Curitiba to Blumenau Day 1

Having finished up in Curitiba, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the airport to pickup our rental car. Once we got to the airport, and wandered around for a good while, we managed to find Avis and get our car.

We loaded up into our compact VW Gol and began our 12 day road trip south. Allan wanted me to try driving first, which was challenging at first. Before today I had never driven any other manual car besides my own, and certainly not on the right. But, after a little while I did get the hang of it and we were away to Blumenau. The roads and highways weren't too dissimilar from America. This is probably because Brazil's size necessitates travel by land with big trucks for transporting goods like America. While I was driving we hit some pretty heavy rain, and just over halfway we stopped at a gas station for the bathroom and a snack. Unfortunately we didn't see any decent grocery stores before we left Curitiba so we had no lunch and no road snacks.

After our halfway-ish stop, Allan took over driving. So naturally it was clear blue skies the rest of the journey 🙃. He did hit some traffic as we were coming into Blumenau though, which was surprising considering his luck normally avoids all traffic! Once we got to Blumenau, it was early evening and we were starving (me more than Allan...I was definitely hangry). We went into the center after dropping our bags in our very retro room. Our hotel was right next to the river, so after a short walk over the bridge we were in the center of town. The German influence is very obvious here. The buildings look like you've stepped back in time to an old German village, but at the same time, they are in and amongst very modern buildings.

After not really eating much today, we decided not to eat at the food court in the mall, but at an actual restaurant (it also helps that it's not super expensive). We settled on Aikau, a Hawaiian restaurant. We got a kalua poke bowl and a katsu bowl. They were delicious, full of vegetables and delicious sauce, mango, rice and of course the meat. We really enjoyed them, and it was nice to have an entrée each instead of sharing one entrée between us like we normally do when we can't find cheap food. The restaurant was also pretty spot on with it's Hawaiian decor. There was a Hawaiian flag, tasteful Eddie Aikau quotes, and nice beach themed decorations. Never expected an American and Scotsman to sit in a Hawaiian restaurant in a German town in Brazil, but there we were!

After dinner we decided to take a small walk through the town. Allan then kept getting pulled into more sites and places to go and see so our small walk became a lot longer. It was nice to familiarize ourselves with the town and see some of the buildings lit up at night. The row of palms at the far end of our walk was particularly nice with the way it lit up at night and led down to a church on a hill. We also walked past things like the beer museum that sounds like a good visit and got some good pictures of some of the nicer German buildings. My favorite is the one that reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

After our late evening/night walk, we went back to the hotel and firmed up our game plan for tomorrow before heading to bed.Read more