In Aguas de Lindoia we spent the night in a pousada with a fantastic panoramic view and started the 3rd day with bird watching and a walk through the central park.

Our next stop was Serra Negra, famous for its textile and leather industries and rural products („da roça“), like salami and cheese.

The rest of the day was dedicated to driving the approx. 530 km to Curitiba , capital of the State of Parana with its 1,7 million inhabitants.

There are numerous highways around São Paulo with few indications of direction and/or cities. If you don’t know the name of the highway and/or the number of the same, you easily get lost. On your way to Curitiba, you have to take the “Rodovia Anel” (SP 021) and then the highway /  national road  SP-BR 116 „Regis Bittencourt“. Unfortunately we got stocked into a huge traffic jam, surrounded by trucks, because of an accident at „Saida 19″, thus loosing quite a bit of time.

This highway, connecting São Paulo and Curitiba, is called „Autopista da morte“. Luckily we did not see any more accidents – although there is a huge number of trucks passing at high speed. Half of the way is no highway but a national road with 3 tracks only, which leads – altering down- and up-hill parts – to constant stop-and-goes, requiring full attention.

That is why we reached our hotel in Curitiba only late at night where we stayed in the Hotel Ibis Centro Civico, centrally located next to the “Shopping Center Mueller”.