Brazil Tours

Brazil Tours / National Parks - The Serra da Bocaina National Park is an integral protection conservation unit of the Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In São Paulo the park overlaps with the Piçinguaba section of Serra do Mar State Park (see map 1 and 2).

Bocaina, which in Tupi - Guarani language means "paths to the height", is the local name for a section of the Serra do Mar mountain chain in this region. Officially, most tours start from São José do Barreiro but there are many other entrances from Cunha, Formoso, Arapeí, Bananal or Mambucaba.

With elevations above 2.000 m, Serra da Bocaina connects the lower coastal area in the southeast with the upper Paraíba Valley in the northwest. Its metamorphic basement, which is geologically located in the northern Ribeira belt, is formed of different Archean to Proterozoic fragments of supercontinent Rodinia (e.g. Juiz de Fora and Embu Terrane), which, during the Neoproterozoic, were intruded by a series of granitic batholiths (Rio Turvo, Lagoinha, Mambucaba etc).

Flora and fauna of the park change with the altitude. About 85% of the vegetation is composed of dense tropical rainforest with giant trees above 30 m in the submontane zone (50 - 600 m), medium sized trees up to 15 m in the montane zone (600 - 1.500 m) and smaller trees and bushes up to 5 m in the high montane zone (above 1.500 m). On the ondulated plateau at about 1.200 m occur remnants of mixed tropical forest with the presence of Araucaria trees and above 1.500 m the so-called Campos de Altitude.

Serra da Bocaina offers a wide range of ecotourism activities such as hiking / trekking and mountain biking. Of historical importance is the so-called gold trail (Trilha do Ouro) along the Mambucaba river. It was built by African slaves during colonial Brazil in order to facilitate the transport of gold and diamonds from the mining fields in Minas Gerais to the port of Mambucaba and from there to Portugal

See also: Trails & Tours / Fazendas / Photos