Since he was a child, José Milton de Magalhães Serafim, always went with his parents to his grandparent’s ranch at Bocaina Mountains, mainly during his school holidays and carnival. Not rare, Dona Irene Magalhães, his grandmother, put everybody in a jeep and set her grandsons freely. Together with his grandmother, cousins and parents, he participated in a lot of trips, walks and tours to the farms of Bocaina Mountains.

That intense contact with the forests and waterfalls of Bocaina created, in young José Milton’s heart, a deep love and respect to the nature. As an adolescent, he put all his things in a backpack and alone, or with his brother José Luiz , started to explore local nature, each time more beautiful. He went each time more distant in the mountains, knowing in his adventures the simple people of Bocaina. People that for being his grandparents’ friends, always had great pleasure to welcome the adventurous youth.

The time has passed and the secrets of Bocaina became his secrets too. After nights and nights beside the bonfire or near the firewood stove, hearing stories, reports of hunting, ghost stories or playing cards, he turned the people of Bocaina his great friends.

In 1991, José Milton Magalhães Serafim, teacher of Physical Education, rendered service in the Department of Sports of Municipal City hall of São José do Barreiro. Assisting the solicitation of the Municipal Mayor at that time, Mr. José Ferreira do Prado (Mr. Zé Patrício), he went to serve as a guide to a couple of teachers, José Antonio Bachin, fellow of the North American Organization Ashoka and Margarida Maria do Amaral Lopes, Technician of CEPAM, São Paulo. At that time, they prepared a Guide of the Brazilian Trails to be launched in Rio de Janeiro, by the occasion of ECHO 92. The couple aimed to record and also to insert in the referred guide the Gold Trail, that links São José do Barreiro to Mambucaba’s Port in Angra dos Reis through Bocaina Mountains, totalizing 98 km. José Antonio Bachin developed, at that time, through the Ashoka Organization, the “tramping project”, that aimed to identify the local places with potential of ecotourism, to create a guide with record trails and to train people that could work as local guides of ecotourism. He invited José Milton to participate in the project and to trained to become a local guide of ecotourism. He accepted the invitation and started to make part in the projects of Teacher Bachin. In June 1991, José Milton invited a cousin to be his partner. In a night of full moon sitting by a bonfire “Magalhães and Winter Trekking” started, later being called as MW Trekking.

In the beginning, it was an amateur work of guides linked to a name in a piece of bread paper. Small works appeared, most of them tied up to friends and friends of friends. In 1992, his cousin moved to Curitiba to study and decided to leave MW Trekking’s idea behind. Alone and having that idea in mind all the time, José Milton invited his father, José Milton Serafim to be his new partner, beginning a work in a more professional level. Having known the teacher Hilário Pelizzer on a Tourist Consulting Company “Via Cestur”, from São Paulo, together with his new partner, they decided to open a specialized travel agency in ecotourism in Bocaina Mountains. In November 1993, MW Trekking Travel and Tourism was born, and since then until the current days, it is working at Serra da Bocaina.

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