Brazil IV - Good 'holiday' days

The best holidays are the ones spent on the beach?

                                                                  'Who said that?'
 

                                                          

Here's what we've been up to these days:

1 - Having lunch with wonderful friends in awesome restaurants.

2 - Walking in the city and noticing beautiful details.

3 - Taking photos of unusual things we see on the streets

4 - Finding unusual vintage/kitsch combinations...

5 - Shopping in a 'cowboy store' (from Rio Grande do Sul) and drinking 'chimarrão' (traditional Brazilian mate tea).

6 - Trying out all kinds of cheese bread ('pão de queijo') and milk fudge ('doce de leite'). Diet starts... tomorrow?

Brazil III - Getting to know the city of Ponta Grossa

Ponta Grossa is a city near Curitiba (2h bus drive) located on a plateau at an elevation of 893 metres - its quite cold here in this Brazilian winter! The population and architecture are similar to Curitiba's, also composed of many different ethnicities: russians, Poles, Ukrainians and Germans settled in the city, along with Dutch, Italian, Lebanese and Japanese immigrants. 

Brazil II - lunch & walk in Curitiba

Brazil I - Arrival in Paraná

Yes, we are now in Brazil, in the south of the country. Its winter here now, but a mild one.

On our first day we walked around the city and saw many buildings resembling portuguese architecture from 1920/30. 

We then found a unique shop that sells everything you can imagine for any type of religion or cult.

Huge and packed with all kinds of saints, special potions, and all sorts of things we had never seen before.

On the streets, packed with all sorts of shops, you can also find tons of street vendors selling all kinds of different things to eat.

This region has a huge Dutch comunity and one of its churches is known as the 'Dutch Church'. It has a medium sized room, on the side, were devotees light their candles - there were so many of them lit that the effect was quite impressive (the photos don't do it justice)

We had 2 delicious fruit juices - açaí and coconut - and a vegetable pie for lunch in a small cofeeshop ('lanchonete') overlooking the busy main street.