Gulliver's Travels 08/29/2022

Dale Sievert (Gulliver)

​Argentina and Brazil 
​Part 3
February-March 2022

                              Brazil
​
   The last part of my trip was spent in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba and along the Atlantic coast near the city of Florianopolis.  Curitiba is the hometown of my new traveling companion.  Florianopolis is a large city near Uruguay that would be an ideal place to spend the winter should I ever do as so many others of our age do--in Florida or Arizona.  I spent several days in a nice two-bedroom apartment with a large kitchen/living room, two blocks off the Atlantic coast beach for $30 a night.  There were plenty of nearby shops and restaurants, where meals cost only 35-40% of our prices.  The beach surroundings were some of the best I've ever seen, with many forested hills everywhere.  There are plenty of things to do, and it is safe and clean.  A huge bonus: being it is their summer, it is light until very late at night.  So, if I ever get old and need to escape the cold and snow, that's where I'm going.

Museum of Oscar Niemeyer, architect of Brasilia--Curitiba

Niemeyer Museum

The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

Squeezing juice out of sugar cane at a street stall

Flowers of the tree named Handroanthus serratifolius, commonly known as Ipe.

A government building in Curitiba

On the tourist train Serra Verde Express to Moretas

In the town of Moretas on the Atlantic coast

In Moretas

Shops in Moretas

Hotels on the beach near the city of Florianopolis

Vacation home of my friend's sister on the Atlantic coast

​Epilogue


   My month-long trip to Brazil and Argentina was quite unexpected when I walked into a restaurant/dance hall in Lafayette, Louisiana last December 30th.  All it took was for me to ask a woman to dance who hailed from
​Curitiba, Brazil.  Next, we will be taking a five-week trip in October and November to Nashville, the Great Smokies, and Lafayette--followed by tours of ten national parks from Texas up to Yellowstone, followed by the Black Hills and the Badlands. 
​
  Next up in Gulliver's Travels will be my April trip to Paris and western France.