Brazil Rio Santos Highway: Angra dos Reis to Ilhabela ferry

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Angra dos Reis

   Angra dos Reis is a bay of islands, and the number most often quoted is 365, one for every day of the year. Whether that is exact does not matter, because the scene is clear: a green, steep coast, calm blue water, and countless islands covered with Atlantic forest. The town, about a hundred and fifty kilometres west of Rio along the Costa Verde, is the main port, and boats leave from the harbour for Ilha Grande, the largest island, which has no cars and some of the best beaches in Brazil.

   Read the complete Angra dos Reis write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Angra dos Reis is where the day begins. Next is Paraty.

2. 2. Paraty

   Paraty is a small colonial town on a bay of the Costa Verde, where the Serra do Mar mountains drop in green folds to a sea scattered with islands. It was a port of the gold rush in the eighteenth century, when gold from Minas Gerais came down a mule trail through the forest, the Caminho do Ouro, and was loaded here for the voyage to Rio and then Lisbon. The town is remarkably well preserved, with whitewashed houses with coloured door frames, a handful of churches, and streets paved with big uneven stones that are laid, so they say, to let the sea flush them clean at the highest tides.

   Read the complete Paraty write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Paraty comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ubatuba.

3. 3. Ubatuba

   Ubatuba has more than eighty beaches, and surfers say the exact number depends on how much you walk. The name is from the Tupi language and is often said to mean place of canoe-trees, referring to the big trees the Tupinambá carved into boats. Beyond the beaches, the town sits between the sea and the Serra do Mar, a steep mountain wall covered in Atlantic forest, one of the richest and most threatened ecosystems in Brazil. The result is a coast where you can swim in the morning, walk to a waterfall in the afternoon and see toucans at dusk.

   Read the complete Ubatuba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 172 km into the recorded legs you reach Ubatuba. Next is Ilhabela ferry.

4. 4. Ilhabela ferry

   The ferry from São Sebastião to Ilhabela is a short crossing of about fifteen minutes across a narrow channel, and it is the only way for vehicles to reach the island. Ilhabela, the largest sea island in Brazil, is a steep, forested mountain rising out of the Atlantic, with beaches, waterfalls and a handful of villages scattered around its shore. The mainland side is São Sebastião, a port town of over seventy-five thousand people with a historic centre of colonial churches and a working harbour.

   Read the complete Ilhabela ferry write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ilhabela ferry closes the day.