About Us

Rafael, Mariana, Marcio, Raica, William, Giselle and Patricia are your local connection in Morro de São Paulo. We are Rota Tropical, a young travel agency, just four years old and full of young people, but with almost ten years experience in tourism. Our agency has changed the way that tourism is approached on this little tropical island and professionalism is our motto. We come from different parts of Brazil, where we've had previous experience in tourism. We have come together and integrated our knowledge here in this little piece of paradise we call our home. With whl.travel and Rota Tropical you get more than online reservations, you get a warm welcoming human touch as well. So give it a try! We will make your stay at Morro de São Paulo an unforgettable one.

How we started

In 1998, William Wazlawik, who was studying Computer Science at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, founded the "Cia da Aventura" (Adventure Company) in a partnership with Leonardo Esch. It started as an expedition organization group, but it soon was expanded towards tourism activities too. The Cia da Aventura activities took place specially in the cities of Nova Petrópolis and Cambará do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul state, south of Brazil.

In the year 2000, Márcio Link, along with Rafael Ruppenthal - a.k.a "Reco", founded the Marreco Off-road tourism agency in Nova Petrópolis. Reco, who had worked with Cia da Aventura before, established a link between both agencies, a fact that later resulted in an union between them in 2002, although Reco and Leonardo weren't part of it anymore.

During the years established in Nova petrópolis and Gramado, Márcio finished his Administration course and enrolled in Tourism post-graduation. At the same time, William changed from the Computer Science course to Marketing and Advertisement. In 2003 more people joined the group, Raica Metz - a Physical Education graduate, Thomas Wazlawik - Engineering student - and Martin Grings - a Biology student.

Some years before, in the neighbor state of Santa Catarina, Rafael Ramires da Rosa concluded the Tourism course and then started traveling around the world. He spent two years working and visiting many countries. In Italy he met Mariana Becker, who was also born in Cricíuma. At that time, she had been working in Italy with tourism for two years, after giving up of the Physical Education course in Brazil.

In 2002 they returned to Brazil and met Luciano Ribeiro de Souza, who had an hotel in Morro de São Paulo. They moved to the island and started working at Praia do Encanto Hotel. Than, about one year later, they both moved to their home in the state of Florianópolis.

In 2003 Luciano met Márcio in a tourism workshop fair at Rio de Janeiro and invited him to visit Morro de São Paulo. A year later, after a market research in the island, Márcio and William met Rafael and Mariana at Santa Catarina, having Luciano as a link between them. They decided to initiate a partnership. In October of 2004 they started the activities of Quarta Praia Sul, which later changed the name to Rota Tropical.

Some months later Raica and Giselle joined the group, following their husbands Márcio and William, respectively. Mariana and Rafael were also working at the agency. These three couples still remain partners in the agency maintenance nowadays.
In the island, Giselle and Mariana also changed from the Physical Education course to study Tourism. And finally, William concluded the Marketing and Advertising course.

Now, in 2008, the family has gotten bigger. Maya has born. The first daughter of Márcio and Raica.

In these four years many things happened and many projections have changed. Partners have joined the group, some left and others still remain with us.
All of this contributed to make us a solid agency, greatly respected throughout the region and with strong partnerships.

We love to travel and discover new places. Every year we choose a destination so we can live a travel experience and understand the necessities of our clients, in order to improve the quality of our services.

To travel is to share experiences and to enrich our cultural perceptions. Like discovering new smells, tasting new flavors, listening to new sounds or learning a new language. All these experiences don't have a price. These kind of richness belong only to those who travel and can never be taken away from them. That's why you're invited to live this experience  with us.
Morro de São Paulo is a blessed place. It is an island! However, being an island isn't the only thing it offers. Stylish unpaved streets, the welcoming people from bahia, fresh coconut water whenever ou want, beach parties all the time. No traveler can resist that. The fact that there are no cars and every place is close make the visitor feels at home. In a few days you'll be saluting everyone wherever you go and feeling the welcoming sensation of being in a small town. Free and safe.

We wanna be your local connection to this magic destination!