Mountain Bike Tour

São Paulo – Curitiba

Brazil Mountain Biking - São Paulo – Curitiba is a medium level mountain bike tour through the conservation units of the coastal portion of the Atlantic Rainforest South-East Reserves World Heritage Site in the states of São Paulo and Paraná (see route).

Thirty years after Brazil's official discovery by Pedro Álvares Cabral and his crew at Monte Pascoal, in Southern Bahia, the Portuguese seafarer Martim Afonso de Sousas was ordered by King Dom Joao III to expell the French from the Brazilian coast and to take possession of the territories, that, in 1494 were granted to Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

The favorable geographic and climate conditions caused Martim Afonso to settle on the coast of the state of São Paulo instead of Salvador, in Bahia. In 1532 Martim Afonso founded the village of São Vicente and afterwards the harbor of Santos. These were the first permanent Portuguese settlements in Brazil and the beginning of colonization.

Despite continuous attacks by the French and their allied Tamoio Indians the Portuguese achieved not only to secure their fortress in São Vicente but also to establish trails to the hinterland and along the coast. The tour follows the so-called Imperator-Trail (Trilha do Imperador) which was opened in 1545 and connected São Vicente in the North with Cananeia in the South. It is one of the region's most famous trails and crosses the following conservation units and historic cities of the lower Ribeira Valley and Lagamar - Complex:

Iguape	Juréia - Itatins	Cananéia

Guaraqueçaba	Ilha do Cardoso	Superagüi

Pariquera - Abaixo	Marumbi	Serra do Mar

Please click here to order the maps and trail description of this tour.