A good part of brazilian cities have come a long way in the subject of providing help to tourists. So it’s not strange to find good brochures, maps or relevant and useful information to move around different destinations. And, best of all, free.

Something worth remarking is Parana. Guia do Litoral, edited by the Parana State Secretaria do Turismo. Honestly, the list of lodges and pousadas in Ilha do Mel was really helpful, and its list of passeios around the island was the most accurate on the walking time between each point. This guide is free on tourism offices around Parana cities. In my case, I got it in the office located at Rua 24 horas, in Curitiba -you can go any time of the day, it’s always open.

Other mentions about helpful tourism offices along my stay in Brazil, were the one in Niteroi (Rio de Janeiro) -very kind, plenty of brochures available- and the one in Florianopolis, very correct, but not so stocked on interesting material, such as maps and that kind of references.

Fortaleza, is located about 45 minutes of walking distance from Nova Brasilia. It got its name from an old portuguese fort built in 1767 which remains in good conditions. It’s open to the public, and at least we haven’t found any sort of guards inside the fort. There’s no secrets to get there: you have to walk along the beach. I recommend to leave early, since the sun is really brutal during summertime.
Fortunately, we got a cloudy morning, which cleared later towards noon. All over the island, the sand is full of small holes, where small crabs hide. You can also also ride a bike -which can be rented in the island- or if you walked your way over Fortaleza, you can return by boat to Nova Brasilia for about 25 reais the ride -the boat will take up to four people.

Inside the fort there’s not much to see, except for the building itself. As soon as you enter, you can go upstairs to some some of terrace, where there are a few old canyons and a nice sight of the sea.

The most interesting point of the fort is to go up to the mirante, located uphill, from where you’ll find a complete view of Praia Fortaleza and of the continent part closest to Ilha do Mel. The path is sort of long; it’s a 20 minutes walk uphill that, while is under the trees shadows, it’s also plagued with mosquitoes. Don’t forget your repellent, you’ll need it.. And if you get a really hot day, as we got, you’ll sweat like a monkey. It’s good excercise anyways. On the top, you’ll find canyons, although not original from the fort; they were placed there by the brazilian army last century, and they’re not in quite good shape.

After resting from the steep walk, you can head to the bars located in Praia Fortaleza, and where, of course, you’ll find cold beer. Skol beer, that is, which seemingly has bought the exclusivity in the island.

From the bars area you can find boats that will take you back to Nova Brasilia, although you can also ask them to take you to other points such as Praia do Farol.

Final advice for Ilha do Mel that sums up part of what I said in previous entries:

As a place separated from the continent, and one where there are not many ways out, Ilha do Mel’s beaches are surprisingly spacious. And quite safe too; you can leave your stuff on the beach for a long while, and not miss anything on your way back. I wouldn’t tell you to tempt the devil and leave your valuables lying around, but the truth is clothes and bags are safe to leave. So don’t sweat it if you have to leave the beach for a while, say, to go eat lunch.

For those of us who are prone to quick sunburn, the island has a store that rents parasols and beach chairs -parasol and cadeira, in portuguese. The place is called Galo Surf Shop, and it’s located on the path to Praia do Fora. There’s a map in the previous entry with the location of bars, hotels and other business. It costs R$5 to rent a parasol or a chair. And you can have it with you for an entire day, and take it to whatever beach you want.

Walks: since moving around the island is possible only by walking -unless you have a bike- the topic of paths or trilhas is basic. At the pousadas it’s easy to get a map with the marked paths; also, there are wooden signs indicating the directions to the different beaches. But don’t rely on them too much: some trilhas are not easy to find, and finally, some destinations, such as Fortaleza -the place we’ll talk about in the next entry- you’ll just have to walk along the beach and not through the mata.

