Day 4: Curitiba to Ponta Grossa

The first thing this morning (after my delicious breakfast of course 🙂 was to organize my carda verde, lol. Or at least the raw media… surely, I also had to buy a complete package of 50 sheets of paper since single purchases were not possible. At least one sorrow less… I did not want to count on coloured paper in Peru…

Another thing I am struggling with are the second keys of the motorbike. Since I was in a rush to finally hit the road, I left them behind in Sao Paulo at the BMW dealer. I sent Fernando a message asking him to send the key via courier to my next destination in Foz do Iguacu. Of course, it is “not a problem”. I am worried and hope that this time… please god… this time things would be working out. Fingers crossed!

I am starting to get also paranoid… last night I woke up and heard the noise of a motorbike passing by the hotel. I thought this sounds exactly like “Fury”… I could not sleep properly and all of a sudden I realized what actually Carmen meant with the hard beds in Brazil. Until so far they were all hard as rocks, lol. So possibly, I should blame the bed for the poor sleep, lol.

However, I continued my journey towards Foz do Iguazu and calculated 3 days to finally reach the magical waterfalls I have heard already so much about. Another three nights there in order to see everything I intended to do and receiving hopefully my second key 🙂 That’s the plan…

My first stop over should be a small town called Ponta Grossa. On the way I discovered a nature reserve called “Parque Estadual de Vila Velha” with its magnificent lime karst formation, a surreal scenario of red coloured rocks which perfectly stood in contrast to the crystal blue sky. I felt in love with the scenery and could have stayed much longer. Unfortunately, I felt the exhaustion of the last few days kicking in and I had the feeling it would be a good idea to already visit the Pousada, the Brazilian Bed and Breakfast in the next town.

Arriving there the host warmly welcomed me. She did not speak a lot of English and I tried my few Portuguese words at its best. It is a funny combination of a lot of different languages – A few words I picked up during my travel time at work. It is always beneficial to be able to break the ice, I was telling myself. Now, this was helping me in order to understand basic contexts and to express what I wanted (also with my hands and feet).

In the past I was always impressed by my father’s capabilities to communicate with the French, even though he did not speak a single word of the language (ok, a bit exaggerated :). Meanwhile, I know who I could be thankful for, lol. The secret is to simply speak… to not be afraid of mistakes or to possibly look stupid… it is a try and error philosophy. In the meantime I would significantly understand more than at the beginning of my journey. I look already forward to fail in Spanish, lol.

Since I skipped lunch I was super hungry and my host decided to give me a lift to the city centre where I visited another cathedral. This time the service was indeed boring and comparable to Europe. I always disliked such an atmosphere and was out again after a minute. My appetite led me to a typical Brazilian Bistro, where whole family and friends would come together to watch… what else… football 🙂 I enjoyed the show… and the steak… and the beer… and the plenty of fireworks. Brazilians simply love their fireworks and whenever a goal would be made… Tadaaaaaaa…. fireworks 🙂

Boa noite!

Route from Curitiba to Ponta Grossa