Curitiba

Introduction

Curitiba is the capital of Paraná, Brazil. If you're heading for Iguaçu Falls from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, it's worth stopping by for a day or two.

Sights and Activities

• Historic Area, Largo da Ordem / Praça Coronel Enéas, Praça Garibaldi – São Francisco. Complex with the oldest buildings in the city. Among these buildings are the Romário Martins House, from the 18th century and the Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis, from 1737, as well as the architectural examples inspired by the Germans, from the second half of the 19th century. On Sunday mornings, the old stones at the Largo da Ordem and the pavement giving access to Garibaldi Square, with the Rosário Church, the Flowers Clock, the Memory Fountain and the Società Giuseppe Garibaldi make the setting for the Crafts Fair, an exciting meeting point with live music.
• Jerusalem Fountain, Sete de Setembro Avenue, corner with Arthur Bernardes Avenue – Seminário. Pays homage to the 3,000 years of Jerusalem. The construction in concrete and masonry has a height of 14.5 metres and was designed by the architect Fernando Canalli. At the top there are three bronze angels, of approximately 600 kilos each, sculpted by the artist Lys Áurea Buzzi, representing the three main monotheistic religions in the world, who believe in the existence of angels and for which Jerusalem is a sacred city: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
• Curitiba Memorial - a space for art and folklore, information and memory, the past and the future. Built on an irregular land, the architectural project allows the creation of spaces and functional and creative installations. The dome, resembling a painting, makes evident the work's role of cultural origin.
• Capão da Imbuia Wood/Natural History Museum,Benedito Conceição Street, 407 / Prof. Nivaldo Braga Street, 1225 – Capão da Imbuia. Opens Tu-Su 09:00-17:30. With an internal exhibition of dioramas, stuffed animals and dehydrated vegetables. At the external area is the "Araucarias Path", a wood remnant from the Araucaria Forest, where an elevated pathway goes trough a 400 meters long path, with 12 windows and panels showing the inter-relations of the natural elements found at the Araucaria Forest and also the different products from this vegetable formation, obtained and used by Man.
• Ópera de Arame/Pedreiras Park, João Gava Street, s/n°. – Abranches. Tu-Su 08:00-22:00. one of the emblematic symbols of Curitiba, with tubular structure and transparent ceiling, of great beauty. Inaugurated in 1992, it caters for all types of shows, between lakes, typical vegetation and cascades, on a unique landscape. The Opera is part of the Pedreiras Park, together with the Paulo Leminski Cultural Space, where the Passion of Christ was enacted, and hosted many other big events since 1989, and can receive, in open air, 10 thousand people seating or 50 thousand standing.
• Japan Square, Sete de Setembro Avenue, junction with Rep. Argentina Avenue – Água Verde. Opens – Culture House – Tu-Su 9:00am to 6:00pm; Tea Ceremony – Thursdays from 9:00am to 4:00pm. homage to the sons of the "Rising Sun", who settled there dedicating themselves to agriculture. Scattered around the square are 30 cherry trees sent from Japan by the Nipponese empire and artificial lakes Japanese style. In 1993 the Japanese Portal, the Culture House and the Tea House were built.
• São Francisco Ruins - a space surrounded by fables, at João Cândido Square. The ruins are made of stone, of what should have been the São Francisco de Paula church, never finished. In 1811 the chapel and the sacristy were finished, but in 1860 the stones that would finish the construction were used to finish the old Matriz tower, currently the Basilica Cathedral Minor of Our Lady of Light. Stories of tunnels and pirates live in the place, today filled with leisure and business spaces, stage and grandstand, forming the "Ruins' Arcades".

Events and Festivals

World Cup 2014

Australian Fans

© Peter

The FIFA World Cup 2014 will be held in Brazil. It takes place from 12 June to 13 July 2014. It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950. The national teams of 32 countries will join the second biggest sports event in the world (after the Olympic Games). A total of 64 matches are to be played in twelve cities across Brazil, with the tournament beginning with a group stage. For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology. Twelve locations will be World Cup host cities: Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo. They cover all the main regions of Brazil and create more evenly distributed hosting than the 1950 finals in Brazil provided, when matches were concentrated in the south-east and south. As a result the tournament will require significant long-distance travel for teams. Brazil opens the tournament against Croatia, played in Sao Paulo on the 12th of June, and the final will be played on the 13th of July in Rio de Janeiro.

