Parque Estadual Cantareira

 Several trails wind through the forest of Cantareira with some reaching a waterfall, several small ponds or various points of scenic beauty where panoramas of the surrounding landscape can be appreciated.  

Towards the top of the park lies the famous "Pedra Grande" ("The big stone"), a gigantic and climbable boulder which looks out across both the forest and the distant urban jungle of Sao Paulo city. The view from the rock offers a spectacular (perhaps unsettling) panorama of both the forest and the encroaching city and highlights the striking contrast of dizzying modernity with the ancient calm of the imperiled Atlantic rainforest.

Cantareira is also an ideal spot to do birdwatching and many strikingly coloured and named species of bird can be seen here relatively easily if you bring binoculars and scan the surrounding trees. Some of these attractive avians include the green beaked toucan, the plain parakeet, the brassy breasted tanager, the surucua trogon and the blue manakin. 

The state park is also home to many mammal species. The most visible and charismatic to be seen here are undoubtedly the primates. Several species of monkey can be observed relatively easily by the visiting public including the black-capped capuchin monkey, the brown howler monkey, the black-fronted titi monkey, the black-tufted marmoset and the common marmoset (These particular marmosets are not actually native to Sao Paulo state and are in fact an invasive/introduced species).