There are two ways down from Curitiba to the sea, and both are worth knowing. The modern highway, the BR-277, hurtles down the Serra do Mar in a series of viaducts and tunnels, and the old road, the Estrada da Graciosa, built in the nineteenth century, winds through the same forest on cobblestones, with bends so tight and views so green that bikers talk about it for years. The Serra do Mar is a steep coastal range, covered in Atlantic Forest, with clouds that cling to the peaks, and Pico do Marumbi, at about fifteen hundred metres, is the rocky summit that dominates the skyline.
The state park around it is a favourite of hikers, with trails to the summit that need a good day and a bit of scrambling, and a historic railway, the Serra Verde Express, which runs from Curitiba to Morretes through the forest on a line built in the 1880s. Morretes, at the foot of the mountains, is famous for barreado, a slow-cooked beef stew eaten with manioc flour and banana, which locals insist on serving in clay pots.
Piraquara and Quatro Barras are the towns on the Curitiba side, with about forty thousand and seventeen thousand people, and both have fuel and food. Curitiba itself, a clean, well-organised city with parks and a good bus system, has everything a rider needs. The ride along the Graciosa is short but slow, and the surface is rough and cobbled in places, slick with moss in the shade, with sharp bends and narrow sections, so it demands care, particularly on a loaded bike. The BR-277 is faster but heavy with lorries going to the port of Paranaguá, and fog can cut visibility to a few metres.
The weather here is changeable, with mist and drizzle even in summer, and rain can fall in any month, so carry waterproofs. The clearest weeks are in winter, from June to August, when cold fronts clear the air and the peaks appear sharp. Take a thermos of coffee, stop at a viewpoint and let the clouds clear.