Via Anchieta e Serra do Mar

Serra do Mar (Portuguese: Sea's ridge or Sea ridge, [ˈsɛʁɐ du ˈmaʁ]) is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state of Espírito Santo to southern Santa Catarina, although some include Serra Geral in the Serra do Mar, in which case this range extends to northeastern Rio Grande do Sul. The main escarpment forms the boundary between the sea-level littoral and the inland plateau (planalto), which has a mean altitude of 500 to 1,300 metres (1,600 to 4,300 ft).

The mountain ranges are discontinuous in several places and receive individual names such as Serra de Bocaina, Serra de Paranapiacaba, Serra Negra, Serra do Indaiá, etc. It also extends to some large islands near the coastline, such as Ilhabela and Ilha Anchieta. With an altitude of 2,255 metres (7,398 ft), Pico da Caledônia in Nova Friburgo and Cachoeiras de Macacu in Rio de Janeiro is among the higherst points in Serra do Mar.

The Atlantic Forest (Portuguese: Mata Atlântica) is a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savanna, semi-deciduous forest and mangrove forests which extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the north to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south, and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina. The Atlantic Forest is characterized by a high species diversity and endemism. It was the first environment that the Portuguese conquerors encountered over 500 years ago when it was thought to have had an area of 1 to 1.5 million km2 and stretching an unknown distance inland. Currently, the Atlantic Forest spans over 4000km2 along the coast of Brazil and in a small part of Paraguay and Argentina. In Argentina, it is known as Selva Atlántica.

The Atlantic Forest region includes forests of several variations:

The Atlantic Forest is unusual in that it extends as a true tropical rainforest to latitudes as high as 24°S. This is because the trade winds produce precipitation throughout the southern winter. In fact, the northern Zona da Mata of northeastern Brazil receives much more rainfall between May and August than during the southern summer.