Back to Curitiba after 4.5 years

So this was my first day of Curitiba, after being on a scheduled-11hrs but finally 13hrs bus ride from Porto Alegre through the interior of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. The bus ride was really nice, something that I could be doing every day ;) Lots of interesting landscape passing by, very comfortable seats and an extremely quiet atmosphere. I had lots of time to listen to music, do a bit of hacking (though typing is a bit difficult considering the condition of many roads), reading as well as thinking about various aspects of life, the universe and everything ;)

I've also encountered to signs that are note mentioning: One was translated to "smile! you are being filmed by surveillance cameras". The other one was "This hard shoulder is provided by the federal government". ;) Unfortunately in both cases I didn't have the time to get my camera out and ready to take a picture. SLR's are just not the right tools for quick snapshots.

In Curitiba itself, it was nice to recognize the various places once again. I yet have to go to my former apartment, but I've seen the former office of Conectiva, the commercial center, etc. Everything has changed quite a bit...

First I was thinking of hiring a motorbike here for a bit of travelling - but then I recalled that riding a bike while having a bit of a flu is not really a good idea, so I'm actually hiring a car for two days now. Planning to visit Vila Velha and Santa Felicidade (which apparently claims to have a beautiful cemetery, for Brazilian standards).

At night went out for dinner with Claudio Matsuoka and Helio Castro. Talked a lot about my travels to India and got them interested in travelling there at some point.

Tomorrow I'll probably be mainly working. Having broadband at the hotel always has a good and a bad side. There's always a pile of work waiting...