Day 7; January 8th
After an hour and a half flight from Rio, we were finally in Curitiba! One of the students had a severe onset of an eye infection and had to be taken to the hospital as soon as we arrived. It was about midday, and within a few hours it began to rain. Since it was a Sunday, practically all businesses along the streets were closed, with only a couple open. This meant it would be more difficult to find food in a town we were not familiar with, but I was still full from breakfast, so without an appetite or desire to explore the streets in the rain, I spent the next few hours in my hotel room catching up on reflections. It would be a few hours before they came back from the hospital, so most of the group ventured into the hotel restaurant to eat dinner. After almost three hours of waiting and trying to explain to the waiters what we wanted to order, our hunger was finally satisfied. Once everyone was ready, we had our usual presentations at the end of the day and started to prepare for our meetings to come in the following days.
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When you're so hungry while waiting for your food that you begin to eat your plates.
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Listening to Carlos.
Fresh acai bowl for lunch.
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Day 8; January 9th
We began our day by heading to our first of two meetings. The first presentation was the best out of the four that we attended on this trip. It was mostly about the history of Curitiba and the urban planning projects they have implemented, along with the ones they currently have in mind. The Taulois Plan was the first proposed urban plan for Curitiba, and within 60 years, the city transformed and grew exponentially. The Agache Plan was the first Master Plan for the city, which introduced a radial structure to the city. 20 years later, the IPPUC was created to research, evaluate, plan, and monitor the organization of urban environment. They made sure that land usage, road networks, and transport all connected with economic, social, and environmental development. The presentation then went on to talk about implementing a BRT system; the necessary conditions for BRT would have to have an appropriate boarding level, allow passengers to pay fares at the bus stop, have dedicated lanes for the buses, and have an overall integrated transport system.
In 2014, the city underwent another master plan revision; linear guidelines were maintained, and centralities (services, businesses, etc.) were created as well as east-west connections. To help the city officials understand public needs, they conducted an origin-destination survey, paying 80,000 households a visit. Several plans came about afterwards including a sidewalks plan, which involved better accessibility and lighting for safety, and the creation of bikeways, in which over 300 km of priority bike lanes were added to roads. A plan they have their hopes set for is a new bus project; the plan has been created, but funds are not currently sufficient for the start of construction. The second presentation of the day was with the much acclaimed Carlos, who worked with the SMMA, the environmental agency of the city. He taught us about the ecology of the area and the forest. Curitiba actually means "where the pine grows"; the pine forests are the second layer of the Atlantic Forest and are the intersection of the biomes. Inside of the building, many of the columns and structures, including the staircase, were made from treated wood; it was better to reuse the wood instead of disposing it and releasing the toxins into the environment. This meant the cost of infrastructure for the building was essentially zero. After Carlos' short presentation, we went on a short walk along a stream, which led us through a variety of parks. We happened to see a family of capybaras along the way. Once we reached our final destination, we stopped for a quick bite to eat. This was the first time I had ever tried an acai bowl, and it ended up being fresh and amazing. After a long day, we decided to take taxis back to the hotel instead of walking. For dinner, we went out to a buffet in the large mall to celebrate two students' birthdays that had recently happened. |
Day 9; January 10th
On our way to day two of meetings, our group got harassed by a pickpocket. If one of us hadn't warned the group after noticing, then some of us may have actually had our things stolen (I punch to kill). This presentation was fairly short and was all about Curitiba's integration transport network (RIT). The management system is run by URBS, which is in charge of planning and management of transport services. There are 11 companies part of the operation with a term of agreement based on 15 years of service. Newly created services included SITES, which is a special education transport system for people with disabilities, and a new type of bus, the "Liguera azul", which is the largest bus in the world. They went on to describe various types of fuel that are being implemented to help the environment. Biofuel was one, where it was made from 100% soybean; it produced less smoke and less carbon monoxide, but there were only 34 fleets existing in the city today. Hybrid buses were another option; they had two engines and an additional fuel economy of 35.35%; however, they were very expensive (almost twice the cost of a regular bus). Another type of bus proposed for a future project was the electric bus, but Brazil does not have manufacturers for this type of bus yet.
With respect to their city's control operations, they have cameras and PMVs (electronic highway signs) all around the streets, but no cameras inside of the actual buses. For fleet control, the main line of communication is between the control center and the bus operators. They even have a website that shows you real-time bus routes and locations. After the presentation, we actually got to visit the control center, which was a room with rows of computers facing a large screen displaying different screenshots from cameras around the city. We walked back to our hotel to get changed and prepare for the rest of our activities that day. Our first activity was the city bus tour, something I love doing for some reason, especially sitting atop an open-topped bus. The weather was perfect and sunny, and the bus tour allowed us to see much more of the city from a different view. One of the stops we made on the tour was at the Botanical Gardens. I remember having it in my presentation, so it was interesting to see in person. It was much smaller than I expected, which was slightly disappointing. After about half an hour, we got onto the city bus once more, and traveled to the Wire Opera House. This location was also in my presentation. It was an intriguing venue and I would have loved to see what it looked like at night with a full house on a show night. By the time we were finished there, it was late afternoon, so we got back on the city bus and continued on our way back to our hotel. After we had dinner, we prepared to meet with city officials the next day. |
"Cause and Effect" street painting near our hotel.