Walking time: from Nova Brasilia, you have a 10 to 15 minutes walk to Praia do Farol and Praia do Fora; a similar time to Praia Grande, by a different path though; over 1 hour to Encantadas; and about 45 minutes to Fortaleza. At the brochures given around the island, for (to me) unknown reasons, walking times are longer -for instance, it says one and a half hour to Fortaleza when in fact it only takes you 50 minutes, at most, of regular walking to get there.

As I said in my previous post, at Ilha do Mel there’s no other choice than walk, facing the healthy absence of cars and roads. And as part of this walk, mi wife Maryori took note of the different pousadas and bars located around Nova Brasilia, Praia do Farol and Praia do Fora, which produced this map:

The references to the places I will mention on this entry can be found in the map.

We stayed at Caminho do Farol, sometimes listed on some guides under the name of Dona Tunica -in fact, you better ask for this last reference, since everyone seems to know it by this name. We paid R$35 each for a double bedroom with private bathroom, per day. We arrived on a saturday afternoon, around 5pm, when there already was a lot of people in the island. Since the Serra Verde Express train arrived to Paranagua a little late, we got delayed, and by the time we arrived to the island our room was already taken, despite we had made a reservation over the telephone from Curitiba. When I was already picturing myself sleeping on the shore -there were no vacant rooms anywhere- the guy who managed the place, everyone just called him Pelé, gave us his room. The reason: he’d be working up late at the sailors feast, so he didn’t need his bedroom. Next day, many people left and we were moved to a bigger room, but also hotter.

During summertime, the island is extremely hot. At night time, temperature go down a little, but it’s still difficult to sleep. Take along your best mosquito repellent, because there are a lot of pernilongos -the funny name for mosquitoes in Brazil. And of course, carry lots of sun protection.

Around the island, there’s a virtual monopoly of Skol, not precisely my favorite beer. On top of it all, it costed R$4 everywhere -in Rio, depending on the place, it costs from R$2,50 to R$3 . But they served it as everywhere else in Brazil, so gelada, you really feel like drinking more and more. You know: beer bottles come inside some kind of thermos, known as camisinhas, which keep the beer chilled. Thus, the small glasses, to serve just a little and keep the rest chilled. The only placed I found Bohemia -to me, a nicer beer- was at A toca do abutre, a bar in Nova Brasilia, which has slightly higher prices than the rest of places. Skol costed R$4,50 and Bohemia R$5,50.

Our favorite place to eat was Barranco, right entering Praia do Fora. A peixe surf, with deep fried fish, casquinha de Siri (stuffed crab), rice, fries and salada -there’s the picture, below- cost R$28, and was big enough for two people. In general, you obviously have to eat seafood, which is not too expensive. Lunch or dinner for two, with a couple of beers, costs from 25 to 35 reais, approximately.

A basic advice: besides not forgetting your insect repellent -get the strongest one you find, such as green can OFF!- and sunscreen, you just have got to carry a flashlight. At night time, the trilhas (paths) are pit dark, so to walk around from one place to the other you’ll have to carry your flashlight. Be aware of that.

An issue that will disgust more than one, is the running water -the one coming out of the faucet- which has a pretty dark yellow color. Since it’s so hot, you need to stock on plenty of bottled water, to drink and wash your teeth as well. Large bottles are hard to find in the island.

You might be wondering: is it worth visiting Ilha do Mel? Honestly, I think the pictures I published here and in the previous entry say it all.

Really, it’s a great place for those who want to enjoy a non urban beach experience, in warm and calm waters. Surfers, Ilha do Mel doesn’t have many big waves, so there’s not much to do there. By the way, there are many pousadas in the area of Praia das Encantadas, but we didn’t go there. If someone spent some time there and wants to tell something, do so in the comments area.

At Ilha do Mel, beaches are not the relevant issue, nor its vegetation, nor the distance, nor the sun. The important thing is the experience of being in a place tha combines beaches, vegetation and the absence of cars and roads. At Ilha do Mel you walk, you ride a bike, and that’s it. What you find is a few paths that are not even lit at night. To walk around them is impossible if you don’t have a good flashlight.

