Curitiba is one of the wealthiest cities in Brazil, and approaching it there are huge numbers of shiny blocks and gated communities. There are motorways all round the city and what looks like are whole communities that probably do not venture down to the city centre as they both live and work in these areas.

The City Centre still has a number of its old colonial buildings, some of which are in need of some TLC, but have probably been bypassed for the shiny new developments all around the city. In the old centre, like Sao Paulo, the big colonial churches are still very much actively used and not simply given over to tourism or big national events like those back home.  Where the old colonial buildings have been renovated, like in the streets just to the North of the Cathedral, with their fresh paint and pavement bars, the city centre in parts has a distinctly bohemian feel.

The city’s bus network is very futuristic in that the bus stops in the city centre are like glass pods with a turnstile to enter and then the passengers enter the bus from the pod.  They can not enter the bus at street level an innovated way to minimise fare evasion.

One of Curitiba’s big claims to fame is the museum dedicated to Oscar Niemeyer, the architect that designed and built Brazil’s futuristic capital Brasilia in the 1950s and many other buildings in Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome. The museum both celebrates his life’s works and is supplemented with a number of modern art exhibitions that reflect the national creativity and quirkiness that is symbolic of modern Brazil. Centrepiece in the museum’s building is a massive eye shaped building with mirrored glass on the sides that reflects the water underneath and some beautifully designed yellow tiles on the structure. For those of you from a certain generation it feels like a building from the set of The Jetsons.

Curitiba’s other top attraction is the Botanical Gardens complete with apalm house that would not look out of place in Kew Gardens. Indeed, one forgets how big Brazil is and while we visited Curitiba in the summer months and think the whole country is tropical, the palm trees and other Amazonian plants may well need the protection provided by the palm house in the winter, despite the fact that Curitiba is only just outside the tropical zone.

 

Curitiba, like São Paulo, also has a music scene and gives further hope the the continuation of guitar bands.  Of course the relative popularity of guitar music may simply be the result of the fact that Curitiba and São Paulo before hand are the wealthiest and most European parts of Brazil.  Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the North East Cities of Brazil may well have completely different music scenes.

In addition, it also has a bit of a bit of a hippy scene such as evidenced by the old VW below and some old hippy simply selling hand written posters of their thoughts.

 

 

Date: 31/01/2018 to 01/02/2018