Brazil
Day 69: Curitiba to Morretes

I have a chance to see how brilliantly engineered the track is here when I'm asked up into the cab and given the controls for a while. (The driver obviously hasn't heard of my erratic landings in the aircraft simulator at the Embraer factory.) Clutching the single brake lever, I'm entrusted with bringing us round some tight corners, made a touch more terrifying by the fact that the wheels turn a beat or two before the train itself, giving the impression, for a brief heart-stopping second, that I've driven us all off into space.
It's early afternoon by the time we have emerged from the mountains and rolled into the small and picturesque town of Morretes.Marcelo and I go for lunch at a restaurant which serves the traditional dish of the area called barreado which means 'sealed'. It refers to the method of cooking brisket of beef in a ceramic pot with a manioc flour seal. Only salt and garlic are added and the whole lot is left over the fire for twelve hours. The recipe is centuries old and comes from the early settlers.
The sun is already edging behind the mountains we've just come through as I walk with Marcelo beside the horseshoe bend of the fast and shallow River Nhundiaquara, which snakes through this village full of brightly painted two-storey colonial houses, many of which are now art galleries or studios. The beauty of the place is clearly a big inspiration.
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PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Brazil
- Chapter: Day 69: Curitiba to Morretes
- Country/sea: Brazil
- Place: Morretes
- Book page no: 289
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