Something about Curitiba

Curitiba is located about 400 km southwest of Sao Paulo, in the state of Parana. There are about 1.5 million inhabitants. Most of these people are descendants of German, Italian, Swiss and Eastern European immigrants who settled in the latter half of the 19th centry.

Parana was created in 1853 after its separation from Sao Paulo state. The economy of Parana was based on pig farming and timber extraction in the early years. Later when there was a shortage of labor during the 19th century, the provincial government encouraged immigration. Settlers from Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland and Ukraine established communities and started to farm coffee, soybeans and erva mate (a type of tea).

Curitiba is the state capital of Parana. The city is famous for its mass transportation system and urban planning. Different types of buses run within city center and between suburbs (Each ride is R$1.8). The orange buses service the downtown areas, yellow buses run from downtown to suburbs and grey buses travel between suburbs without frequent stops. Roads are also designed to reduce traffic congestion. Central lanes in main streets in downtown are reserved for buses. Most of the downtown roads only allow one way traffic.

At 900m above sea level, the weather in Curitiba is quite unpredictable. It is not uncommon to have a beautiful sunny day in the morning with wind and rain storm at night(half an hour of heavy rain during mid day is not unusual). Winter normally starts in June and ends in September. Temperature can get down to 4 or 5 degrees celcius. Summers are not as warm as in Rio or Sao Paulo.

In terms of tourist attractions, there are not that many, I must say. A day or two is sufficient to see the highlights of Curitiba: Botanical garden, 24 hour street, Parque Bariqui etc. Tourist usually just stop by Curitiba on their way to Foz do Iguacu.