A day in Curitiba

After getting breakfast, I made arrangements with the hotel for a late checkout until 2pm, and told Suzuki-san to meet me at the lobby at five to nine. Paulo had told me about a bus that circles the city perimeter, stopping at scenic and historical spots along the way. Since the buses run every 30 minutes, you are allowed to get on and off up to four times to see the places you're interested in. Waiting at the stop in front of our hotel, the sky was overcast and there was a cool breeze. The pedestrian street was already full of people walking through. A road passed through part of the square, but it was the opposite of what you regularly see; the walkway was wide and expansive with people and bicycles while the road seemed a perfunctory add-on to convenience pedestrians who need to catch a taxi or for service vehicles. This part of Curitiba somehow reminded me of Prague, although the revolution that had taken place here was not political, but in city design.
The bus arrived and we got on, bought our tickets, and then climbed up to the open-air top deck. No sooner did we sit down, though, when the wind picked up and a light mist soon turned into a misty rain. Suzuki-san told me he was an ame-otoko (雨男）, literally "rain man", which in Japanese means someone who always seems to attract rainy weather, so we road the next 20 minutes on the lower level until we arrived at the Jardim Botânico, a French-style garden with a picturesque greenhouse. We bought rain ponchos at the gift shop and made our way down the main path flanked by green, triangular hedges. After passing through the greenhouse, the rain subsided for a while and a blue sky showed itself.
Our next stop was the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, which features the Brazilian architect's famous eye-shaped building above a pond. It was truly and impressive building, and Suzuki-san and I decided to spend an hour or so there and see some of the exhibits inside, since the entrance fee was only $4 BRL (about $2). There was some great contemporary art, sculptures, installations and paintings, and afterwards Suzuki-san bought some DVDs at the museum shop.
We were running a little short on time at that point, though, so we skipped the next bus and jumped in a taxi to go see the Ópera de Arame, a wire opera house made of steel tubes, accessible only by crossing over a long bridge (some pictures here). We soaked up the scenery while sitting in a small cafe on the ground floor near the pond where we could hear a nearby waterfall.
As it was nearing the end of the day, we went back to the town center and strolled around Tiradentes Square and ducked inside the cathedral for a bit before heading over by the Paço da Liberdade, an historical palace which was restored and reopened last year. Then, asking locals for directions along the way, we made it back to our hotel, caught a taxi and made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight to Sao Paulo and then on to Manaus.