAGUAR (totally real)

Bento

Lovely beetle

"The jungle"

In Brasil, in order to preserve the native flora and fauna whilst using the land for farming, farm owners are required to not farm a chunk of their land - around 20%. This is connected with the chunks owned by other farmers, and is large enough to form its own little ecosystem. We visited Sandra's parents' little woods today and hung out with monkeys, large bugs and some seriously impressive trees.

Ma vie en orange

Everything here is orange. When we moved to North Carolina, my mom stopped buying us white shorts, skirts and trousers as kids because they would just get ruined by the orange clay. But it is SO much more intense here - it cakes to everything. The dogs are orange. The chickens are orange. The lobby of the HSBC is orange. My feet are orange. I splashed some mud on myself  cleaning my shoes and I became momentarily convinced that I had measles...

A Cara by any other name

So, my name in Brasil has a few meanings. the one I knew about was "face" - same as in Spanish. But I have discovered another one recently - my name means "guy" or "dude". This was pretty funny when I found a beer mug that said "A melhor cara do mundo" (The best Cara, er, guy, in the world). But my recent correspondence on AirBNB was even funnier - the person I was speaking to claimed to be fluent in English so I hadn't written my initial enquiry in Portuguese. However, the first email I got back from her started "Dude, blah blah blah". I was a little taken aback that she'd be so familiar (and a little rude) so quickly, but also that she thought I was a guy. But when the second email came through and started, "Face, blah blah blah", I knew Google Translate was the culprit...

Farm life

Things have slowed to a blissful crawl here. I have read an entire book in the last 24 hours, eaten about 400 lychees fresh off the tree, discovered two further new types of fruit, and basically had a perfectly lazy day. Some pics for you:

The porch.

Wheeee!

Flower that only blooms at night.

Mangos

The farm

Outdoor kitchen

Love this spot!

Christmas lights

Harrods in London

Department Store in Curitiba

The house where I am staying (yes, it is Smurf blue).

Four seasons in one day

I am trying to keep up with this blog but today's a bit difficult because I am totally exhausted but also have to pack for the farm tomorrow! I know I will want to read this when my trip is over so really making an effort to stay up-to-date.

Today was, apparently, a typical Curitiba day, weatherwise. Which means that at some point, on the bus, I was nearly delirious from sunburn and dehydration, but my fingers and toes were all blue because of the sudden rainstorm and icy wind. I was informed about five hours too late to never leave the house without a cardigan...

Bus tour selfies and other pics

Me and Sandra at Jardins Botanicos.

Cris, Me, Sandra

Jardins Botanicos

Niemeyer Museum

Cool mural, but a bit tired.

I saw the sign(s)

For some reason, I love these signs - great wayfinding!

For my favorite military(ish) fellow

Renaults of Brasil

Megane

Sandero

Fluence

Logan

Duster

Twingo (French name?)

Me at the Renault Garage!

Pipoca protip

Bacon makes popcorn better (I know, bacon makes EVERYTHING better...)

Curitiba's namesake

From Wikipedia:

One theory is that the name "Curitiba" comes from the Tupi words kurí tyba, "many pine seeds" due to the large number of pinecones of Paraná pines in the region prior to its founding. Another version, also using words from the Tupi language, is that it originates in the combination of kurit (pine tree) and yba (large amount).

Here is, apparently, the pine of which they speak:

The icing on the cake - a train museum!

In the mall there is a very small, but well curated train museum. We were told NOT to take pictures, but once the guard figured out that I was from the US, he said that he'd make an exception. I guess I am a pretty big deal around here.

The dreams of a public transportation geek

We fulfilled a long-held dream of mine today...looking at the fancy, double-articulated buses of Curitiba! I remember learning about Curitiba's successful master transportation plan 20 years ago. Apparently its glory is a bit faded, but the traffic here is not as terrible as might be expected, and there are a LOT of big, nice looking bio-diesel buses on the road!

Love that logo!!

These pics were taken at the Estaçao shopping mall, which used to be the local train station.

These waiting areas are known as Tubes (self-explanatory, really).

Churrascuria

For lunch we went to a meat parade (aka churrascuria) and the tables have these little signs for when you don't want any more meat brought over. I think ours was broken as it certainly didn't stop the waiters from trying to force meat on us...