green area that led us to make a deci-
sion to take a trip to Salto Sete; one of
the many waterfalls in the area.
Getting there was interesting, it
was quite off the beaten path. Kel-
vin’s bike bounced along the hard-
packed mud road. We eventually
pulled into a small car park with a
little office. A man came and took
our 15 Real each and ushered us in
the direction of the path, explaining
a lot of information in Portuguese. I
explained I only spoke Spanish and
couldn’t understand, he instead tried
to get the message across with cha-
rades; something about a hill and a
path.
We left our helmets and stupidly
decided to walk in our full bike kit …
little did we know that the down part
was VERY down; steep and slippery.
Getting to the waterfall was a walk of
several kilometres. Not for the feint
hearted! It was quite a beautiful, very
tall waterfall, however on the way
back up I was starting to regret our
decision not to ditch the bike kit at
the top.
Having failed to locate the hostel
I’d looked up, we made a beeline for
Curitiba, the capital of the state of
Paraná, via the back roads and high-
way. With a slight stench of stale cig-
arette smoke we ended up in what felt
like an ex-‘Love’ hotel. It had secure
parking, was close to the everything
we needed and was more important-
ly, cheap. We couldn’t complain!
We’d wanted to spend two nights in
the city, to have a good look around in
the daylight however, we had been so
cold overnight with no heating, and
with the other cheap options on main
roads we opted to move on.
Heading in a north-easterly di-
rection the road took a sharp right
and headed south on the Estrada Da
Graciosa (PR-410), a fabulously scenic
route meandering through a UNESCO
biosphere reserve with a long section
of cobbled road; nice in the dry, not
so nice in the wet.
Luckily for us the rain had just
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