Curitiba

 We arrived in the capital of Paraná State a city called Curitiba and pronounced in Portuguese as “curry-Sheba” because the t is soft. It sounds intriguing suddenly doesn’t it?

It’s a city of one point eight million people living at 3,000 feet above sea level which gives a lovely mild climate, 80s by day and mid 60s at night. It’s the largest city in southern Brazil and you’ve never heard of it because it’s a practical place full of industry and repair shops and people selling everything under the sun. It’s not a tourist hub. 

It also boasts a well equipped truck repair shop where we ended up spending most of the afternoon while spending $55 to get a proper alignment for GANNET2. 

I had noticed some pulling to the right as I drove and had looked up alignment shops on Google Maps; my search request in English got me results in the local language. After all this time on the road that fact still astonishes me. 

However on my first attempt I was turned away as GANNET2 was deemed too big for their equipment. So I asked if they knew who could handle my van. The shop owner said he knew where and I could go and sent a WhatsApp message to his friend the owner of a truck shop. “He’s expecting you” he said. We talked a bit and he spoke slowly and clearly and I understood him. I surprise myself sometimes.

He rents the land for his shop but he built the office and the work bay and his two sons work there with him. He moved here from Minas Gerais State (“General Mines”) in the center of the country partly because he likes the stable weather here, cooler in summer and not too cold in winter. We actually had a good time chatting and he showed me his tropical fruit trees surrounding his shop and we showed him the van and we parted like old friends  I didn’t even get his name.

Brazilians are really nice. It was lunchtime and we drove across town to the shop with the big alignment bay…

…where we had cheese and crackers for lunch as we waited for them to open. They did a good thorough job and apparently found something in the suspension that was messing with the wheel alignment (the explanation was a bit too technical for my ultra basic Portuguese) . Then they balanced the wheels and I was very grateful as they fixed another thing not quite done right in Brasilia. Our heavy van needs proper alignment its tires for breakfast and KO2s cost at least $250 each ($700 in Argentina. Forget that!). 

It was a long slow drive following Google’s blue line across town and our route was convoluted as it was rush hour.

There is a campground in town and that was our goal, a $15 a night place to stop with hot showers, WiFi, electricity plugs (which we can’t use!), a dump station for the toilet, a kitchen and grass for Rusty to lie on. 

There is a workshop attached where they build and maintain RVs according to our travel app iOverlander. 

It’s a pleasant place to stop and though it’s full of campers three are occupied and the rest are in storage.

Our neighbors are a couple from Taiwan with whom I tried to speak Portuguese as I had no idea where they were from…Google Translate to the rescue .

Meanwhile we have settled in and it looks to be cool enough at night around here not to need air conditioning. This is a much more comfortable climate than Paraguay. Thursday the plan is to look for some weatherstripping that went missing in Brasilia dammit. There is a cabin air inlet that isn’t  watertight without a strip of rubber that has gone missing and I only just noticed. My air duct should look like this: 

But this is what mine looks like after we got a new windshield in Brasilia. Why anyone would touch the air duct I have no idea but now I need to fix it. 

I only noticed the problem when the windshield got a wash at a gas station and I opened the hood to check the engine oil as you do and I found water everywhere. I freaked out a bit and forgot to check the oil. Grrr. The air duct: 

Everything can be fixed in Curitiba I’m told  and those Atlantic beaches are just three hours away and waiting for us.