Paranaguá Bay
Sweeping down from the plateau upon which Curitiba lies, the dramatic mountain range known as the Serra do Mar has long been a formidable barrier separating the coast of Paraná from the interior. Until 1885 only a narrow cobblestone road connected Curitiba to the coast and Paranaguá Bay, and it took two days for mules and carts to cover the 75km from what was, at the time, the main port, Antonina. In 1880, work began on the construction of a rail line between Curitiba and Paranaguá, a port capable of taking much larger vessels than Antonina could. Completed in 1885, this remains a marvel of late nineteenth-century engineering and the source of much local pride, as it is one of the country’s few significant rail lines developed with Brazilian finance and technology. Sufferers of vertigo be warned: the line grips narrow mountain ridges, traverses 67 bridges and viaducts and passes through fourteen tunnels as the trains gradually wind their way down to sea level (see Paranaguá Bay). Passing through the Parque Estadual de Marumbi on a clear day the views are absolutely spectacular, and the towering Paraná pines at the higher altitudes and the subtropical foliage at lower levels are unforgettable. The charming colonial town of Morretes, near the foot of the mountain range, is a good base for exploring the surrounding area.
Barreado
In Paraná’s coastal towns (in particular Morretes, Antonina and Paranaguá), Barreado, the region’s equivalent of feijoada, appears on most restaurants’ menus. This speciality, a convenience dish that can provide food for several days and requires little attention while cooking, used only to be eaten by the poor during Carnaval, but is now enjoyed throughout the year. Traditionally, barreado is made of beef, bacon, tomatoes, onion, cumin and other spices, placed in successive layers in a large clay urn, covered and then barreada (sealed) with a paste of ash and farinha (manioc flour), and then slowly cooked in a wood-fired oven for twelve to fifteen hours. Today pressure cookers are sometimes used (though not by the better restaurants), and gas or electric ovens almost always substitute for wood-fired ones. Barreado is served with farinha, which you spread on a plate; place some meat and gravy on top and eat with banana and orange slices. Though tasty enough, barreado is very heavy and a rather more appropriate dish for a chilly winter evening than for summer and Carnaval, as originally intended.
Paranaguá
Propelled since the 1980s into the position of Brazil’s third most important port for exports, PARANAGUÁ has now lost most of its former character. Founded in 1585, it is one of Brazil’s oldest cities, but only recently have measures been undertaken to preserve its colonial buildings. While both Antonina and Morretes boast less of interest than Paranaguá, they have at least remained largely intact and retain instantly accessible charm. Paranaguá doesn’t, though the parts worth seeing are conveniently concentrated in quite a small area, which means you can spend a few diverting hours here between boats, trains or buses.
Colégio dos Jesuítas
Just beyond the market, Paranaguá’s most imposing building, the fortress-like Colégio dos Jesuítas, overlooks the waterfront. Construction of the college began in 1698, sixteen years after the Jesuits were invited by Paranaguá’s citizens to establish a school for their sons. Because it lacked a royal permit, however, the authorities promptly halted work on the college until 1738, when one was at last granted and building recommenced. In 1755 the college finally opened, only to close four years later with the Jesuits’ expulsion from Brazil. The building was then used as the headquarters of the local militia, then as a customs house, and today is home to the Museu de Arqueologia e Etnología. The stone-built college has three floors and is divided into 28 rooms and a yard where the chapel stood, until it was destroyed by a fire in 1896. None of the museum’s exhibits relate to the Jesuits, concentrating instead on prehistoric archeology, Indian culture and popular art. The displays of local artefacts are of greatest interest, and there are some fine examples of early agricultural implements and of the basketry, lace-making and fishing skills of the Tupi-Guaraní Indians, early settlers and caboclos.
The Ilha do Mel and the southeast coast
To the east of Paranaguá are Paraná’s main beach resorts, principally attracting visitors from Curitiba seeking open sea and all the familiar comforts of home. The surrounding countryside is relentlessly flat and the beaches can’t really compare with those of Santa Catarina or, for that matter, most other parts of Brazil. There is, however, one notable exception, the Ilha do Mel, which, despite being Paraná’s most beautiful island, has been protected from tourism’s worst effects by being classified as an ecological protection zone – the number of visitors to the island is limited to five thousand per day, building is strictly regulated and the sale of land to outsiders is carefully controlled.
