Brazil isn’t just about Rio.

I love travelling to Brazil. It goes without saying that Rio de Janeiro is an exciting city, both historic and forward thinking. When it comes to Carnival, they practically invented it.

It’s also a place of gaiety and excitement where the trans world rubs shoulders (and everything else) with the rest of the population. It’s not so much, ‘acceptance’ as total integration. But what of other cities in this enormous and diverse country. I travelled to Curitiba to see what other Brazilian cities might be like.

There’s no doubt that the busy city is progressive. With the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (also known as ‘The Eye’) the centre of the art world in this city it gets of to a pretty amazing start. This extraordinary building houses exhibits from around the world, and is a joy to wander around. The architecture reflects the imagination of Oscar Niemeyer, and was completed when he was 95 years of age. The grounds house public art works and at weekends are full of local people enjoying the grounds. As I learned more about the building, and Sylvester wandered around struggling to find a public washroom, I was struck by the vastness of the interior, and how the entire concept of space is used. During the week…