Day 2, Trip to Iguacu, Curitiba

1/19/14

Our Day in Curitiba

A nice breakfast at the pousada.  Let the kids swim in the morning, Grace spent some recharge time in the girls room reading.  Then a drive into Curitibia to see the city and visit with Elena's friends.  We got to the church with thirty minutes to wait to see Cida.  It is a good thing we had extra time since we were at the wrong church.  (the nicest church I have ever seen in Brazil, with A/C and carpet!) what an awesome city to have two chapels in the same street. 

We finally got to meet Cida at her house (after I realized Eh-ber-chi was "Egbert" spoken by  Cida's brother at church). 

 It was so emotional to meet a friend from Elena's mission.  Cida's daughter was married in the Curitiba temple the day before.  We hand delivered a present that Elena bought for cida's daughter wedding.  We ended up staying for a churrasco/ barbecue for lunch.  It was fun to visit, the kids watched tv and played with Cida's grandson.  Cida couldn't believe Egbert's sister was eating lunch at her house.  It was awesome. 

We drove to see the temple.  We were glad we were there on a Sunday Curitiba is a huge city of 3 million people.  A lot bigger than our city of Sao Jose dos Campos with 600,000.  It would have been such a headache with weekday traffic.  

I loved seeing the temple. It was a very upscale neighborhood.  It was interesting to compare the Sao Paulo temple.  When Sao Paulo was built there was nothing around it, but that city has just grown and spread around it.  

Next stop an art museum designed by Oscar Neimeyer. 

 He is the famous Brazilian architect who designed the city Brasilia. Very modern cool design.  I love art museums.  But my 4 out of 5 of my tired kids did not appreciate it.  It was one of the hardest things we did on the trip getting through the exhibits.  

Ceramic Flower Field

Hammock Seller

Apparently this Art Installation was not Safety Tested for Tall Folks (all poking out of eyes were simulated to show the immense danger of metal pipes sticking out, no patrons of the arts were injured in the taking of this picture)

This is NOT a playground!  Sigh.

After the Musuem was the Botanical gardens.  Again a fight to get tired kids motivated to go.  But wow, what an amazing place.  It is designed when you first come in some large grass covered mounds obscure the main attraction.  But once we past them, wow.  Beautiful hedges and paths and fountains that led up to a beautiful arboretum.  

Very popular place.

5 out of 7 people like getting their picture taken.

Searching for a recommended place in Curitiba to eat.  Couldn't find it so, we went to Gepettos.  They were so great they brought out dough for kids to play with . Menus were in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Great real tasting Mac and cheese! And  M and m pizza for dessert. 

Back to Antonina to sleep.  140 miles round trip.