Curitiba

Curitiba has a theater called the Wire Opera House.

It has a garden with a giant glass greenhouse. There is a forest park too, with a wooden lookout tower. You can see the city from the top!

The Wire Opera House, opened in 1992, is one of the city's most visited places, with shows of every kind. At the Botanical Garden, a large glass greenhouse was inspired by the Crystal Palace in London.

In the German Forest park, a stretch of native woodland, visitors can walk a trail that tells the story of Hansel and Gretel and climb the Philosophers' Tower, a wooden lookout with a view over the city. The Oscar Niemeyer Museum shows art, architecture and design, with about 7,000 pieces in its collection.

Brazil's official tourism site counts the Ópera de Arame (Wire Opera House), opened in 1992, among Curitiba's most visited places; the Botanical Garden's glass greenhouse was modeled on London's Crystal Palace. The German Forest (Bosque Alemão) keeps a stretch of native forest with a wooden church of 1933 now used as a concert hall, a children's library and the Philosophers' Tower viewpoint. The Oscar Niemeyer Museum covers visual arts, architecture, urbanism and design, with about 7,000 pieces, including works by Tarsila do Amaral and Cândido Portinari.

The Civic Center, a monumental group of buildings, is dominated by the Palácio Iguaçu, headquarters of the state government. Britannica also notes the Federal University of Paraná (1912), facing Santos Andrade Square, the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (1959), the Paranaense Museum and a cathedral (1894) inspired by Barcelona's. Two major-league soccer teams play in the city's large modern stadiums.

In Curitiba, many buses have their own lanes.

Cars stay out of them. People wait in round tube stations. When the bus comes, they step straight in!

In the 1970s, Curitiba wanted a train system but found it too expensive. Instead, it built a bus system and kept improving it. The first two busway corridors opened in 1974, and today the buses run on their own lanes, apart from the cars. This is called bus rapid transit, or BRT.

In 1992 the city added round boarding platforms shaped like tubes, along with extra-long buses that bend in two places. At the stations, riders step straight onto the bus at floor level. One fare lets riders change buses at terminals and tube stations. A 2016 report counted about 1.3 million passengers a day.

When the city had about 400,000 people in the 1970s, plans for light rail were dropped as too costly. The Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba (IPPUC) designed a trunk-and-feeder bus system, and the first two busway corridors opened in 1974. In 1979 feeder and interdistrict buses were integrated into the Rede Integrada de Transporte (RIT); all five major corridors worked by 1982. A single flat fare allowed free transfers at terminals and tube stations, so short trips helped pay for long ones.

In 1992 the circular boarding platforms, the city's famous tube stations, arrived with biarticulated buses to raise capacity, and in 2009 the Green Line corridor opened. A 2016 case study published by the Asian Development Bank counted 6 corridors, 70 km of dedicated lanes, 359 stations including 30 terminals and about 1.3 million passengers a day, and called Curitiba the first city in the world to run a full BRT system. Highways, railroads and air routes link the city to São Paulo in the north and Porto Alegre in the south.

In Curitiba, July is winter and January is summer!

Winters are cool. Summers are warm and rainy.

Curitiba is south of the equator, so its seasons are the opposite of North America's: summer comes in January and winter in July. On a typical January day the high is about 26 °C and the low about 16 °C. In July, highs average about 19 °C and lows about 8 °C.

Winter, from June to August, is the coolest time of year, and August has the fewest rainy days. From October on, rain becomes more frequent, and January is the wettest month. In all, about 1,400 millimeters of rain fall in a year.

World Meteorological Organization normals for 1961–1990 give mean daily maxima and minima of 25.6 °C and 15.8 °C in January and 19.4 °C and 8.1 °C in July; June is slightly colder, at 18.3 °C and 7.8 °C. The monthly totals add up to about 1,408 mm of rain, from about 165 mm in January to about 75 mm in August.

Brazil's official tourism site notes that the coldest period is July and August, which also has the fewest showers, and that rain becomes more frequent from October. In winter, its restaurants are known for hot dishes such as meat, cheese and fruit fondue.

Families in Curitiba have come from many places.

Some came long ago from Germany, Italy, Poland and Ukraine. You can see it in the houses and taste it in the food. The city also makes cars, trucks and buses.

Many families in Curitiba have roots in Germany, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, and you can see these influences in some of the city's buildings, foods and traditions. Others came from Syria and Japan, and many more moved in from farms and towns across Brazil.

Curitiba is also a busy place to work. Its factories make cars, trucks and buses, paper, furniture and cloth, and it processes maté tea, lumber and cattle. Its goods travel to the Atlantic ports of Antonina and Paranaguá, about 55 and 90 kilometers to the east.

Brazil's official tourism site describes a local culture strongly influenced by Italian, German, Polish and Ukrainian immigrants, visible in architecture, food and customs; Britannica adds Syrian and Japanese immigration and a massive influx of internal migrants from rural areas. The metropolitan area spans 26 municipalities, and in 2010 the city had almost 400 cars for every 1,000 people, the highest car ownership in Brazil according to the Asian Development Bank case study.

A modern commercial center, Curitiba manufactures automobiles, trucks and buses, paper, furniture, textiles and cement, and processes maté, beer, soft drinks, lumber and cattle. Exports leave through the Atlantic ports of Antonina (55 km east) and Paranaguá (90 km east). The city is home to two major-league soccer teams, several universities and a military air base.