Wire Opera House.
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Oscar Niemeyer Museum, the "Eye".
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Day 10; January 11th
Today we finally had our formal meeting with city officials. We were expecting for the meeting to be with the officials that had represented the city for years, but a whole new lot of people had been elected right before our visit, so that is who led the presentation. The mayor himself was not there, but other personnel was. They started the presentation by talking about how the technology and information departments are isolated and far away from each other. Their plan is to integrate all the departments so they can work together, in and out of city hall. One of their main focuses was a major cultural change in the city - "Curitiba Inovadora". Vale de Pinhao is a place where geeks and creatives, inventors, investors, public agencies, technology companies, and academics could all exist within the same locality, instead of being scattered around the city. The Green Line was also a large project that was in the books for Curitiba; it involved the societal development of an old highway that runs through the city. Ending on that note, we were able to talk to the officials after the meeting and ask them any questions we had. It seemed as though they could not directly answer most of our questions, and when asked about their plans in detail, they were disorganized in their thoughts and processes. It may just be because they are new and are still getting situated, but hopefully things work out for them soon.
After the meeting, we took a short trip to the Oscar Niemeyer museum, which showcased a collection of art including paintings and sculptures. Later that night, we finished the last two presentations back at the hotel, including mine, and were done with meetings and presentations for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we would get to see the "naturey" side of our stay in Curitiba, and then move on to our last city of the trip. |
Day 11; January 12th
Today's day would end up being my favorite in Curitiba; we were going to go on a coastal train ride. We would be on the way to a town called Morretes, but the train ride itself was a few hours long and consisted of amazing views that you could watch from both sides. It was refreshing to be back and immersed in nature after being in the city for so long. The view of the dense forest along the mountains in the distance was amazing, and it was a unique experience to be a part of the clouds. At some point on our way to Morretes, our group got three little kids repeating a phrase that we had started while waiting for the train to start up again - "No Music". They kept running up to the microphone at the front of the tram car and repeating this phrase for about the next hour. Eventually, they transitioned into singing karaoke for our entire cabin, where we all sang along in unison. Once we arrived at the town of Morretes, we entered a restaurant to have lunch. Once again, we ate food that we had never tried before, and yet everything was delicious. It was one of those restaurants where small samples of all dishes are brought out, but if you wanted more, all you had to do was ask the waitress to bring it out. One of the workers, Emmanuel, came by our table to say hello; he ended up staying at our table for practically the entire time, talking about various points in his life. He was actually an incredible person; he knew seven languages and every part of his life seemed story-worthy. He told us that although the Italian Mafia was prevalent in this area, he continues to stay because of the unique nature that he loves so much.
By Emmanuel's recommendation at the end of our meal, we walked down the small alleyway to try the proclaimed ginger ice cream that he spoke so highly of. Once we found it, we tried a small sample of it - it was very good, but having an entire serving of it would have been too much. We decided upon buying pitaya ice cream instead; it came in a vibrant purple color, and the flavor was neutral enough that we could eat the entire scoop of it. Continuing down the street, we saw some vendors selling jewelry. One vendor was selling rock necklaces with rope string wrapped nicely around them. I had yet to buy one of these beautiful necklaces, so I got two. The seller was Argentinian and he surprised me when he commented on my Shark watch, saying he used to have one; many people don't know of this brand. After an hour of exploring the small town, we got onto a bus that would take us back to our hotel instead of taking the train again. One of the stops we made was at a church that had a nice waterfront view with plenty of sailing boats in the background. There was no service in session, but there were still people in the church, sitting in the pews and praying. I decided to go in with one of the students and pray - since we were already there - for how well the trip was going so far, and for it to stay that way. We signed our names in the guestbook on the way out; after flipping through the pages, it looked like this church had hundreds of visitors everyday. We returned to the bus and had one more stop before arriving at our hotel. This time, it was at a produce market. They had practically every fruit imaginable and then some. I was still full from our lunch in Morretes, but I decided to try fresh sugar cane juice that everyone else was buying. It tasted just like lemonade, except not sour, and with a ton of sugar. It tasted amazing, but made me more upset knowing that once we come back to the United States, this will be another kind of juice that is not offered where I live. After spending about half an hour at the market, we loaded back on the bus and headed to our hotel. With no more presentations or meetings to prepare for, we had one last group activity in Curitiba, where we actually got to ride on one of the bi-articulated buses that we had learned so much about in the documentaries we watched before the trip. We were going on during rush hour, so it was definitely packed, but our large group still made it on and off without problems. It was like any other bus I had been on in my life, but the coolest part about this one was the section of the bus that contained the accordion-like connection in the middle. If you stood on it, you would rotate in one spot whenever the bus turned, and if you looked at someone standing on it, it would seem like they weren't moving while the rest of the bus was. We were only on the bus for a few stops, and then headed back the same route. That night, we had dinner in the hotel again, and started preparing for our departure from Curitiba the next day into the last city of our trip - Iguacu! |
View from the train window on the way to Morretes.
Me and Erika peaking out of the train windows.
Another view from the train.
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