It's time for some Rock'n'Roll! – Curitiba

01/03 – 05/03

“Do you wanna hear some Rock'n'Roll? Just a little bit? Ohhh, it's gonna be a long, long night!” With these words, Dave Grohl got the Brazilian audience excited for the upcoming concert. We were in the crowd and it felt surreal for us to experience the Foo Fighters live in Brazil until the end!

Unfortunately, we had three flights ahead of us until we reached our destination - the city of Curitiba in Brazil. This complicated flight route with layovers in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo was the cheapest option, which is why we chose it. At the check-in counter at the Bogotá airport, we seemed to have caught a novice because the whole process took forever and the girl at the counter had to ask her colleague for help dozens of times. Eventually, she gave us our tickets, but could only check us in for the first flight from Bogotá to Rio and for some unexplained reason, couldn't assign us seats. However, she assured us that our luggage would be checked through to Curitiba.

After going through security, we looked for our gate and tried to get proper boarding passes with seat numbers. The lady at the gate took away our boarding passes and politely asked us to take a seat and wait. When the plane was already fully boarded, we still didn't have new tickets. Emi started to get nervous, so we went back to the counter and explained our problem again. Suddenly, everything was easy and we finally got assigned seats. Unfortunately, not next to each other. But the young man next to me was kind enough to switch seats with Emi. The six-hour overnight flight passed relatively quickly. In Rio, we had to officially enter Brazil, which turned out to be extremely smooth. We hurried past the baggage claim towards the exit, where we suddenly saw a sign indicating that we absolutely had to pick up our luggage here. The sign seemed more trustworthy than the girl at the check-in counter in Bogotá, so we went to check it out. Sure enough, our backpacks came by after a minute...

After grabbing our backpacks, we headed to the check-in counter for the two domestic flights. The line of people was endless and there were hardly any counters open. Since we were already under time pressure, we asked an airline employee what we should do. Immediately, we were redirected to the fast lane, checked in our luggage, got our boarding passes, and strolled calmly to our gate. The rest of the journey went relatively smoothly. I occupied myself with the Portuguese language for the first time on the flights. At the airport in Curitiba, we ordered an Uber and I could immediately apply my newly acquired knowledge and say the most important sentence: “Eu não falo português!” - I don't speak Portuguese! :)

The next day was finally the day. Before our trip, it was clear to both of us that we absolutely had to go to a concert or a festival in South America. Fate was once again in our favor: During our stay in New Zealand, we discovered that two of our absolute favorite bands were doing a small South American tour and the dates fit perfectly into our travel plan. So we made a stop in Curitiba mainly to see Queens Of Stone Age (QOTSA) and the Foo Fighters (FF).

In the morning, we strolled through the city center and got a first impression. Curitiba has about two million inhabitants and is considered one of the most innovative and greenest cities in Brazil. We found the city to be very clean and especially quiet. Unlike other cities in South America, there was no honking here, the traffic flowed calmly and orderly, there were many parks, and hardly any street vendors. The people we encountered during our walk had all different skin colors. We couldn't identify a typical Brazilian. It felt very different from what I had experienced in the rest of South America. For the first time, we didn't immediately stand out as 'gringos'! It actually reminded me a bit of the USA: the infrastructure was more developed and the price level was very high. On the other hand, there were quite a few people, especially dark-skinned people, living on the streets. After walking through the city for some time and not finding any sights to visit, we decided to relax in our room for the rest of the day to be ready for the concert.

In our ticket, it said 7 pm, so I wanted to leave our accommodation by 6 pm at the latest. Unfortunately, the departure was delayed for almost an hour for various reasons, and the Uber ride turned out to be very long due to heavy traffic. When we finally arrived at the concert venue shortly before 8 pm, we immediately noticed that QOTSA was already playing. We became restless, rushed to the entrance, and then made our way to the stage. The concert venue was in a kind of quarry, a huge gravel area surrounded by a small forest. When we looked from the hill towards the stage for the first time, the area was already well-filled. We waded through the crowd, made a short stop at the bar, and positioned ourselves among the people. Take a deep breath, take a few sips of beer, and finally enjoy the concert. 

QOTSA was the perfect warm-up for what was to come. Personally, I actually thought or wished that they would play a little longer, but apparently, the Brazilians were mainly interested in one band that evening. I also realized why QOTSA was "only" the opening act about three-quarters of an hour later.

After the concert, the only question left was how to get back to our hostel. Without a specific plan, we followed the rest of the crowd and got on one of the waiting buses without asking. This one actually drove to the city center and we didn't even have to pay - thank you, Curitiba! :) Unfortunately, due to the (liquid) previous night, the next day was a lost day. Our biggest achievement was taking a short walk because we got hungry and had to find a restaurant. 

After spending a whole day in the hotel room, we decided it was time for a more eventful day again. One of the tourist attractions around Curitiba is a train ride through the surrounding rainforest. For a change, we got up early and drove to the train station. Our tour company 'Serry Verde Express' took us to the sleepy colonial village of 'Morretes' in a minivan. The one-and-a-half-hour drive there was already very impressive, and it felt like we had arrived in the middle of nowhere. Our driver, Enrico, had German ancestors and chatted with us in German throughout the entire journey. In general, we made the observation that you get further with German in Curitiba than with English.

Morretes itself is a very nice, small village that is mainly a starting or ending point for the train ride - it lives from tourism. However, there is not much to do. We walked up and down the main street about a hundred times and after 30 minutes, we didn't know how to pass the remaining three and a half hours until the train ride. Eventually, we decided to have a meal in a restaurant. I ordered 'Borraedo', the traditional dish that is offered everywhere here. It is beef that has been cooked for 24 hours and then served in its own juice. It reminded me of a mix of pulled pork, goulash, and beef soup, and it was delicious. As an accompaniment, we had the obligatory Caipirinha in Brazil.

At 3 pm, the supposed highlight of the tour started. We took our seats in the train compartment and the train left the station on time. However, there wasn't much of a breathtaking view during the journey. Everything was enveloped in dense fog, so there was only a white wall with a slight green shimmer as a photo motif. One could only rely on one's imagination. Emi was completely annoyed and only made fun of all the other tourists who were busily taking unnecessary photos and shooting videos. I gave up after an hour and fell asleep. When we arrived back in Curitiba, we were at least greeted by a beautiful sunset over the city.
 

Conclusion:

Curitiba was one of the few stops on our trip that we could have skipped without regret. When we bought the tickets for the concerts months ago, this stay made sense, but due to changes in our travel plans, it was mainly a waste of time. The city is modern and progressive for Brazilian standards, but not necessarily worth seeing because of that. Also, it rained heavily at least once a day since we were at the end of the rainy season. And to truly enjoy the advertised train ride through the jungle, you need a lot of luck at this time of year.

But all of this is just complaining at a very high level. Let's focus on the positive: We saw QOTSA and the Foo Fighters live in Brazil!!! Keep on rockin'! :)

Hasta pronto

E&L

>> Next stop: Ilhabela <<