Took a train through the jungle, didn't see any monkeys

The Brazilian adventures continue! Saturday we had free time in the morning, so after a wild night at the Schwartzwald Jordan and I happily slept in. Then in the afternoon we went to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON). Niemeyer was a very famous Brazilian architect that designed many well-known modern buildings. He’s the guy that completely redesigned Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Google it, it looks all crazy and futuristic.

The MON was designed by Niemeyer himself, so it was a really cool space. The building was cleanly designed and used a lot of reinforced concrete construction. (Oooooh somebody’s studying Civil Engineering…) The museum itself had a lot of cool modern art exhibits. My favorite was a pop art installation by Frida Kahlo. I usually don’t like museums (they make me sleepy) but this one was pretty rad! What’s even weirder is Niemeyer died on Dec 5^th – right before we came to Brazil! The guy was super old, over a hundred, but still designing buildings! Such a champ.

After MON, we all headed back to the city Centrum. There was a Christmas street vendor market type thing right next to our hotel that was complete with a multi cultural food stand place, so Jordan and I grabbed food there for dinner. I had some less than stellar Pierogies… I had high hopes because I heard there were a lot of Polish immigrants in Curitiba, but I was sadly disappointed. Then, Jordan and I got chocolate covered strawberries on a stick. Such a win – and for only $R 3.50  (a little less than $2). Take that Godiva! Later that night we went out to a bar in the historical district. We chilled out on their patio, drank beers, and ate a plate of cheese. No seriously, we ordered this dish because the only word we recognized was queijo (cheese) and it was literally just a platter of cheese cubes. No complaints here. We even ordered another one.

Sunday was a big excursion day. We took a scenic train to the city of Morretes. The disorderly clustery Brazilian train station made me want to pull my hair out. Damn my affinity for German trains and their efficiency! Now when I say scenic train ride, I mean scenic. I’m talkin’ a train that’s max speed is 30km/h, through the tropical jungle, in the mountains. It was an EXPERIENCE. The train was not air conditioned frustratingly slow - we weren’t even getting a breeze! It took us about 4 hours to go Morretes even though it's only about 60km from Curitiba. Luckily the crazy beautiful views of the mountains and jungle made it all worth it. We saw breathtaking sights, wild blue hydrangeas, and even the occasional waterfall! However we didn’t see any monkeys, which was deeply saddening. The jungle looked like something straight outta Tarzan so you’d think you would see a monkey or two.

Once we got to Morretes we bee-lined it to our lunch destination.  This city is famous for their traditional Brazilian meal featuring meat, fish, and more meat. The first item they brought out was a super slow cooked beef reminiscent of Chipotle’s Barbacoa. (It’s been 7 days since my last burrito, but who’s counting). Then they brought out fried fish, baked fish, fried shrimp, baked shrimp, shrimp balls, and mussels. It was SO delicious! Then we moseyed around the little city and I bought some souvenirs. The city was very interesting… it seems so reliant on the trainloads of people that arrive at noon and leave at 4pm. Kinda bizarre. We were on the slow train for a total of 8 hours that day, but that lunch meal was worth it! That night we stayed in and listened to a choral Christmas performance by adorable Brazilian children.

And that brings me to Monday – the day we flew to Rio de Janeiro! I’ll pick up from there soon, but what I can tell you now is the sand at the Copacabana is super soft, the city is a little stinky, and Brazilian bikinis show off your whole butt! Until next post!