To Honey Island, english for Ilha do Mel, you can arrive by boat from two points: Paranagua and Pontal do Sul. The first one is closer to Curitiba and it’s the final destination of the Serra Verde Express four hour train ride, then it takes two more hours by boat, and the ride costs R$11. For those who know, the boats are similar to those we see at Tigre river in Argentina, or those used in the peruvian Amazon, in a slightly more preserved state. From Pontal do Sul, the boat ride lasts about half an hour and costs R$6, but the problem is that, if you need to take a long distance bus, you’ll have to go to Paranagua, two hours away by bus.

The closest important city to Paranagua is Curitiba, but you can easily go by bus to Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre.

The island has an important number of pousadas (bed & breakfast lodges), but it’s big enough to seem empty. In fact, the beaches always have lots of free spaces, even during high season. From november to march, the demand of lodging space is high, particularly on weekends. So make a reservation beforehand, otherwise you’ll sleep in the wild. Prices go from R$30 to R$60, average, per person, for a room with private bathroom. Usually, installations are rather minimal; rooms usually include a fan -during the summer the heat is almost unbearable.

Except Praia Grande, all the beaches are extremely calm, specially Praia do Farol. It makes you feel like you’re in a giant pool. And the water temperature is higher than in Florianopolis.

In our case, we stayed near Praia do Farol and Nova Brasilia, where the boats depart to the continent. The other embarkation point is Praia das Encantadas, but we didn’t go there. There are many pousadas there, but fewer boats than Nova Brasilia.

There are many things to tell about Ilha do Mel: places to go, places to stay, where to eat. We’ll talk about them during the week, as I find more time to write. Be patient.

From Curitiba it’s possible to take the Serra Verde Express train, which departs everyday at 8:15am and rides along spectacular landscapes of the Parana State highlands. From monday to friday it goes to Morretes; saturdays and sundays it goes further, to Paranagua. This information is important since many people want to arrive to this last destination to go to Ilha do Mel from there. There’s also a service called Litorina, which only departs on saturdays and sundays at 9:15am and arrives to Morretes. It’s more expensive: it costs R$ 105. The classe turistica costs R$46 one way and R$ 30 the way back, and the executive class costs R$70 one way and R$43 the way back. You can also get tickets for the economic wagon for R$22 and R$15. This last one doesn’t include guide nor breakfast and you can only get them at the station’s offices. The lack of a guide won’t be much of a problem for those who don’t speak portuguese, since the service is only provided in that language. Breakfast, on the other hand, consists of water or soda and a box with cookies and other candy.

Prices, we have to admit, are far from being cheap. But they’re not unaccesible either, so it’s worth to cough up some reais from you wallet. Recommendation: there’s a hight demand during summertime, so get the tickets with anticipation. You can buy them through the telephone, they take Visa cards; as the previous lines state, the economic class tickets are not sold through the phone. The phone number is (41) 323-4007.

Curitiba’s train station is located next to the bus terminal, so you won’t have trouble finding it.

I have to admit, the most famous part of the ride is really spectacular; it’s a real ingenieering accomplishment, making the train ride on tracks bordering an impressive precipice. For this, the ride uses many bridges on a complicated route. By the way: going from Curitiba to Morretes/Paranagua, it’s best to sit on the left side of the train -taking as a reference the direction towards the train is going. This is the interesting side of the ride and from which you have better view of the landscape. On the way back, of course, it’s the right side, but many people -like myself- only go one way and then continue their paths towards other destinations.

The tour around the highland -the interesting part- extends to Morretes. Furthermore, the trip loses all interest. Besides, the train moves really slowly because it’s so hot, that the tracks can’t stand too much weight. The result is that the Morretes-Paranagua part of the ride is dreadfully boring, and if you go during summertime, it’ll also be very hot. In our case, the Curitiba - Paranagua ride, took more than four hours. We arrived to Paranagua around 2pm.

