Brazil Eco Adventure Tours
Rainforest - Hiking & Trekking - Wildlife

For thirty years after the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 (see Monte Pascoal), the Portuguese Crown did not pay much heed to its new colony. According to their information, the brazilwood (pau - brasil), the tree that gave Brazil its name and that yields a red dye, highly valued in Europe for the manufacturing of luxury textiles, seemed to be the main attraction of the country. For fifty years, a countertrade (escambo) between Portuguese and Amerindians was established along the coast of the Northeast. The Indians cut and prepared the trees and delivered them to the fortified trading posts (feitorias). In exchange, they received metal products (axes, knifes, combs, mirrors etc.) from the Portuguese.

Due to expeditions of Jõa de Lisbõa (1515) and Juan Diaz de Solis (1516) to the mouth of the Río de la Plata, between Argentine and Uruguay, rumors of legendary gold and silver treasures in a mysterious Sierra de la Plata (Silver Mountains) were reported to the Portuguese crown. On his way back to Europe, the two caravels of Solis shipwrecked on the coast of Santa Catarina. In 1524, one of the survivors, the Portuguese Aleixo Garcia, accompanied by about 200 Indians, realized an ancient trail called Peabiru (or Peabirco) from the coast of Santa Catarina (todays Camboriú) to the Bolivian highlands (it is believed that there is another access to that trail from Cananéia in the state of São Paulo). According to different historians, they returned with some pieces of gold and silver which they had stolen from the Incas.

The rumors of gold and silver in the hinterland on the one hand and the increased presence of the French along the Brazilian coast, participating in the dyewood trade, on the other hand, caused King Dom João III to send a new expedition under the command of Martim Afonso de Sousa (1490 - 1564) to Brazil. He was commissioned to drive the French vessels from the Brazilian coasts, to establish colonies and (most important) to discover routes to the legendary gold treasures of the Incas.

Martim Afonso de Sousa left Lisbon on December 3, 1530, with 5 vessels and approximately 500 men. After having defeated some French vessels in the Northeast, having established a military outpost in Rio de Janeiro and having disembarked some of his men in Cananéia in order to search for the legendary Peabiru trail, he finally continued sailing south in direction to Rio de la Plata, the missions principle destination. There, he was hit by a severe storm, which lead to the shipwreck of most of his vessels. He was obliged to return to the coast of São Paulo and to search for a safer route, on land, to the hinterland.

On January 22, 1532 - the feast day of Saint Vincent (São Vicente), the patron saint of Lisbon - he disembarked in the so - called "slave port" (porto dos escravos), a base on the coast of today´s state of São Paulo. This place was inhabited by shipwrecked and banned Europeans who lived from Indian slave trading, particularly the Carijó, a tribe of the Guarani family who lived south of Cananéia. He erected a church, a pillory and a jail and named the place São Vicente, the first and oldest European settlement of what now comprises the territory of Brazil.

Due to vertical earth movements at the end of the Cretaceous period about 80 million years ago (see geology), the coastal lowlands were separated from the promising highlands by the steep escarpments of the Serra do Mar mountain range. It is told that on top of the Serra do Mar, on the so - called "Piratininga plateau" , the Guianás Indians were living, commanded by the three brothers and tribal chiefs Tibiriçá, Piquerobi and Caiubi. Two shipwrecked Portuguese sailors, João Ramalho and Antonio Rodrigues would have enjoyed an excellent relationship with the Indians because Ramalho married Potira (Bartira), Tibiriças daughter and Rodrigues was engaged with the daughter of Piquerobi. Accordingly, both new the hidden rainforest trails to overcome the "green wall" of the Serra do Mar.

On October 10, 1532, Ramalho and Rodrigues guided Martim Afonso from São Vicente to the Piratininga plateau on top of the Serra do Mar. After having overcome the mangrove and restinga area between São Vicente and Piçagüera de Cima (today´s Cubatão), they started their ascent using a trail along the valley of the Quilombo river, which by different historians later was called Goianases, Tupiniquins, Piçagüera or Paranapiacaba trail. It reached the top of the Serra do Mar close to the village of today's Paranapiacaba and continued than westwards to Piratininga (probably today's downtown São Paulo), the village of tribal chief Tibiriça. Due to its strategic location and with the support of Tibiriça and Ramalho, Martim Afonso decided to establish a military outpost there.

