Last Day in Curitiba

My days in Brasil have come to an end...for now. And what excellent days they were! Let's see, I left off mentioning that I would be going to a samba on thursday night. I did, and it was a great time! One of those unexpected kinds of fun. Crazy story - I ran into the guy I met in Perú a couple years ago again. Completely unplanned. This time, though, we actually got to talk, and he and his friends stuck around and hung out with us all night. I was thankful that I can communicate in portuguese now, that makes it a lot easier to make friends. Cerveja & conversation flowing,I got to talk to a friend of his about forró, a regional brazilian genre of music. This dude really knew his stuff about forró, so I have a lot of names of artists and historical info to look up.
The rest of the weekend was pretty tranqui, did a lot of going out and eating with Luana and her friends, lots of practice for my portugués. Took pictures, watched brazilian soap operas.
Then on Sunday, I went back to the artesanal fair to walk around and pick up a few gifts. It's really an ideal way to spend a Sunday morning. Later that night, Ana Paula and I had dinner at the house, pasta and vino, and then we went out. We went to a forró show, where I discovered that I really like forró and want to learn the dance. It took place in an old social club and it was clear that the people who go are serious enthusiasts. It was one of those places where men & women partner up and dance together to one song, then usually change partners. Sometimes without even saying a word to each other through out the entire song - the point is to just dance. I liked that...of course I would have liked it more if I could figure out the dance! Someday...
Ah and guess who showed up again? The Perú guy, yep. Curitiba's a big city, but apparently not that big. Weird, but I like that.
So now it's monday and I'm getting ready to head to the airport to take off for Córdoba. Spent the morning in the jardim botánico and discovered a whole new area I hadn't seen yet, with a bunch of local plants. Some of them smelled like my first guitar, interesting. And now I'm going to have some tea with the girls and say my goodbyes. Até logo Brasil, I'll be back someday.