Curitiba is located in the Paraná highlands.
With almost 2 million inhabitants, it is the most populous city in the South of Brazil. Its population is made up mostly of German, Ukrainian, Russian, Italian and Polish immigrants.
The city is known to urban planners around the world for its innovative public transportation system.
In the center, there is a great old city (or cidade velha) that is 3 centuries old, and is currently in a very good state of preservation.
It is worth visiting the large craft fair that takes place every Sunday in the old town.
The origin of the name of the city, according to the most popular hypothesis, is that it would derive from the indigenous expression "cury'i ty (b) ba", which in Guarani means "place where there are pine trees".
Another hypothesis refers to the Tupi language, which is very close to Guarani and was spoken by the Portuguese colonizers. In Tupi, kury represents the pine tree, piñón and tyba is a suffix that indicates a group. Therefore, it would be a group of pines.
See more about the history of Curitiba
