I like traveling by train. In the United States, I’ve used Amtrak extensively and when I’m in other countries, I look for opportunities to ride the rails across their countryside, too. Lucky for me, Brazil has preserved a few of their antique lines for tourism, so I spent a day enjoying the relaxed pace of train travel aboard the Serra Verde Express.
Built in 1885, the Serra Verde Express served as a vital transportation link carrying goods like coffee and grains from the highlands around Curitiba to the port city of Paranaguá on the coast of southeast Brazil. The reason why this train is special, is because it was quite an engineering feat to build this railroad through the lush Serra do Mar.
The Serra do Mar is a system of dramatic mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeast Brazil forming a long and rugged ridgeline of rocky peaks and steep slopes through a dense tropical forest. For this section, engineers had to design at least 13 tunnels and 41 different bridges and viaducts to cross the Serra do Mar.
In 1997, the Serra Verde Express was turned into a tourist excursion and now takes visitors along a four-hour journey from Curitiba to the quaint colonial village of Morretes.
I enjoyed learning about the history of the train, but really, I came for the views of the Atlantic Forest. They were lovely.
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is the largest remaining remnant of Atlantic Forest and is one of the premier biodiverse hotspots in the world, second only to the Amazon in the Americas. This area is home to thousands of endemic species- especially primate and bird species- found nowhere else in the world. I had a beautiful day to ride the train and marvel at all the green diversity of the Atlantic Forest.
And then the community of Morretes was a lovely surprise as well.
Riding the rails through the beautiful Brazilian countryside was a wonderful way to spend the day!
