Brazil Eco Adventure Tours
Rainforest - Hiking & Biking - Wildlife

Around 1870 Irineu Evangelista de Souza, also known as Visconde de Mauá and in that time one of the most powerful man in Brazil, had the concession to explore vegetal carbon in the Serra da Mantiqueira area. In 1889 his son obtained the permission to install the Colonial Nucleus of Visconde de Mauá and in 1907 the government started a campaign in Europe to attract capital and labor to Brazil.

Unfortunately the climate and the agricultural conditions of the region were mistakenly considered similar to the ones in Europe which motivated in 1908 the first immigrants from Switzerland to arrive in Visconde de Mauá. A little later arrived Germans and Austrians and afterwards Portuguese, Spaniards, Italians, Hungarians and even Russians, all with the intention to cultivate lettuce, vegetable and corn. The government provided houses with 2 to 3 rooms, agricultural equipment and financial auxiliary for 6 to 12 month.

Due to a variety of factors such as the tropical climate, acid soils, lack of technical advise, cultivation of the wrong agricultural products and excessive transportation times of 12 to 48 hours, this agricultural project failed. It is told that in some months, the only alimentation consisted of "pinhão", seed of the Araucária, a popular native tree of the region. Accordingly the government was obliged to sell the terrains to farmers from Minas Gerais who concentrated on the production on milk and its derivates.

The few immigrants that remained in Visconde de Mauá started to initiate touristic activities, renting the rooms of their residences. In the beginning, the guests from Rio or São Paulo arrived by train in Resende and continued their journey by horse or on the back of a donkey. Until today the principal attraction of Visconde de Mauá are its mountains, valleys, peaks and trails that offer superb hiking and mountain bike opportunities.