An Afternoon in Curitiba

On our way to Ponta Grossa this weekend, Jorge offered to show me Curitiba. What a beautiful city!

Our first stop was lunch, because my family is far more about living to eat rather than eatting to live. Jorge took me to an italian restaurant called Madalosso, which is the 2nd largest restaurant in the worl. It is the size of a football field, they go through 40,000 chickens and serve 55,000 people each month. The restaurant consists of 5 or 6 great rooms, each named after a city in Italy. Every night each of them has a different type of music to suit your fancy. Its also all-you-can-eat (although I always end up eatting to maximum capacity when we go out, whether or not its a buffet, so it appears that every restaurant is all you can eat, whether you want it or not). Within 5 minutes of sitting down you have about 6 dishes of foot at your table and the waiters ciculate around with varying pasta dishes. Although different from American Italian food, it was awfully good.

After lunch, touring the town was on the agenda. We made three stops: First the Parque do Tanguá then the Opera do Arame, which was closed for repairs so we only got a peek of it and lastly the Jardim Botanico, which was by far a grande finale for it all.

The main attraction at the Jardim Botanico is the green-house itself, but the gardens around it and the city as a backdrop make the whole area complete. I expecialy liked the row of bright red and yellow flowers down the middle leading up to the house. Where the flowers end there was a waterfall whose source is within the green house itself. It is a more natural looking water fall with a stream running off of it out of the house and outside ot the larger fountain.

Also, encircling the greenhouse is a collection of artwork by a man named Frans Krajcberg who took destroyed logs (burned, decomposed, flooded) and turn them into beautiful abstract art by widdling at the and painting them. Jorge especially liked it and is planning a new art project of his own.

It was a quick look at a huge city, but I really think that I got to see the highlights of it. And it was really my type of tourism... three hours, in, out, to the point. Not to mention also plenty of eating.