Brrrrrrrrrrr

Curitiba isn't nearly as warm as Porto Seguro. Perhaps it's because we're hundreds of miles further south and not on the beach anymore. Plus, we're headed into winter in the southern hemisphere. So we're talking 50-60 degrees and rainy. I packed for ~80 degrees and sunny. I'm having serious wardrobe issues. So I finally broke down and had to get a sweater. I bought a nice zip up cardigan, a super soft long sleeve T and a thin turtleneck sweater. If desparate, I can layer all three together. But I still only have one pair of long pants. And to think I almost didn't even bring those! I also only have 1 pair of non-sandals along. It looks like we'll be here for at least another week or two, so I'm going to buy a pair of pants and possibly a pair of shoes. We've got plenty of room in the suitcases this time, but our budget can't handle me going back to the stores I bought the tops at. I had to try really hard not to spend a total fortune on clothes. As it was, my total was about $200. Ouch... If I spend $200 on cloths, I usually get at least 5-6 things. I'm not cheap, but I'm frugal. I'm going to try to find a less fashionable store for the other ones. The neighborhood we're in is way too high class for me to even try again.

I like Curitiba

We flew to Curitiba without incident on Saturday morning. Having to fly out at 4 in the morning is a pain, but I did get a little sleep on the plane. We had a bit of a scare I guess in the Sao Paulo airport. Our flight had to leave from the international departures area because it was going to Argentina after our stop in Curitiba, Brazil. Billy's visa doesn't permit reentry, so we were concerned about having to go through the customs/immigration control desks. But they're not idiots and when we showed them our tickets to Curitiba we got waived through - no passport check or stamping required.

Our hotel here in Curitiba is the Mercure. It's very nice. I'll post some pictures later. We have a two-room suite. The first room has a kitchen area (microwave, mini fridge, counter w/ mini sink, cabinet & drawer with 2 each of plates, cups, mugs, saucers, bowls, knives, forks, and spoons), a desk/table, a couch, and a smallish (maybe 19") flat screen TV on the wall. And a door to our balcony :) The second room (there's a closing door in between) has the bed, closet, and bathroom. I like almost everything about this room better than the Brisa da praia, except the bathroom is smaller, the air conditioner is in the bedroom so it doesn't cool the living room much, and there's even less storage space (even though it's a bigger room).

When we got here, they gave us a room on the 13th floor. That's the top one with rooms on it. The 14th floor has the gym, squash court, saunas, and pool. We unpacked and went for a walk around the neighborhood. It's a rather fancy area with fashionable shops and restaurants. We ended up at a less trendy but actually open at 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon restaurant. It was basically a diner, but they served cocktails :) I had a fantastic drink - strawberries and apple chunks with a bit of vodka. With a cinnamon stick for a stirrer. Basically, it was more of a fruit salad in a cup than a drink. When we came back after our late lunch we took a nap. I got up again around 6:30 PM and fiddled on the internet for a while. At 8 I went and woke billy up so we could get dinner. We went to a Cuban restaurant we'd seen in the afternoon. It was very good.

Unfortunately, when we came back, our toilet wasn't working. It wasn't flushing very well before we left, but maintenance was going to come check it out in the morning. It was essentially non-functional upon our return so we had to change rooms. Having a toilet is kind of an important part of staying in a hotel. So I had to pack everything back up and billy went to try and explain the situation to the front desk, Brazilian dictionary in hand. Luckily, the guy at the desk spoke English pretty well and quickly got us a new room. The one he'd chosen was a two-level suite instead of a side-by-side . Billy had stayed in one of those last time, and as cool as it sounds, he didn't want to deal with our big heavy suitcases on tiny spiral staircase that leads to the bedroom. So the guy rebooked us again into a room exactly like our first one but on the 8th floor. We unpacked again and went to bed.

Sunday we slept in, then went for a walk around the area after breakfast. We went through a pretty park and down a long pedestrian only shopping street. Everything was closed except the drug stores and lunch counters. There was a fair number of people out walking around though (it was beautiful out). We stopped by the grocery store on the way back to try and figure out what to stock our kitchen with. But we didn't have any money with us, so we have to go back tonight to buy some breakfast and lunch food. We went out for a late lunch again, but headed the wrong direction to find any restaurants open at lunch. We wondered a bit trying to circle around to the area we'd walked around in the morning. We ended up finding a bakery that was open. They had fantastic displays of desserts, but a few lunch items too. We each got a chicken pie thing called an empada and then discovered they had a buffet in the back. So billy got some quiche too, and we picked out tiny pieces of a bunch of desserts to split. It's all very tasty. I'll probably go over for a lunch or breakfast buffet a few more times. You can either pay by weight or a flat rate. On the way back we discovered that the office billy needs to go to for work is actually on the same block as the hotel. We can see it from our balcony (jut not the side with the logo on it). So billy can walk to work instead of dealing with a car.