South-central Paraná
The hilly – and in places almost mountainous – region of south-central Paraná makes a good stopover between Curitiba and the Iguaçu Falls for anyone interested in European, especially Ukrainian, immigration. As none of the towns in the region are especially distinctive, it’s better to use them more as bases from which to visit nearby villages and hamlets where the pioneering spirit of the inhabitants’ immigrant forebears remains. The houses, made of wood and sometimes featuring intricately carved details, are typically painted in bright colours and are usually surrounded by flower-filled gardens. Because of the ethnic mix, even small villages contain churches of several denominations; most hamlets have at least a chapel with someone on hand to open it up to the rare visitor.
Ukrainians in Paraná
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European and North American companies were contracted to construct a rail line linking the state of São Paulo to Rio Grande do Sul. As part payment, large tracts of land were given to the companies and, as in the United States and the Canadian West, they subdivided their new properties for sale to land-hungry immigrants who, it was hoped, would generate traffic for the rail line. Some of the largest land grants were in south-central Paraná, which the companies quickly cleared of the valuable Paraná pine trees that dominated the territory. Settlers came from many parts of Europe, but the companies were especially successful in recruiting Ukrainians, and between 1895 and 1898, and 1908 and 1914, over 35,000 immigrants arrived in the Ukraine’s “other America”. Today, there are some 300,000 Brazilians of Ukrainian extraction, of whom eighty percent live in Paraná, largely concentrated in the southern centre of the state.
As most of the immigrants came from the western Ukraine, it’s the Ukrainian Catholic rather than the Orthodox Church that dominates; throughout the areas where Ukrainians and their descendants are gathered, onion-domed churches and chapels abound. While the Roman Catholic hierarchy, in general, is gradually becoming sensitive to the need to concentrate resources on social projects rather than in the building of more churches, new Ukrainian Catholic churches are proliferating in ever more lavish proportions, sometimes even replacing beautiful wooden churches built by the early immigrants. In Brazil, the Ukrainian Catholic Church is extremely wealthy, and its massive landholdings contrast greatly with the tiny properties from which the vast majority of the poverty-stricken local population eke out a living. Priests are often accused of attempting to block measures that will improve conditions: they are said to fear that educational attainment, modernization and increased prosperity will lessen the populace’s dependence on the Church for material and spiritual comfort, so reducing their own influence.
The Ukrainians’ neighbours (caboclos, Poles, Germans, and a few Italians and Dutch) frequently accuse them and their priests of maintaining a cultural exclusiveness. While intercommunal tensions certainly exist, the few non-Brazilian visitors to this part of Paraná are treated with the utmost civility, and if your Portuguese (or Ukrainian – the language is still universally spoken, in rural areas at least, by people of all ages) is up to it, you should have no problem finding people in the region’s towns and hamlets who will be happy to talk about their traditions and way of life.
Serra do Tigre
Without any doubt, the most interesting and most eye-catching Ukrainian church in Paraná is in SERRA DO TIGRE, a small settlement south of Mallet that still retains much of its Ukrainian character. Built in 1904, Igreja de São Miguel Arcanjo, spectacularly positioned high upon a mountain top near the heart of the village, is the oldest Ukrainian Catholic church in Paraná. In traditional fashion, the church was constructed totally of wood – including, even, the roof tiles – and both the exterior and the elaborately painted interior frescoes are carefully maintained as a state monument.
The Iguaçu Falls and around
The Iguaçu Falls are, unquestionably, one of the world’s great natural phenomena. To describe their beauty and power is a tall order, but for starters cast out any ideas that Iguaçu is some kind of Niagara Falls transplanted south of the equator – compared to Iguaçu, with its total of 275 falls that cascade over a precipice 3km wide, Niagara is a ripple. But it’s not the falls alone that make Iguaçu so special: the vast surrounding subtropical nature reserve – in Brazil the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (w www.cataratasdoiguacu.com.br), in Argentina the Parque Nacional Iguazú (w www.iguazuargentina.com) – is a timeless haunt that even the hordes of tourists fail to destroy.