Large farms, beaches, rivers, waterfalls, tropical bushes, preservation area of the primitive animals and rare floras …… Cananéia was established by Martim Afonso de Souza on August 12, 1531 and named officially on January 22, 1532. There had been numerous expeditors, adventurers, explorers, and pirates coming here since then. After 500 years of development in twists and turns, the first official town of Brazil with its streets, architecture, religion, festivals and customs remaining in its original appearance has got its worthy name in the whole country.During the15th century, there came a message in Europe that huge amounts of gold was laid in the area of Rio Ribeira do Iguape, the discovery of which did not necessarily involve hard detection or exploration. The rumor could have promoted the whole Portuguese royal court to make up its mind to launch an expedition of the southern Atlantic Ocean of the largest scale in the history. Led by Martim Afonso de Souza, the warships came to the wildness of Ilha do Bom Abrigo, in which they discovered an Indian town with 200 habitants. Later on, it had been a place of exile for the Spain and Portuguese until the beginning of the 16th century.The name of Cananéia was originated from a girl named Caniné in an antique legend. According to the legend, she was the daughter of Maratayama, i.e. the chief of the sea and the land (in which mara means mar and tayama means terra).