Weather

Curitiba has a subtropical highland climate. Located in Southern Brazil, the humid city lies in a temperate zone. It is located on a plateau and the flat terrain with flooded areas contribute to its mild and damp winter, with an average minimum temperature of 7 °C in the coldest month, occasionally falling below 0 °C on the coldest nights. During summertime, the average temperature is around 25 °C at daytime, but it can get above 30 °C on the hottest days. Snowfall was experienced in 1889, 1892, 1912, 1928 (two days), 1942, 1955, 1957, 1962, 1975 and again in 2013. Its altitude makes it the coldest among Brazil's state capitals.

The terrain's flatness hinders water drainage after rain, therefore providing water vapor for the atmosphere. Cold fronts come year round, often from Antarctica and Argentina, bringing tropical storms in summer and cold winds in the winter. They can move very quickly, with no more than one day between the start of the southern winds and the start of rain. Curitiba's weather is also influenced by the dry air masses that dominate Brazil's midwest most of the year, bringing hot and dry weather, sometimes even in winter

Getting There

By Plane

Afonso Pena International Airport (CWB) is located 18 kilometres from downtown Curibita. Destinations are Campinas, Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Florianopolis, Foz do Iguacu, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo, Campo Grande, Salvador, Manaus, Montevideo and several smaller cities in Brazil.

By Train

The Serra Verde Express, a train to the coastal town of Morretes, makes an excellent day trip and is for many tourists the main reason to visit Curitiba. The views from the train are unforgettable. The ride departs daily at 08:15 in the morning, descends through some of last remaining Atlantic rainforest and offers some spectacular views (not to mention it is one of the few train rides in Brazil). On Sundays the train continues to Paranaguá, although the last bit between Morretes and Paranaguá is not very scenic. There are three price levels of the tickets claiming to offer different levels of luxury: one-way tickets are R$28 for econômico class (hard to come by), R$53 for turistico and R$84 for executivo class. Buy the cheapest ticket you can get since there really is not much difference between the cars. The return ticket is about 30% cheaper. In addition to the regular train, there's a special tourist train, the litorina, which only runs on weekends. The one-way fare for the litorina costs R$126.

By Car

Coming from São Paulo use BR-116 South. From Florianópolis use BR-101. From Porto Alegre use BR-116 North.

By Bus

Curitiba's Bus & Train Station (Estaçao Rodoferroviária) is a large station with 3 terminals (train terminal, interstate bus terminal and intrastate bus terminal) provides scheduled bus service from Curitiba to all over Brazil, as well as locations in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.

Actually the bus is the best way to come from or go through São Paulo and Florianópolis, since the travel doesn't last too long and the bus terminals are strategically located downtown in these cities (avoiding traffic jams and long transfers to distant airports). São Paulo Station is not located exactly downtown but is nearby, and has a subway station inside the terminal. Curitiba-São Paulo: travel time 6 hr, R$60–80, departures every hour (there's no need to book in advance). Curitiba-Florianopolis: travel time 4 hr 30 min, R$50–70, lots of departures every day (although not so widespread than to São Paulo).

Getting Around

Curitiba is a household name among transit geeks worldwide and has for a time been a "pilgrimage site" for fans and proponents of "Bus Rapid Transit" (BRT). The idea behind the concept which originated here in the 1970s is to give buses many of the aspects of rapid transit without relying on rail vehicles. As such, the system features dedicated grade separated busways, bi-articulated and articulated buses with higher capacities than normal buses, express and "local" services that can overtake each other along the way, dedicated stations instead of mere "stops" and pre boarding payment to make passenger able get on and off at all doors. The system has been widely praised for its success, emulated throughout the Americas, and has spurred transit oriented development near many stations, but in recent years it has in a sense been a victim of its own success with overcrowding making it difficult to handle the increase in population over the last years. Thus the city is currently in the process of supplementing the busiest routes with a rail based underground metro system.

