Curitiba, Parana: Bus Tour, Oscar Niemeyer Museum and Sunday Market

Three days in Curitiba. Known as an eco-friendly city because of the work past mayors have done to promote responsible waste disposal and ample green space within the city, this town of 2 million does have a lot to offer tourists. I am no longer on the coast of Brazil, but inland. The climate here is much cooler though it has rained a lot more than the other cities I visited. The vegetation is dense and lush - a tropical rain forest.

On the first day Eliane suggested that we do a bus tour of the city. For 25R you get to ride on a hop-on hop-off double decker bus that has stops at 23 locations. You however only get to choose 4 locations to disembarque and embarque from the tour. Because the sights are so far apart and some at which you could stay for a significant amount of time, you can use the tickets over multiple days or all in one day.

My favourite destination was the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. Designed by the famous communist Brazilian architect, it houses many art exhibits. Upon entering the museum, Eliane and I agreed we wouldn't spend more than an hour there, so that we had ample time to visit other destinations. I then shared with her a story about how my Mum and Dad were meant to tour together, because they have a similar approach to museums, which is to read every panel in a museum. As a result, going to a museum with my parents is usually at least a half-day committment.

Eliane and I breezed through the first exhibit, primarily modern art, and then upon entering the second exhibit my interest skyrocketed - it was a seemingly never ending collection that has been amassed by the Itau bank in Brazil about the discovery and documentation of Brazil and the Americas.

The first room consisted of original maps from the 1500s showing the various bays and hazards along the Brazilian and South American coast to be used by European navigators in their explorations. It was particularly interesting to how the maps became more refined and those that included Canada. In all maps, Canada's west was a big questions mark and in one particular map, California was documented as an island because voyageurs had not gone far enough north to know it was attached to North America.

After the maps, in the 1600s and 1700s the focus of investigation turned to documenting the flora and fauna of the country. The images of the birds, reptiles, flowers and trees were exquisite. Once the 1800s was reached, focus turned to studying the native groups and last the end of the 1800s and early 1900s focused on city planning, culture, society and slavery in Brazil.

The exhibit was so fascinating I couldn't leave!! I loved it so much and must have spent at least two hours viewing the collection. I apparently am turning into my mother.

We still hadn't even seen the rest of the museum designed by Niemeyer himself, which we decided to race through in 30 minutes.

Other destinations on the bus tour included the botanical gardens, the downtown square, the Italian quarters and many other ethnic neighbourhoods.

This is the provincial tree. It is protected by the state and so you are not allowed to cut them down whether they are on public or private land. I saw a number of properties that were half covered in these trees which certainly makes the property value decrease since the land cannot be used to build or cultivate as long as the trees exist.
On Sunday morning we started at the famous Curitiba Sunday market. Below you can see a man squeezing the liquid out of sugar can stalks for a popular beverage served here - sugar cane juice.
At the market, I got to see lots of tropical fruit including these jabuticaba of which I had heard lots about but was advised their season was only in November and December. They are so popular that in Brazil it is a complement to be told that a person has dark brown eyes like a jabuticaba.