Tag 49 - Curitiba

The main reason for our stay in Curitiba was to take the famous “Serra Verde Express”, which travels over 100km through the tropical rainforest to Morettes. The route was originally built in the 19th century to transport goods from the port in Paranaguá to the economic center of Curitiba, through many mountains, tunnels and over steep slopes.

The train was scheduled to depart at around 8:30 a.m., so we set off early for the short walk to the station, where there were already loads of people at the entrances. It had rained heavily during the night and since the authorities had not yet cleared the route, we had to wait and stretch our legs. We set off a good hour and a half late and chugged through the outskirts of the city at almost walking pace. Since it kept raining, the train had to stop frequently and wait until the next section was cleared. The tour guide in our carriage eventually finished with all the information about the landscape, the train and everything else she could think of. We had now been on the train for a good four hours and had only covered a third of the route. There was a religious tour group in our carriage, who at least contributed a little to the musical entertainment. Due to the persistent rain, the view of the many valleys and gorges was unfortunately severely limited or non-existent. We arrived in Morretes at around 3:30 p.m. in the rain and quickly ducked into a buffet restaurant and strolled a bit through the streets of the small but worth seeing town on the way to the bus terminal. If the weather had been good, it would have been nice to sit in one of the many cafés and restaurants. Luckily, we decided against taking the train back and were back in Curitiba after a 1.5-hour bus ride. It was pouring with rain there too, and we only managed to get to the supermarket in stages, relatively dry, to get dinner.