Rio-Santos Coast Road

The BR-101 along the Serra do Mar: Atlantic forest falling into the sea, coves on one side and granite on the other.

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Why this ride

From Ubatuba it runs 168 km to Angra dos Reis; allow about 3 h 14 of riding. The stops in between: Paraty and Trindade. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.

Roadbook

1. Ubatuba start

   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.

   In the sixteenth century this was Tupinambá territory, and the Confederation of the Tamoios, an alliance of Tupinambá chiefs who fought against the Portuguese, was based here. The old centre has a small colonial church and a handful of low houses by the harbour, but the town is mainly a laid-back holiday place, with surf shops, pousadas and open-air restaurants. Fishing boats still unload on the quay in the morning, and the fish market is a lively place to buy shrimp and squid.

   The riding is excellent. The Rio-Santos highway, BR-101, passes through Ubatuba, rolling over headlands and descending to beaches in a ribbon of curves, with views of islands, and the surface is generally good. Another favourite is the Oswaldo Cruz road, SP-125, which climbs the Serra do Mar from the coast toward Taubaté with dozens of bends, forest, mist and tight hairpins. Mist and rain can make the mountain stretch slippery, so check conditions and avoid it after dark. The summer holiday period and carnival bring heavy traffic on the coast road.

   Ubatuba is a town of nearly eighty thousand and offers fuel stations, workshops, supermarkets and every kind of restaurant. Try a moqueca, the fish stew with coconut milk, or a grilled fish with banana. Secure parking is easy at most pousadas. Insect repellent is a good idea in the evenings, and sunscreen is essential at the beaches. The best weather is from April to October, when the humidity eases, though the sea is warmer in summer.

2. Paraty scenic

   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.

   The cobbles are a real consideration for a rider. The old centre is closed to most motor traffic, and where it is open the stones are rounded, slick when wet and hard on tyres and ankles, so leave the bike at a guarded parking spot and walk. The town is at its best at night, when the lamps come on, the streets are full of music and the smell of grilled fish drifts from the courtyards. Paraty is also famous for cachaça, the cane spirit, with several small distilleries nearby, and for its literary festival, held each year.

   The Rio-Santos highway, BR-101, is the reason the bikes come. Following the coast between Rio and São Paulo, it curves around bays and headlands, climbs over spurs of forest and drops to beaches again, with a surface that is generally good but patched, and traffic that can be heavy on weekends and holidays. Rain is frequent, particularly in summer, and on wet days the road can be slippery and the mountains hidden in cloud. Dawn rides give better light and fewer trucks.

   Paraty has fuel stations along the main road outside the old town, banks, supermarkets and plenty of places to eat. Try the local fish stews, banana dishes and sweet coconut desserts. Mosquitoes can be annoying in the evening, and the sun is strong, so carry repellent and sunscreen. If you plan to stay overnight, book in high season, from December to February and in July, when prices rise and rooms fill. A short boat trip to one of the islands is a good way to rest your arms after a day on the highway.

3. Trindade scenic

   Trindade is a fishing village that was lucky enough to stay a fishing village. It sits at the southern edge of Rio de Janeiro state, in the municipality of Paraty, where the Serra da Bocaina comes right down to the Atlantic and the forest, still real Mata Atlântica, runs almost to the sand. The beaches are small bays divided by granite headlands, and some of them have natural rock pools that fill and drain with the tide.

   The road to it leaves the BR-101, the Rio-Santos highway, and drops about twenty kilometres through jungle-draped hills. It is narrow and steep in places, with tight bends, a surface that varies from fine to patched, and the occasional section where the rains have bitten the edges. Local buses and pickups share it, and they drive it faster than visitors do, so keep to your side. After a storm there can be mud and fallen branches, and in the middle of the day there is a lot of shade, which means damp tarmac in the corners. The reward is the last descent, when the bay opens up below you and you can smell the sea before you see it.

   The people here, the caiçaras, descend from Indigenous Brazilians, Portuguese settlers and enslaved Africans, and they have fished this coast for centuries. Paraty itself was a gold port in the eighteenth century, when mule trains brought gold down from Minas Gerais along the Caminho do Ouro and ships carried it away, and the cobbled colonial centre, now protected, is worth a day of its own. Trindade has a more relaxed history, and a more relaxed present: hostels, beachside kitchens that serve grilled fish and cold beer, and a good deal of hammock life.

   Do not count on fuel in the village. Paraty, nineteen kilometres away, is the place to fill up before you come down, and the tank you leave with should carry you comfortably along the coast. If you are on the coast road in the dry months, May to September, the water is clear and the forest is quieter. In summer the village is crowded, and the road jammed at weekends.

4. Angra dos Reis finish

   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.

   The name means Bay of the Kings, and it was given by Portuguese navigators who arrived around the feast of the Epiphany in the early sixteenth century. The town grew as a sugar and later a coffee port, with slave ships landing here and the produce of the inland valleys shipped out. Ilha Grande was a prison island for much of the twentieth century, and the ruins of the old penal colony are still visible. Nuclear power also arrived here, and the plants near Itaorna are a strange sight on a coast so green.

   The BR-101, the Rio-Santos Highway, hugs the coast through here, a road of lovely curves and ridge views, with the mountains of the Serra do Mar plunging into the sea. Some stretches are narrow and winding, with trucks and buses, and tunnels and landslide scars are common after heavy rain. The surface is generally good, but the traffic can be slow on weekends and holidays. The riding is best in the early morning, when the road is quiet and the water is calm.

   Angra dos Reis is a city of about 150,000 people, so there is fuel, food and accommodation in plenty. Seafood is the thing to eat, grilled fish and shrimp stew with coconut milk, served in simple restaurants near the harbour. Take a boat trip if you have time, since it is the best way to see the islands. Paraty, a beautifully preserved colonial town, is the next major stop to the west.

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