I worked most of the rest of the afternoon. There's a variety of ethic restaurants around here - cuban, chinese, swiss, german, portuguese, italian, and american. We went to the american one last night. It's a fancy burger joint called Mustant Sally. I saw some people eating these amazing looking chili cheese fries, so I decided to get a chili wrap instead of a burger. Billy had a burger sampler platter with five tiny burgers. We will definitely go back. The burgers were amazing. As in seriously the best burgers we've ever had. And the dessert - WOW - it was an apple tart served in a hot skillet with a huge scoop of icecream. Then they pour thin camamel sauce over the top at the table. It boils when it reaches the skillet. It was amazing. We resisted the urge to order a second one.

Why we're flying to Curitiba

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Billy's been back and gone again

I left off the last update just before leaving for the tour, so I'll pick up from there. The tour was of the old historic district, not the actual city, it was free, and you got to see a capoeira show. The tour was in Portuguese, so we didn't really understand any of it. The jist is that there's these super old houses and a couple churches from the colonial days. As in these building are all from between 1500-1800. The colony was at the top of the hill, so there was a gorgeous view of the ocean. I'll post pics if I ever get them from the guys.

After the tour, we had the bus drop us in town for lunch and shopping. The guys wanted to get some stuff, like hammocks, gifts, etc. Well, at lunch time, even on a busy tourist weekend, it turns out none of the stalls are open. Only the brick and mortar shops, and those are overpriced. We grabbed some lunch and walked around for probably an hour before grabbing the bus back to the hotel.

I then had to work for the afternoon, but planned to go back to town for dinner and the concert that night. We decided to put off going out until about 9:30. At 9, we got to together to 'pregame' like college students. We sat around drinking cheap vodka with orange fanta discussing politics, religion, Big Brother, and a variety of other random topics until 11. We never did get dinner, but finally made it to the concert around 11:30. That was fun, I got to go dancing for a bit with the guys and some brazilians they'd met previously at a club. I bailed at around 1:30 and caught the bus back. I wanted to get some sleep before going snorkling at 7:30.

I didn't end up going snorkling though. I didn't get much sleep because apparently I'd gotten food poisoning at lunch. I've been here for months and never gotten sick like that! Figures it would be when I was gonna go out for a fun tour. Luckily, the tourism council girl gave me back the money I'd paid for the trip (about $50). I spent the morning feeling horrible, but eventually the medicine kicked in enough that I was ok. I didn't get an appetite until 3pm. Since lunch the day before I'd only had a couple bites of chocolate bar, some fanta, and one slice of watermelon I forced myself to eat for breakfast. Anyone who knows me knows I rarely go more than a few hours without eating, so I was very sick. When I was finally able to convince myself to eat, I decided to try out lunch at the Toa Toa across the street. It's slow because it's so busy there, but the food was yummy. I got a huge pastry filled with chicken. So much that I had left overs for the next day! After that and the mango juice I felt a lot better.

We got together for dinner again that night around 7 or 8. We were all tired and indecisive, so we just walked over to the Toa Toa. For dinner I split a yummy chicken rice veggie dish. There was a really good capoeira show, then these weird singer that everyone went nuts over! Basically, it was like the brazilian Tom Jones. Yeah, it was weird. Very weird. And it turned out it was actually an impersonator (like how people go crazy for elvis impersonators sometimes). He was a good singer though. The place pretty well died after he left. I hit up the dance club portion for a couple songs, but the guys wouldn't come dance to the electronica music, and even that part of the club started to die down, so we left. The guys went downtown for another concert and were out most of the night I'm told. I went home, called billy, and tried to get some sleep.

Yesterday, I worked all day and the guys went on a full day tour to another beach town. Billy made it back from Ipatinga in record time, but had to make lots of phone calls and write emails when he got in. We went out to dinner at 8 (just for tapiocas) and the guys came along. We left them downtown so they could finally do their shopping. Billy had to go back out again at 10:30 PM to the airport to buy a ticket for a flight out today. Yes, the ticket counters are open that time of night. He had to go then, because the place wasn't open we he tried in the afternoon! So he was here for the night, went to work as usual in the morning, got back here at 11ish, showered, packed, and left again. He'll be gone until Friday this time. At least he gets to fly instead of drive (it's really far to wherever he's going in southern brazil). Then I think we both pack up all our stuff and fly to Curitiba this weekend. I'll let you know when we get those plans finalized.

Busy few days, but it was nice to have people to hang out with for once!

Being out by myself is creepy. That's why I never do this stuff on my own. Just sitting on the bus alone was bad enough (weird drunk guys blowing kissing through the window, etc. - so glad the only people who got on the bus were couples and chicks!).

Happy Earthday!

Happy Earthday everyone! I'll be back later or tomorrow with a new post.