Brazil Tours

Paraná Tours / Brazil - The Pico do Marumbi State Park is an integral protection conservation unit of the Atlantic Rainforest South-East Reserves World Heritage Site and Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve in the state of Paraná. The park is located 55 km east of Curitiba and 14 km northwest of historic Morretes (see map).

The park protects the peaks of the Marumbi Massif, one of the several individual mountain groups (Anhangava, Graciosa, Órgãos etc.) that constitute the Serra do Mar mountain range in the state of Paraná. The region recently has evolved to a favourite national and international ecotourism spot in South Brazil.

Marumbi and the surrounding mountain groups form part of the southern Ribeira Belt (Mantiqueira Province). Their granitic massifs were formed through alkaline granitoid magmatism during the post - collisional (550 - 500 Ma) stages of the Neoproterozoic Brasiliano - Pan African orogenic cycle and emplaced along the Pien fault zone which separates the Archean granulites of the Luís Alves craton and the Neoproterozoic gneisses of the Curitiba Microplate.

Due to its granite rock walls, Marumbi has evolved to the main rock climbing area in Paraná and together with Serra dos Órgãos in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most popular in Brazil. Three (steep) hiking trails lead through the submontane, montane and high - montane tropical rainforest of Marumbi State Park to Olimpo (1.547 m), the park's highest peak.

There are also three historic hiking trails that descend from the Curitiba plateau to the coastal lowlands: Arraial, Itupava and Graciosa. In former times, these trails were used by Indians, Jesuits and Bandeirantes in order to transport gold, precious stones and later coffee to the port of Paranaguá. Further hiking trails explore some of the exuberant waterfalls in the region such as Roseira, Véu da Noiva or Salto dos Macacos.

See also: Tour São Paulo - Curitiba / Photos