Serra do Mar

More than 1,500 people have died in similar landslides in recent decades in that portion of the Serra do Mar range.

The surf towns dotting the coastline are inside the Serra do Mar park, which the state says is Brazil’s largest continuous protected area of Atlantic Forest.

This foot race is sandwiched between the Serra do Mar mountains and Rio’s shoreline, and blessed with picturesque views which make the task at hand much more manageable.

Twenty years ago the Alto Douro could only be reached on horseback, crossing the Serra do Mar�o by the Pass of Quintella.

The western border of the state is traversed by low ranges of mountains forming a northward continuation of the Serra do Mar. The longest and most prominent of these ranges, which are for the most part the eastern escarpments of the great Brazilian plateau, is the Serra dos Aymores, which extends along fully two-thirds of the western frontier.