Curitiba – Parks, Buses, Capybaras and an Enormous Eye

by Tom · Published 23/08/2026 · Updated 21/08/2026

After a few busy and enjoyable days in São Paulo, it was time to continue to a Brazilian city that had somehow escaped my attention on my first visit.

This time, however, Curitiba fitted perfectly into my route towards Paraguay.

Most of this seven-week journey through South America would be done by bus, so getting the tickets organised for the different stages became part of the travelling itself. The journey to Curitiba would take around six hours, and although it was during the day, I decided to book a Leito Cama seat.

The seat reclined almost completely, and while there was no need to sleep, it was remarkably relaxing to lie back and watch Brazil pass by outside the window.

*Six hours on a bus is considerably more pleasant when the seat almost turns into a bed.*

Curitiba is often described as one of Brazil’s greener and more environmentally conscious cities.

Whether it is actually greener than every other Brazilian city is probably impossible to measure, but it certainly feels different. Curitiba has an extensive network of parks and green spaces, and the city became internationally known for its approach to urban planning.

It was also one of the pioneers of Bus Rapid Transit, a system using dedicated bus lanes and enclosed boarding stations. You enter the buses through glass tubes, making the experience feel slightly more like boarding a train than an ordinary city bus.

Add extensive recycling programmes and a city that has spent decades thinking about public transport, and Curitiba has developed a reputation as one of South America’s more sustainable urban experiments.

*Curitiba’s Bus Rapid Transit system – public transport with its own glass tubes and a slightly futuristic feel.*

There were several reasons why Curitiba had attracted me more than some of Brazil’s other cities.

One of the main ones was the Museu Oscar Niemeyer.

Niemeyer is a name that has appeared several times during my travels in Brazil. In São Paulo, and of course repeatedly in Brasília, where so many of the city’s most famous buildings were designed by him.

So perhaps it is not entirely surprising that I eventually ended up visiting a museum carrying his name.

What is slightly surprising is that the museum is in Curitiba rather than Brasília or São Paulo.

But here it is.

And once you have seen it, you are unlikely to forget it.

The museum is also known as the Museu do Olho – the Eye Museum.

*The Eye Museum. Because apparently a perfectly normal museum building would have been too boring for Oscar Niemeyer.*

From the outside, it is obviously the enormous eye that attracts most of the attention.

Standing there, you almost overlook the large white rectangular building beside it.

But that is where most of the museum is.

The collection covers visual art, architecture and design, spread through a surprisingly large complex.

The Eye may be the reason you stop and look.

The rest of the museum is the reason you should actually go inside.

Inside the Museu Oscar Niemeyer, where the exhibitions are almost as interesting as the building itself.

Curitiba may feel like a relatively modern city, but it also has a historic centre.

Walking around the old streets, with their colonial-style buildings and churches, feels almost like stepping into a different Curitiba.

It is not a huge historic centre, but after all the concrete, glass and modern architecture, it was a pleasant reminder that the city did not begin with Oscar Niemeyer.

*The historic centre of Curitiba – proof that the city has more to offer than modern architecture and enormous concrete eyes.*

*A different side of Curitiba, where colonial-style buildings meet the modern city in the background.*

Another of Curitiba’s many green spaces is the Jardim Botânico.

Its best-known feature is the large glass and metal greenhouse, inspired by French-style glasshouses.

It is one of those buildings that looks almost too elegant to be hiding among trees and lawns.

*Curitiba’s Jardim Botânico – a rather elegant greenhouse surrounded by one of the city’s many green spaces.*

And since Curitiba apparently decided that one glass building was not enough, there is also an opera house made almost entirely of metal and glass.

The Opera de Arame is set beside an old quarry and an artificial lake, surrounded by greenery.

It is a surprisingly theatrical setting for an opera house.

Which, I suppose, is exactly what an opera house should be.

*Opera de Arame – an opera house of metal and glass, built beside an old quarry.*

Curitiba was, in many ways, supposed to be a stop between São Paulo and Paraguay.

But it turned out to be much more than that.

The parks, the strange architectural experiments, the historic centre and, of course, the capybaras quietly working as oversized lawnmowers all made the city worth exploring.