During the trip, they try to sell you several souvenirs, such as books and DVDs with pictures. For now, they haven’t come up with train employees hats, as I’ve seen in Equator in the famous passage to Nariz del Diablo.

For those who want to go from Paranaguana to Ilha do Mel, you have to walk straight towards the ocean three blocks from the station and then turn right and walk another three blocks towards the ferrys departure offices. The trip takes about two hours. If you want, you can take a ferry not from Paranagua but from Pontal do Sul -or Pontal do Parana, depending on the sign. To get there, take a bus to Pontal do Sul -the bus station is four blocks further than the ferry station. But the bus ride takes about two hours, although the boat ride is shorter from there, it takes only half an hour.

Paranagua is an interesting place to take pictures. Old colorful houses make it a place with a certain attractive. Whil it’s true that most travellers only stop there for a few hours, it’s not bad for a stroll. A port atmosphere, almost.

Curitiba has a problem: how to attract tourists, in a country where most destinations exhibit many natural attractions. Since its located in higher lands, away from the beaches, Curitiba opted by emphasizing two attributes linked to the city: its cultural supply and its care for green spaces. We have to add to this a third property: showing a noticeably organized transportation system, which is integrated to a noticeable management of urban space. And in the latest years, Curitiba is increasingly having more business travellers and visitors to its conventions, which is an important issue to the city’s touristic development.

To know Curitiba when you barely have one day to visit the city is something simple, thanks to the existence of the Linha Tourismo. It’s a bus service for tourists. It rides along the most interesting spots in the city, and tourists can get in the bus at any point, and for R$ 15, can get off the bus at 4 stops. The most popular ones are the Jardin Botanico, the Opera de Arame, the Panoramic Tower and the parks located further from the downtown center. The total tour is about 44km, and can be done in little more than two hours if you don’t get off the bus at any point. But, of course, the idea is to get off at many stops, so the recommendation is to start the trip early in the morning, so you can stroll around Curitiba calmly. Each stop is clearly signalized, as you can see in the picture. They start at 9am at Praça Tiradentes, in the downtown. You can see more about the Linha Turismo at its official site -in portuguese only. The information includes the first and last hours the bus stops at every point.

The Linha Turismo is a sample of the careful urban planification of Curitiba, a city famous in Latin America for its answer to the problem of urban traffic. By the way, there’s also a line that rides around the city, and quite useful to go the bus terminal and the train station to Morretes-Parangua. From this last point the Serra Verde, which has an spectacular ride along the highland, departs. But we’ll talk about that in the next entry.

On our brief stay in Curitiba, we stayed at Garden Hotel. For a reasonable price of R$ 66 the double bedroom, they have an adequate service. The greet you with a gingibirra, a local soda made with ginger, and the staff is very nice and helpful. There’s not much atmosphere, but it’s a hotel anyways, not an hostel or bed & breakfast place. But for the cost, it’s worth it. At least the time we were there, eartly february, the hotel seemed almost empty. The price includes breakfast, which is pretty aboundant and self-service style, on the first floor. They start serving very early, which is important if you have train tickets to Paranagua.

At Rua 24 horas there’s a tourism office, where you’ll always find someone to help you out with your questions. They speak portuguese and english. No spanish, at least when we stopped by.

Particularly, the day we spent there, was horribly hot, but that’s not usual. In fact, winter there is quite cold for brazilian standards.

Someone told me, when I returned from the trip: “you’re the first person I know who goes to Brazil and visits the highlands”.
That’s right. At least, here in Argentina, the only reason there seems to be to visit Brazil is to lie down on its beaches for endless hours. But visiting Curitiba and dedicate it one day, while waiting the Serra Verde Express train is worth it. I would’ve really liked to stride around a little more, but we lost most of the morning trying to make a reservation for Ilha do Mel, and then we had to leave the Linha Turismo faster than we’d wanted because it was getting late and our laundry was closing -you know, sometimes you run out of clean clothes…

By the way, Curitiba has plenty online resources for tourists, which you can check at the Viaje Curitiba website.

