Ubatuba
Charming coastal town and capital of surfing in Brazil; Utabata means ”the place of many boats” in Tupi-Guarani language. It was a big Indian village in the 16th century, where Hans Staten, the famous German explorer is famed to have lived. In the heart of the Natural Park of the Serra do Mar, at the foot of the mountain range which contains the plateau forming most of the central and eastern part of Brazil. The hey-days of this town were in the early 19th century, when it was a leading port for the coffee trade, foundation of the affluence of the State of São Paulo and the region of Parnaiba.
After decades of oblivion, a road was opened form Taubaté to the Rio-São Paulo expressway in 1969. Then the Rio-Santos road was built in 1974, which gave birth to a small trend of touristic development. Sadly, the colonial houses that existed, similar to those of Paraty, were pulled down, in a wave of sweeping modernism, in the seventies. However, the town retains a certain charm: thanks to its remoteness, it has many traditions and its own lifestyle.
There are various bird-watching sites near Ubatuba, to which we can organize excursions. There are rare species such as the macuco (Tinamus solitarius) and the anambé-de-crista (Iodopleura pipra).