Santa Catarina: Mountains & Interior

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See our trips in this area

Santa Catarina is so famous for its beautiful coastline that most visitors are unaware of its diverse landscape and in special of its stunning mountain scenery.

Nearby Florianopolis, in the Tabuleiro State Park, the Serra do Mar with peaks over 1200 meters high, create a fantastic green background for the coves and bays. Further inland, the Encostas da Serra Catarinese is a mainly rural region that is home to may organic farmers. From there you can catch a glimpse of the huge walls of the Serra Geral Catarinense. This mountain range, with its numerous jagged peaks that reach over 1800m above sea level, has the most dramatic mountain scenery of South Brazil. Canyons, valleys, waterfalls and highlands make this an ideal countryside for horse-riding, trekking or just relaxing in a charming mountain lodge.

Besides the spectacular outdoors, the interior of Santa Catarina has also a cultural diversity that is surprising even for Brazilian standards. While the cultural heritage by the coast is predominantly Azorean Portuguese, the interior has been occupied by Old World settlers, including Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Poles, Japanese, and Austrians alonside indigenous people and Africans. This cultural diversity can be experienced in the many gastronomic and folk festivals, including the most famous Oktoberfest this side of Munich in Blumenau. But perhaps is the small Pomerode that sums up the European immigrants new way of life: here you will find lush Brazilian tropical gardens alongside the most authentic Bavarian architecture.