Historic Trails

Hiking Tours / Brazil - The Tupiniquins Trail (Trilha dos Tupiniquins) is the name given to a historic indigenous trail which prior to pre-colonial times connected the coastal lowlands in the acutal municiple of Cubatão with the Piratininga highland (actual Paulista Plateau). It probably represents a section of the Peabiru Trail.

It crossed the seemingly invincible Serra do Mar, which in that time, in Tupi - Guarani, was called Serra de Paranpiacaba - "place from where you can see the sea". The trail followed the smooth ascent of the Mogi river valley, connecting the fluvial port of Peaçaba / Piaçaguera with Praná Piacaba (actual Paranapiacaba), on the plateau. From there, the trail continued to the ingigenous villages of Tibiriçá (actual historical center of São Paulo) and his brothers Caiubi and Piquerobi.

On October 10, 1532, Martim Afonso de Sousa, guided by João Ramalho, climbed the Tupiniquins trail to the plateau, where he set up a military outpost and signed the donation of the first sesmaria of Portugal's new colony.

For more than 20 years of colonial Brazil, the trail was used by Indians, Jesuits and Bandeirantes, which finally led to the foundation of the villages of Santo André da Borda do Campo and São Paulo (see history).

Due to constant attacks of the Tamoio Indians, the Tupiniquim trail was closed in 1560, by an order of the third general governor of Brazil, Mem de Sá. It was substituted by the Padre José trail along the Perequê river (see Cubatão).