DAY 4
See corresponding photos on my Facebook page.
After Alison was done with work, we were set to start her vacation and continue mine. Our first destination was to be Ilha do Mel off the coast of the Parana state of Brazil. There are a couple of ways to get to a port to take a ferry to the island: by bus, by car and by train. The train goes through the rain forest and mountains of the Parana state and takes almost 3.5 hours total travel time. The bus takes 2. But we wanted the experience and that is what we got. This is probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.
We boarded a train in Curitiba and decided to buy the upper class ticket, but yet, still not the one that would guarantee us an English tour guide. We just didn't think it was worth the money and the view was really what we wanted. We got on our train car and for some unknown reason, they number their seats lowest number from the back...let's just say, we were the stupid Americans walking back from where we came from because of that fact! We were with a car full of police officers (all middle-aged men) from Sao Paolo. We didn't find that info out until later in the train ride and spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out why a bunch of men were taking a train ride through the forest.
Our tour guide came up to us and spoke pretty decent English and told us that he would come back and translate the tour for us along the way. We got lucky! I found out later that he was born and raised in Curitiba, but had spent a fair amount of time in New Zealand and learned Kiwi English. It was definitely good enough for us! I must say though, I don't think we quite got the same tour. He would say everything in Portuguese first and all the men would get a bit rowdy. Then he would come back and translate for us about the history and fauna. Hmmmmm...something was lost in translation.
We first traveled through a bit of the countryside prior to getting to the forest. I must say it was an eye-opening experience for me. I have never been outside of the US and Europe, so never personally witnessed life in a developing country. Brazil is quite developed and many people don't consider them 3rd world anymore, but they do have some of the markers for it still. I had never seen chickens running around with stray dogs on the street in a residential area. The poverty of the living arrangements, dirt roads everywhere, etc. I know for some of my readers, they have seen this, been amongst the people in villages like this, etc. We all learn at some point and I was getting a class that morning.
Once we reached the forest...everything was so green and so lush. You were just surrounded by plants and trees and vines and flowers. You couldn't see through the dense fauna. It was amazing. Some of it is native plants, but also, there are plants that were brought into the region by the workers who worked on the railroad. There are these beautiful hydrangeas in the middle of the forest. A very odd sight indeed. At first it was cloudy, but eventually it brightened and you could definitely feel the heat and humidity that makes everything so green.
As you will see in the pictures, the green just never ends and when you are in the middle of it, you just keep snapping pictures because it is so amazing. I realize you guys might get bored...sorry!
We did get stopped at one point on the railroad for a problem with the train track. We had to sit there in the middle of the rain forest, for workers to fix the track. It was so hot...and of course, we can't get off the train to get some breeze. And also, there were times that workers would get off the train to clear some of the growing plants on the side of the tracks or to work on the railroad tracks. How odd would it be to jump off a train and just be in the middle of a rain forest (that does have animals that you wouldn't want to meet up with...jaguars, pumas, etc) to do your work?! Couldn't imagine...
There was a spot that we stopped at that was a planned stop (yeah, in the middle of the forest!). There were a few buildings and you could see that they might be used on the weekends when there is higher traffic. The tour guide explained that people get off at this stop to camp and take a 6 hour hike up a mountain. There are trails to do so. Expert climbers actually come to this mountain to climb to the summit. Alison and I kind of wished we could go do the 6 hour hike...how amazing would that have been. There are pictures of that specific peak in my photos.
As said as it is to say, by the end of the trip, we were less impressed by the continuous green. But this is not to say that the forest did not make an impact on me. It was absolutely gorgeous and I am still amazed that these places exist. Less and less of them do by all means, but some still do. I am very thankful that I got to see at least a sliver of this world. Amazing!
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