OK, I'm back at it. After spending a couple of enjoyable days at home, catching up and drinking beers with people who speak English, I'm back on the road.
Thursday afternoon I left for Brazil, and about 24 hours later arrived at my hotel in Curitiba. Part of the fun of traveling is the unknown. Arriving at the airport in Curitiba, I had no idea how I was going to get to my hotel, so I walked out of the airport and looked for a shuttle into town. Sure enough, right outside the door. I pointed to my hotel address in my notebook and the bus attendant told me which stop I would get off at. Cost was 8 reals, about $5.00. After about a half hour on the bus through LOTS of traffic, some new friends from the bus told me where my street was as I got off---it was only about 3 blocks to walk up to the hotel.
A walk around town to get oriented, and then I headed down to a little bar not far from the hotel for something to eat. I managed to pick out enough words I could translate from Portuguese so that I could get filled up. Had a bottle of Xingu, one of the Brazilian beers.
The guy at the desk gave me a tourist map and a little instruction about where we were, and told me the location of the packet pickup is about a 1/2 hour ride via taxi. Well, I decided to walk instead. So, after about 50 minutes, I managed to find the mall where it was located. I'm guessing I walked somewhere just short of 5K.
Once again, I find myself in a country where almost nobody speaks English. They're all pretty friendly though, so they'll always run and find someone to help. That was the case at the running store too, as I stood in line for my race packet. I had sent in my information, but needed to pay for my entry when I got there. Finally someone was able to help me and we're ready to run!
The mall is just like every mall in the US. Same stores (different names, but the same stuff). Coffee shops, McDonalds, Burger King. Next door to the mall is a Sam's Club.
On the way out, I walked around to the taxi stand, but no taxi to be found. A local couple was there, he had a bag of race gear too. With no taxi, I decided to just start walking back. Soon the couple got a taxi, and pulled up beside me. Through a rather disjointed conversation we figured out we were going in roughly the same direction, and they offered me a ride.
Headed back into town, it was pretty obvious why the guy at the desk thought it was a half-hour taxi ride. Lots of traffic, and lots of traffic lights! My new friends got out and left me and the driver finally got me back to my hotel. I'm still thinking I could have walked here a little faster, or at least in relatively the same amount of time.
Oh well. Off to explore, eat, check out the Start/Finish area. More later.
Thursday afternoon I left for Brazil, and about 24 hours later arrived at my hotel in Curitiba. Part of the fun of traveling is the unknown. Arriving at the airport in Curitiba, I had no idea how I was going to get to my hotel, so I walked out of the airport and looked for a shuttle into town. Sure enough, right outside the door. I pointed to my hotel address in my notebook and the bus attendant told me which stop I would get off at. Cost was 8 reals, about $5.00. After about a half hour on the bus through LOTS of traffic, some new friends from the bus told me where my street was as I got off---it was only about 3 blocks to walk up to the hotel.
A walk around town to get oriented, and then I headed down to a little bar not far from the hotel for something to eat. I managed to pick out enough words I could translate from Portuguese so that I could get filled up. Had a bottle of Xingu, one of the Brazilian beers.
The guy at the desk gave me a tourist map and a little instruction about where we were, and told me the location of the packet pickup is about a 1/2 hour ride via taxi. Well, I decided to walk instead. So, after about 50 minutes, I managed to find the mall where it was located. I'm guessing I walked somewhere just short of 5K.
Once again, I find myself in a country where almost nobody speaks English. They're all pretty friendly though, so they'll always run and find someone to help. That was the case at the running store too, as I stood in line for my race packet. I had sent in my information, but needed to pay for my entry when I got there. Finally someone was able to help me and we're ready to run!
The mall is just like every mall in the US. Same stores (different names, but the same stuff). Coffee shops, McDonalds, Burger King. Next door to the mall is a Sam's Club.
On the way out, I walked around to the taxi stand, but no taxi to be found. A local couple was there, he had a bag of race gear too. With no taxi, I decided to just start walking back. Soon the couple got a taxi, and pulled up beside me. Through a rather disjointed conversation we figured out we were going in roughly the same direction, and they offered me a ride.
Headed back into town, it was pretty obvious why the guy at the desk thought it was a half-hour taxi ride. Lots of traffic, and lots of traffic lights! My new friends got out and left me and the driver finally got me back to my hotel. I'm still thinking I could have walked here a little faster, or at least in relatively the same amount of time.
Oh well. Off to explore, eat, check out the Start/Finish area. More later.
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