In 1534, one year after the return of Martim Afonso to Lisbon , King Dom João III of Portugal divided Brazil into 15 stripes of variable height of land, divided parallel to the Equator from the coast to the Tordesilhas Line. These so - called captaincies (capitanias) were granted to 12 Portuguese noblemen (Capitão-Mor or Donatários). Martim Afonso de Sousa received the captaincy of São Vicente, which was divided in two stripes, one from Cananéia to Bertioga and the other from Paraty to Cabo Frio. The stripe between Bertioga and Paraty (captaincy of Santo Amaro) was granted to his younger brother Pero Lopes de Sousa.

As all but two (São Vicente and Pernambuco) of the 15 captaincies failed, King Dom João III introduced a General Government in 1548. Tomé de Sousa, who was appointed by Dom João as the first Governor - General and who in 1549 founded Salvador, Brazil´s first capital, also brought the first Jesuits to Brazil. Among them was Manuel Nobréga the superior Jesuit priest of Brazil. In order to convert the brave Carijó Indians to the Catholic religion, he asked a group of 13 Jesuit priest under the command of José de Anchieta to establish a base in the upland of the São Vicente captaincy.

In December 24, 1553, the group arrived in São Vicente and climbed up the Serra do Mar on a trail that later was named the "Padre José Trail". On the banks of the Tamanduateí river, next to the Vale do Anhangabaú (now the centre of São Paulo) they started to build a mission which they called "Colégio de São Paulo de Piratininga". In January 25, 1554, the first mass was celebrated and São Paulo de Piratininga was founded. Officialy, this date is considered the birthday of São Paulo.

In the 17th century, São Paulo became a center for the so-called bandeiras expeditions. These armed expeditions were composed of Paulistas (inhabitants of the state of São Paulo), Mamluks (cross between Portuguese and Indian) and allied Indians who had the mission to find precious metals and stones and / or to capture Indian slaves. The leaders of bandeiras were called bandeirantes. There is controversy about the image of these expeditions. For some, the bandeirantes were very brave men, who spent month and sometimes years away from their home and their families, exploring routes to the interior of the country and by that were responsible for Brazil´s economic development. For others they are considered some of the biggest mass murders in history.

Some of the most famous bandeirantes were Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva, Fernao Dias Pais, Antonio Rodrigues Arzao, Antonio Pires de Campos and Bartolomeu Bueno de Siqueira. Antônio Raposo Tavares (1598 - 1658), probably one of the boldest bandeirantes was leading in 1624 a bandeira composed of 2.000 Indians, 900 Mamluks and 69 Paulistanos. Only this expedition was responsible for the destruction of most of the Spanish Jesuit missions in the region and the capture of over 60.000 Indians. From 1648 to 1652, Tavares also lead one of the longest known expeditions from São Paulo to the mouth of the Amazon river, covering a distance of more than 10.000 km. From the 1200 men who left São Paulo, only 60 reached the final destination. Only few years after this expedition, Tavares died in São Paulo.

Almost three centuries and during three economic periods (the brazilwood logging from 1500 to 1550, the sugar era from 1530 to 1650 and the gold and diamonds era from 1690 to 1750), São Paulo remained a village of Mestizo, Gold digger, Bandeirantes and slaves, counting less than 20.000 inhabitants in the early 19th century. With the fourth economic period, the coffee cycle from 1820 to 1920, everything changed. It began in the mountains behind Rio de Janeiro, moved along the Rio Paraíba Valley to the west across São Paulo State and out into Paraná. Coffee powered the rise of São Paulo and its port of Santos.

With the abolishment of slavery in 1888 the coffee barons were obliged to generate their labor demand from abroad. Between 1870 and 1920 around 5 million European and Asian immigrants settled in Brazil, approximately half of it in São Paulo. Most of the immigrants arrived in Santos, from where they were transferred by train to an Immigrant's Hostel (Hospedaria dos Imigrantes) and afterwards to the coffee farms, northwest of São Paulo. The coffee cycle ended in 1929 caused by the crash of the New York Stock exchange and the related sharp decline of the coffee prices. Most of the immigrants, who lost their jobs on the coffee farms were forced to return to the the capital and São Paulo's population grew to 500.000 inhabitants in the 20th century.

Today São Paulo is considered the New York of Latin America. Nowhere else than here more independent ethnical groups can be found. The Japanese village “Liberdade”, where even the traffic signs are in Japanese language, the little Italy “Bella Vista” (also known as “Bixiga”) or the Bazaar in “Bom Retiro”, where Jewish, Moslems and Christians live in peace with each other as if there would have never been crisis in the middle east, are examples of such independent communities.

Its hard to say if São Paulo is beautiful or not but for sure it is international, in its colors, its smells and more than 30 languages and maybe this is the reason that 80% of the “Paulistanos” love it, their city.