Curitiba Day 2

Day 2 began with a decent breakfast provided by the hotel. It's nice getting back to places that offer free breakfast! We then walked back to the bus station that we arrived in yesterday. Here we found the offices for the Serra Verde Express. Today we are getting a shuttle to Morretes, about 65km away to spend the day. Then we will get the famous train with it's gorgeous views back during sunset.

The shuttle journey was very quiet and chill with only one other couple and a guide on the bus with us. This was very unexpected because the Serra Verde is listed as a top attraction for Curitiba. Along the way to Morretes we stopped at a viewpoint of the bay. It wasn't overly sunny, but we still had a decent view with the clouds.

Our next stop was right before the Morretes village at the Hesgeopar Center. When we first walked in, we were a bit skeptical looking at all of the badly constructed dolls that tell the rudimentary story of Paraña. However, there was a lovely guide there who spoke English and walked us through the display. We learned about the distinct phases of the history of the area from colonization, to maté growing, to logging, to using hydropower, and growing coffee. She also told us about the impact of the Itaipu Dam reservoir flooding the Seven Falls which were even bigger than Iguazu. There was also a reconstruction of Iguazu Falls that helped us visualize where we had been just a few days prior.

After our history lesson, we finished the short drive into the village. Morretes is much smaller than we expected. We walked around the village along the river, went to see the new and old bridge as well as the local church. Allan also found out about a local brewery called Tres Morretes. Our new mission was to find this beer. The brewery building no longer existed, so then we went to some restaurants hoping they served it. The first few only served Heineken and Corona. Feeling defeated we stopped in at a little bakery for a break from the sun and a snack for lunch. We had a little tostada and cookie. It was pretty nice, the food and being out of the sun.

While we were in the bakery, we saw that they sold Tres Morretes beer. This spurred Allan on to find somewhere that served it cold. He found a WhatsApp number for the company, and they responded straight away. We had some restaurants to try! The first one, we struck out. The second one, more of a shack with draft taps, had it. Not only did they stock the beer, but it was on draft. After trying a couple, we changed our minds to just sharing a pint, and got one each. The beer was refreshing in taste and temperature. It was a light beer that had a bit of tartness to it. My guess is passion fruit.

After our beers we walked to the train station to get the Serra Verde Express. There was just under an hour until the train would leave, but we didn't have much else to do and we were roasting. Boarding the train didn't really help unfortunately because there was no AC and no wind, but at least we could sit down on our brown padded bench and fan ourselves. The seats reminded me of being on a school bus as a kid.

Once it was time to leave, the train gave a few good toots of its whistle and we were off! The train moved quite slowly for a good portion of the journey. The landscape for the first half or so of the trip was stunning. There were mountains, rolling hills, and lots of trees. We also saw the winding river and a few waterfalls along the way. Allan and I took turns sitting next to the window to see further down the train and take pictures. We occasionally passed old, delapidated buildings and some smaller train stations.

Once we were through the mountains and headed back to Curitiba, the train journey was less interesting because we were traveling along the road like a tram. We were also going much fast than I thought we would. The journey was meant to take about 4.5 hours and be on the train for sunset, but we pulled into Curitiba station just after 1815, almost an hour before sunset and less than 3.5 hours after we left. It was a good train journey for the first half, but we did feel a bit cheated after purchasing the sunset package.

After we disembarked, we walked to a shopping center to get some dinner and then went back to the hotel briefly to plan our next steps.Læs mere