I arrived in Curitiba on Monday morning after a surprisingly comfortable 13 hour bus ride from Porto Alegre. I thought it was just my bad luck that the weather was miserable here, but it turns out this place actually has no dry season. The locals (Curitibanos) are not even used to more than 4 or 5 days without rain!

I stayed at the Motter Home Hostel which was fairly nice and the staff were friendly. It was a little quiet and again with not a lot of foreigners staying there. I decided to give Couchsurfing a shot to hang out with some locals, and eventually got in touch with a guy named Ronaldo (shock!). He took me out to play for his indoor football team, then we went out for a Curitiban hotdog with his wife. They were extremely nice people and it was great to sit and chat with them about travelling and Brazil.

On Thursday I took the Serra Verde express to a little town called Morretes. The drive there had some stunning scenery. I picked a nice restaurant to sit down and try the local dish ‘Barreado’, a type of stew cooked meat with shrimp. After eating enough for 2 people I walked around the town and took the afternoon bus back to Curitiba.

My last few days I spent with Daniela, a friend whom I met in Porto Alegre. She was amazing and took me out to see the Opera de Arame and Unilivre, as well as a couple of bars and restaurants. On Sunday we went to the market and bought some traditional Brazilian food to cook for lunch. I say ‘we’, but she did all of the work. We had rice, beans, salad, meat and couscous and it was delicious, a great way to finish my time in Curitiba.