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We arrived in Curitiba Wednesday afternoon after reading that the places public transport was used as a model not only in Brazil but in other countries worldwide Karl put all of his misguided trust that it would be fast... Wrong! public transport is slow no matter where you go in the world it would seem as our "rapid transit bus" that we took was only a 1.5hour ride from the airport into town but hey, when it only costs $1.50 who is really complaining... after leaving the bus we then proceeded in getting lost from a map that... well had the detail of a moderately well drawn 7 year old's version of a map, so we managed to find our hostel after asking in a hotel (which is not the first time we have used this tactic on this trip). After settling in and deciding our proceedings for the following day we walked to the supermarket which we were told was 9 blocks away... again wrong. 5 blocks later we come across a Supermarket called Condor, it was possibly the largest supermarket we have seen so far in South America. It sold everything except gluten free bread it would seem, you could pick up a laptop or a massive sony sound system typical of most clubs even.
Thursday morning we slept in got up and had breakfast, not trusting that the public transport would get us to the bus depot in time we caught a taxi to the bus depot, and managed to get there just in time to get a ticket and jump on board the bus 2mins before its departure. We were heading to the coast to take a boat to the Ilha do Mel (Honey Island). This was a mildly interesting bus ride with three guys drunk out of their minds, as they were yelling the whole journey and even had the audacity to try and start smoking on the bus, which was the only thing that got them a warning. Once we were finally off the bus we thought that it was over, we went to the tourist area bought our return tickets to Ilha do Mel (island of honey) and got on our boat and a minute before we were due to leave and our quite inebriated amigo's joined our trip, about 10mins into our journey and one of them was climbing over the back so he could get enough water to splash his friends (both of us silently hoping a big wave hit so he was cast overboard).
Once disembarked we then headed down the jetty and Jane got talking to one of the passengers on our boat ride over, while on our walk down Mau and his wife Cida invited us to stay with them, not having anything organised in advanced we decided it couldn't harm to at least go with them and look at their place. Once we turned up we decided to stay as it was nestled in between a lovely little community of beach cottages, so fairly safe. After unpacking a little we headed out for lunch, which for $20 we got enough food & booze to feed 4 quite easily, so it took us about an hour and a half to eat what we could. Large lunches seem to be the thing to do as dinner is not a big thing here on the island, after lunch we went off for a walk and Mau and Cida took us to show us a cave on the island, and then one of the taller spots on the island as well - stunning views.
After a while from getting back from our walk we headed out at dinner time, and you could almost swear that the island was deserted except for a few locals.
Early the next day we headed out on a walk around the island 6km of mainly beach walking, where our main goal was to get to the islands lighthouse. Along the way we managed to pick up a puppy that was quite happy wandering and discovering with us even though he was the biggest wus of a dog! He followed us around the whole island until he got chased away by another dog upon our return.
Just a 2 hour put put boat journey from the island is the 3rd largest port in Brazil so in typical fashion a lot of boats are moored out at sea to avoid paying port fees, we managed to count 80 ships all out in the ocean from the light house! Meanwhile, Jane was trying to demonstrate the difference between chip, ship and cheap to Mau, who is learning English. So that was an interesting sight just in itself.
Tomorrow we are off to San Paulo, the capital of Brazil to catch our last organised destination of our trip to the largest wetlands of the Southern Hemisphere, from here we are hoping to see typical wildlife to the Amazon region and much more.
While writing this blog I (Karl) have been in a hammock on a porch overlooking the sea! Thank you to Mau and Cida for their generosity of sharing their house with us! While on the porch we have enjoyed the company of many birds, including many humming birds which are so amazingly fast and nimble, and other birds of so many fantastic colours! Particularly blue, scarlet and one that has 7 different colours! Unfortunately today also marks 3 weeks left till we arrive back in Brisbane! It seems as though we've been on holiday for AGES yet also feels like we've only just left!
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