One of Rio de Janeiro’s most interesting traditions is its bars, many of them really interesting to visit. During my stay, I managed to spend time in some of them, and taste its traditional fast foods, or drink cold beer chopes. One of the areas with good bars is Lapa, a neighborhood close to downton Rio, and famous for its nightlife. There, facing one each other, at Avenida Mem de Sá, are Carioca da Gema, recommended for those who want to listen to brazilian music, and Bar Brasil, an old wooden establishment that reminds me of the old traditional bars of Montevideo, another city with great bars. There, they serve a delicious frango defumado -smoked chicken- worth accompanying with several chopes. In the same place, there’s good german food, such as Kassler. The prices are reasonable, although these days, with the Real’s appreciation, Brazil’s prices are getting too high for most latin americans. Tip: although there’s many people at night and several policemen around, Lapa is an area that could frighten some tourists. Don’t get too far away from the bars area.

Armazems are old groceries stores transformed into bars. There are many in Rio, but because of my being in Santa Teresa, the one I visited the most was Armazem do Thiago, at esquina de Santa, in Monte Alegre and Rua Aurea. My advice is to try the excellent chope of black beer. You can get there on the bondinho, Paula Mattos line. To stay at Santa Teresa, don’t forget the Bar do Mineiro, that not only serves beer, but is also famous for its feijoada.

Among the particular categories of bars in Rio de Janeiro, a whole category on its own is the pé-sujo, literally “dirty feet”. They’re traditional bars, with beers and petiscos -known as “minutas” in Argentina- or fast foods. Apparently, they called them pés-sujos because most of their clients didn’t have enough money to buy shoes, but we’ll have to check that. One of these bars, if you don’t want to go too far away, is the Pavao Azul of Copacabana, at Rua Hilario de Gouveia 71.

A more sophisticated bar is the small but interesting Academia do Cachaça, in Leblon at rua Conde de Bernardote 26, loja G. I’ll talk more about it when the entry about Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana gets its turn, but my recommendation here is to try the delicious caipirinha de maracujá (R$ 6). At noon, you have good menues for quite reasonable prices for the area (around R$ 11 per person, plus drinks). In a more traditional theme, you have Casa da Cachaça, in Lapa. Another option, if you want to eat not too far from there, is to go to bar Itahy and eat the frango á Itahy, with chicken in madeira sauce, portuguese potatoes, rice, ham and mushrooms. It costs R$ 21,50, but it serves two. The bar is located in a corner, facing the Ipanema plaza, at rua Maria Quiteria.

Costs: usually, most bars charge R$ 3 for a 660cm3 beer, but can go up to R$ 4 or R$4,50. Chopes go from R$ 2 to R$ 2,50. Some bars in Lapa -not precisely the most touristic ones or the most noticeable- and in the suburbs of Rio, have lower prices. If you want to eat something and share with someone, you’ll spend around R$ 35, although that’d depend on how many beers you’ll have and if you want dessert.

By the way: the table service is charged aside, and it’s 10% of what you consume. Remember this when making numbers. It’s usual for waiters to try to make us eat something more or order a more expensive dish. It makes sense: the more we spend, the bigger 10% they’ll get. Of course, you can always opt to leave something extra as gorjeta -that is, tip- but it’s not the rule. By the way, don’t use the word “propina” (that’s spanish for “tip”), since this term means “bribe” in portuguese. Be aware .

For those who want to know more about the subject, I can’t help to add my libresque quote: the Rio Botequim is a bars guide that can be found in english and portuguese in many bookstores in Rio. It has an excellent edition, many interesting pictures, and comments of every bar. It costs around R$ 23. It’s sponsored by Brahma, usually the most popular beer served in chopes at bars.

