Curitiba Day 1

Arriving in Curitiba is like entering into some quasi-futuristic version of Brazil. There is a soft airport-ish voice that greets you in the bus terminal letting you know when the next bus is leaving and from which gate. Stepping out of the terminal I was greeted with a row of orange taxis all clean and efficient (perhaps it’s the German influence here).



But the most striking feature is of course the thing that has drawn many an urban planner to this town…the Bus Rapid Transit system. Yes just outside of the terminal there sits this beautifully crafted glass and steel tube that enter before getting onto the bus.



It’s just as efficient as all the textbooks say and you really feel as if this were some sort of above ground subway. You pay before entering the tube so that when the bus shows up everyone can just get off and get on in one fell swoop. No searching for the right change and holding up the line.

Seeing that I arrived at the semi-ungodly hour of 6am I was a bit surprised to see a decent amount of foot traffic on the city streets. Fortunately my hostel is only a few blocks away from the bus terminal so rather than immediately try out the cool buses, I decided to walk. I checked in and after having been given tons of advice on what to do in Curitiba I decided I should try to hit up the train to Paranaguá. So back to the bus terminal to buy my ticket for the train that leaves at 8am. Unfortunately the train only goes to Paranaguá on the weekends so I had to settle for a train to Morreta. The train still affords you some spectacular views, and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.