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Curitiba is the capital of Paraná, Brazil. If you're heading for Iguassu Falls from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, it's worth stopping by for a two or four. Curitiba is the largest city in the prosperous Southern region, and its population is largely descended from German, Ukranian, Russian, Italian and Polish immigrants. The city is known to urban planners worldwide for its innovative public transit system.
There is a great Cidade Velha (Old City) in the center which is restored very well for its 314 years. There is a huge arts and crafts fair every Sunday in the old city that is well worth visiting. Curitiba is about 6 hours by coach from São Paulo.
Curitiba is one of the major cities of, and you should have no difficulty getting a plane from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, or other major cities.Curitiba has a very simple and practical transportation system. Public transportation consists entirely of buses. There are several different types of bus, each with a different function. Moving around in a car can be difficult in and around the city centre because of the many one-way streets and constant traffic jams. This makes the public transportation system more attractive if one wants to go there. The trinary system allows quick access to the city centre for car drivers. Some avenues are spacious and laid out in a grid, and apart from some points around the city centre, Munhoz da Rocha Street and Batel Avenue, traffic jams aren't thus severe.
- Rua 24 Horas (Twenty-four hours St.) is a covered shopping arcade which is, as you might guess, open twenty-four hours a day.
- Bosque do Papa (Pope's Grove), built in 1980 to commemorate Pope John Paul II's visit, is a wooded park dedicated to the early Polish immigrants to Curitiba.
- Bosque Alemao (German Forest), one of the many parks which have been build around Curitiba in the early 1990s, the German Forest lends it's theme to the German Fairy tale of "Hansel und Gretel" and features several constructions of the fairy tale inside the forest.
- Rua das Flores (Flower's road), a nice area for shopping, it is a pedestrian-only street.
- Ópera de Arame (Wire opera) is a theater made completely out of wire mesh, an interesting sight to see.
- Jardim Botânico (Botanical garden) is a famous botanical park comprised of gardens, fountains, and a large domed greenhouse.
- Universidade Livre do Meio Ambiente (Free University of Environment) it is an University, where you can see a cliff and several birds, being in contact with nature.
- Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Oscar Niemeyer Museum) it is an art museum, that have the design of an eye.
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