Rio, as we know, is a hot city. That’s why air conditioner is simply everywhere and usually set at really low temperatures. Ridiculous things can happen sometimes. Since most buses have ar condicionado in Rio, one can die of heat on the streets and then get on a bus and just can’t stop shivering. The truth is I don’t understand how they don’t get sick with such temperature changes.

Another issue: pinwheels. They’re in every public transport bus all over Brazil. Basically, its function is to count the number of passengers getting on the bus. A person charges you the bus fare and then lets you go through the molinetes, not giving you any ticket or proof of payment. The pinwheel can be quite annoying, especially around beach areas, or when you just arrived. Having to pass them with your backpacks and luggage is not easy or comfortable. And, like any other control method in Latin America, it usually is avoided. For instance, I’ve seen some kids pay only one full fare and then pass together through the molinete as one single person. Or getting on the bus by the back door and avoid being counted that way.

Those who don’t use the pinwheels either are the old people, but for legal reasons. After certain age, the elder don’t pay the fare and sit on the front side seating area on the bus. For what I saw, Rio takes the issue of respect towards older people very seriously. I noticed the elder, the handicapped and pregnant women get on the bus first, which is part of a state regulation, and not part of the passengers concession. This kind of norm extends to other kinds of events.
For instance, as I read in Veja magazine, one of the most populars in Brazil, during the selling of tickets for the latest U2 concert, many people took along their grandparents to the tickets lines to get a better place in the line. The subject motivated so many complaints that for the second U2 date, tickets were sold by phone only, where the elder and handicapped go first rule doesn’t apply. By the way, students also had a 50% discount off the ticket price, something I ignore applies anywhere else in Latin America.

Another subject: why is it that public transportation in Brazil doesn’t leave any proof of use? At the Rio Metro is the same story, you put the ticket on the pinwheel and it stays there. I wonder how do they certify the passenger’s right to collect insurance money in case of an accident. Or what do people do if they have to present tickets for proof of transport costs for their employers to reinburse them.

Anyways, one has to admit that in general the public transport in Brazil is pretty organized, at least in comparison to many other latin american cities. The ticket fare is not cheap if compared to other countries in the region fares, but the state of the bus and their frequency is quite good. Something you can’t see in other descentralized or cheaper systems. The only bad thing is that Rio’s Metro, or subway, is not to extended -the carioca geography is complicated- and you’ll have to depende on buses to get to areas such as Ipanema, where traffic is a real nightmare.

In many travellers, there’s a conception of travel that recreates it as an instance of personal finding. Everything we’ll see in a destination is part of a search process that should exclusively take place there, in the interaction with local people and our walks and strolls around the place.

While it sounds attractive, I tend to take distance from this “finding” concept that wants to surround the traveller’s concept. Rather, I’m one of those who think bookstores are one of the first destinations one should visit when first arriving to a city. What for? To see what books are available about the destination we’re visiting, to obtain maps, and eventually, to check out some guides that might help us build our trip.

The research stage is a basic one; I know some people will find it boring to stare at travel guides, maps, and other references. But, at least in my case, it’s part of a fascinating process that is accessing to the representations of a place. That is, what things are usually remarked from a specific destination. Of course, later, it’s good to step out of that representation, get lost on the streets, find places that don’t figure in guides. But I don’t believe this process is independent of other sources. The finding takes place from the knowledge we have from these places.

In the case of my last trip, my two hour stay at Saraiva bookstore, at Barra shopping in Barra da Tijuca, was an interesting time to see what had been edited about Rio de Janeiro. In two really big shelves about tourism, I found from the traditional guides to helpbooks for foreigners in Rio, streets guides, city maps, photo books, and several more interesting sources. Furthermore than my personal taste for visiting bookstores, an activity I love, this visit gave me a wider perspective of Rio as a representation object, as a destination to get to know.

Really, travels begin with books, and then their texts meet our own experiences. Wether those who say travel is only our own findings like it or not.