Southern Brazil

Share This Article

From Friday March 29 to Thursday April 4, from Curitiba to Peruibe.

Goodbye Djamil

Friday we leave Djamil with regret. We leave Curitiba early, it is Easter Friday in Brazil and as it is a public holiday there is little traffic.
The road that takes us to Morretes is located in the south of Brazil in a fairly hilly area. The descent takes place over 15 km of paved areas. Our speed is considerably reduced and we create big traffic jams on the road because it is narrow and cars cannot overtake.

Saturday we leave Morretes for Paranaguá where we have to take a ferry that will take us to Guaraqueçaba. A small town located in the middle of nowhere but in an idyllic location. Always difficult to load bikes on boats crossing the inlets. The crossing is pleasant, we see a few dolphins along the way. We stay with Dona Ilda who runs a posada, a sort of inn with small individual accommodations.

Ferries and the mangrove

Sunday we leave Ilda very early. We have to take a boat to Cananéia with a stopover in the small village of Ariri. We benefit from a water taxi for the first part. The driver takes us for a low price, he picks up a customer and makes the trip empty, a great deal for us. We cross the mangrove where we can see scarlet ibises. After an hour we arrive in Ariri. It’s a small village lost in the jungle, 2 hours by boat from the first services. There is a mountain path but it is difficult to pass. We are the attraction of the stopover, a crowd gathers around the bikes for a selfie sequence, we are almost stars.

At the beginning of the afternoon we take the second boat for the final destination Cananéia. As it is low tide the roots of the trees are exposed and we have to navigate between the sandbanks where we can again see the scarlet ibises. 2 hours of navigation in the mangrove before setting foot in Cananéia. It is a tourist town with a pretty central square and its church.

A 53 km beach

Tuesday we take a ferry to go to the island of Comprida. It is sparsely populated but quite touristy. A special day since the road is a 53km * beach. The sand is hard and it makes a nice track for cycling. We will come across a few cars and a bus there. We end our day in Iguape.

* Click to see a video

The banana plantations

A day like we often want. Wednesday we leave the town of Iguape. Day on the road in banana plantations, they are everywhere, it’s impressive. They extend on the mountain slopes, which should not facilitate harvesting which is done manually. We end our day in Miracatu with Tana and Efrain, her Cuban husband. A lovely evening in this small inn. We were the only customers. They offered us great hospitality.

Thursday we continue our journey through the banana plantations. A quiet day without any particular event, which we end in Peruibe.

Our meetings:

Tana and Efrain owner of En Casa hostel. They welcomed us like friends.
Monique and Marcel, a French couple in their sixties who have been traveling in South America by bus for around 6 months. They run a blog: marcelmoniquevoyages.fr