Come Back Mr Cometa and Save Me From Curitiba

After the hectic few days and many hours of pounding Sao Paulo’s streets, I was pretty glad to be back on the bus to Curitiba. And this one definitely took the cake for its soft blanket, pillow, snack pack of four types of sweet and savoury biscuits and catchy tagline (rough translation: “Cometa – conquering the stars”). But I guess for the R75,00 I paid, I should expect a little something, seeing as it has blown my eating budget for the day.

It is slow-going, getting out of Sao Paulo, where cars are restricted from being driven one day a week according to their license plate number, which gives me time to catch up on some of this writing. Still not sure of how long the journey will take, anywhere between four and eight hours depending on who you believe, I settle in for as long of a movie as my battery on my laptop will allow. It ends up being closer to the latter, and I decide it best to taxi it through the night to the hostel, despite being only a few blocks away.

Wrong move it appears though, as I get in tiredly and forget to ask how far and how much the journey will be. And it seems a blonde female tourist is just too much temptation for my greedy driver who proceeds to show me the sights twice over in a magical mystery tour of the town. I am clearly not impressed and keep asking how much further, until his bland excuses about the traffic get on my nerves. (Dude, I have just been in Sao Paulo, don’t talk to me about traffic). At this point, on the completely wrong street, I demand he stop and get out to ask someone where the hell I am. He is equally unimpressed that his little plan has been foiled and says he will cut the fare in half (already four times what I should have paid) and take me to the right street. I politely decline, snatch back my map and grab my bags from the boot. He of course follows me as I am driven by my sympathetic saviours, but we manage to lose him in the end, and I sulk through the door tired and hungry.

Needless to say, there is no photo today. I was in no mood to capture my charming introduction to Brazil’s reputed most liveable city.