Driving can be difficult for those who are not used to the traffic in Curitiba, especially for first comers. In the central area, there are many one-way streets, parking restrictions as well as pedestrian-only and bus-only streets. Bus lanes are very common in Curitiba, as the city has over 60 km (38 miles) of them. Most avenues are wide and have spacious sidewalks and they are mostly laid out in a grid system in the city center area.

Public transportation is probably the best option for those visiting the city. The fare is R$2.60 and R$1.00 on Sundays, and you can connect for free between the bus routes if you connect inside the bus depots or the tube stations. There are also special services, like the City Center Circulator, which costs only R$1.50, the Touristic Route, which serves more than 20 attractions and allows each rider visit 4 of them paying only one fare, although expensive (R$27), and the Airport Shuttle, operated with mini-buses between Curitiba downtown and Afonso Pena Airport (R$8).

Actually the best way to come from the airport to downtown is a city bus lane called "aeroporto", which final stop is on the tube just next to the airport's main entrance. The fare is R$2.60, cheaper than the Airport Shuttle (R$10) and way cheaper than by taxi (R$50).

The public bus system is generally good in comparison with other Brazilian capitals, but overcrowded in rush hours.

Due to safety concerns, after 10PM, passengers can ask for bus drivers to stop anywhere along the route, not just in the designated bus stops. This is only valid for buses that are not part of the BRT system. After midnight, most buses stop circulating. From 01:00-05:00, buses known as "madrugueiros" circulate on an hourly basis.

Eat

Curitiba has a good variety of restaurants, ranging from modest to upscale restaurants.

Sleep

Learn

Foreigners interested in learning Portuguese will likely find Celin the most affordable course for its good educational standard. It is maintained by the Federal University of Paraná.

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet cafes (Lan houses) are increasingly common, and even small towns often have at least one spot with more or less decent connections.
An increasing number of hotels, airports and shopping malls also offer hotspots for Wi-Fi with your laptop computer or of course smartphone. Sometimes it is free, sometimes you need to register and there is a time limite and sometimes you need to pay a small amount for (day) use.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

The country calling code to Brazil is: 55. To make an international call from , the code is: 0014. All cities use the following emergency numbers: 190 (police), 192 (medical) and 193 (fire department). However, if you dial 911 or 112 while in Brazil, you will be redirected to the police.
Brazil uses two-digit area codes, and phone numbers are eight digits long. Numbers beginning with digits 2 to 5 are land lines, while eight-digit numbers beginning with digits 6 to 9 are mobile phones.

Public payphones use disposable prepaid cards, which come with 20, 40, 60 or 75 credits. The discount for buying cards with larger denominations is marginal. Phone booths are nearly everywhere, and all cards can be used in all booths, regardless of the owner phone company. Cards can be bought from many small shops, and almost all news agents sell them.

Brazil has 4 national mobile operators: Vivo (Telefónica Group), Claro (Telmex/América Móvil Group), OI and TIM (Telecom Italia Group), all of them running GSM and HSDPA/HSPA+ networks. Pay-as-you-go (pré-pago) SIM cards for GSM phones are widely available in places like newsstands, drugstores, supermarkets, retail shops, etc.

Post

Correios is the national postal service of Brazil. It is a government run postal service and overseen by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications. Post offices are generally open from Monday to Friday from 09:00am to 5:00pm, although post offices located in shopping malls have their own opening hours, usually from 10:00am to 10:00pm. There are no set opening hours at weekends and as post office owners can choose when to open and close. More and more post offices are open until 1:00pm on Saturdays though. You can check things at the nearest post office.

Sending postcards, letters and parcels is a rather straightforward process and services are reliable, though not overly fast when sending post internationally, mostly taking about a week to the USA and Europe, and there is a track-and-trace service for this as well. Domestically, there are both next day as well as more expensive same day delivery options. Stamps are available at post offices, as well as some kiosks or other places where they sell postcards.

For sending packages internationally, you can also used competitively priced private companies like TNT, UPS or DHL. They are generally much quicker and not much more expensive.

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