Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil

In the Burning Heart of South America


The Geodesic Center of South America
Bridal Veil Waterfall
The Caves Circuit Bus
Blue Lagoon Cave
The Bottom of the Veil
house colors
Church of Our Lady Santana Sacramento Church
Cachoeirinha
Kiogo Brado Cave
another waterfall
soggy jungle
Natural Showers
State Jaguar
Nossa Senhora Santana do Sacramento Church
Aroe Jari Grotto
Buriti Farm Turkeys
The Pit of Love
Outstanding Strength
The Geodesic Center II
It was only in 1909 that the South American geodesic center was established by Cândido Rondon, a Brazilian marshal. Today, it is located in the city of Cuiabá. It has the stunning but overly combustible scenery of Chapada dos Guimarães nearby.

In the midst of the dry season and the scorching heat, the rains had migrated to other parts.

Several rural fires spread in the distance and the fires spread in areas they should not even come close.

We follow the trail that leads to the Véu de Noiva waterfall. We crossed paths with firefighters, some of them, melted, returning from the flame front. Others, clad in the space-yellow uniform in which Brazilian peacekeepers fight, saluting their colleagues and asking theirs for guidance to better deal with the hell that awaits them.

in much of vast Cerrado, fires happen just and just because. They burn to God because of a burden, exhaustion or an untimely rain.

On these sides that we were exploring, the Cerrado could not be left to God-given.

The local Véu de Noiva waterfall is the scenic star of a domain in such a special way that the authorities have declared it a national park, with the responsibility of preservation that such a title entails.

When, after passing several more firefighters, we finally arrived at the viewpoint, we were dazzled by the view ahead.

We immediately perceive the reverence he has won.

The Outstanding View of the Bride's Veil Waterfall

Out of nowhere, the Cerrado appears cornered in a geological dead end, in an open U-shape, made of pink stone. From there, the scene becomes three-dimensional. We see the green and leafy at the bottom of the unexpected canyon.

Above, between the sky and the rocky ceiling, a more rarefied and parched forest that extends until the mist engulfs it.

And joining the two levels, a torrent in fall of 86 meters, due to the summer, with reduced flow, but that the wind made undulating.

Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Véu de Noiva waterfall

Elias Silva, the host guide, makes us notice how the smoke dispersed and suffocated the immensity around.

“In normal weather, we could even go and explore Stone Town that is far away. So, let's go for a walk along the waterfalls trail.”

No sooner said than done. But dissatisfied. By comparison with the initial water jump, the waterfalls and cascades that followed proved to be samples of banality.

Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil, another waterfall

We speed up the pace. We left the park earlier than expected.

Towards the city of Chapada de Guimarães, which serves as an urban center for the homonymous park.

There, we enter an inn.

The City of Chapada dos Guimarães, formerly Serra Acima

We set out again to discover the small village, which, as expected, we find organized around a leafy square and the blue and white colonial church of Nª Srª de Santana do Sacramento, built in 1726, now flanked by a leafy jacaranda tree. .

We appreciate the multicolored ground floor houses, occupied by craft and souvenir shops, snack bars and similar establishments.

Chapada dos Guimaraes, Mato Grosso, Brazil

And a series of “buzzers” in the shape of the emblematic animals of the cerrado, the macaw, the jaguar and others.

In its colonial beginnings, the outline of this village existed known as “Serra Acima”, a camp of indigenous Chiquitos, located at an altitude of 800m.

The Mineiro Past of Serra Acima, Improved while Chapada dos Guimarães

It was founded by the first count of Azambuja and the 10th viceroy of Brazil, António Rolim Tavares. And the Jesuit Estevão de Castro managed it, only until the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portuguese territories dictated by the Marquis of Pombal, forced him to disband.

Sierra Above evolved. In 1769, it received the much more pompous name of Santa Anna da Chapada dos Guimarães Miramar, in part, as a tribute to the Portuguese family that was most devoted to it.

The village grew. She got richer. Fruit of the profit generated by prospecting for gold, first carried out by the pioneers, then by determined prospectors.

Its income also increased, agricultural and livestock production and the twenty brandy mills, in the meantime established.

Together, the gold rush, the abundance of brandy and the oppression of black and indigenous slaves generated an unstable and problematic community that, newly endowed with the Christian temple of Santana do Sacramento, the religious tried to tame.

Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Nossa Senhora Santana do Sacramento Church

The situation remained so when, from 1867 onwards, an outbreak of smallpox spawned by the War of Paraguay, the intensification of attacks by the Coroados Indians and, later, the Abolition of Slavery, condemned the Chapada dos Guimarães to a backwater.

The city recovered. It became the largest municipality on the face of the Earth, with a territory of 270 thousand km.2, however, divided among several emerging municipalities.

Chapada dos Guimarães, City still with a lot of Portuguese

Today, it houses almost twenty thousand people from Chapada. Until 2015, two of them were Vera Lúcia Ramalho (with parents from Leiria) and Vinício Correia de Lima, son of Azoreans from Ponta Delgada.

They met in Rio de Janeiro. Later, they moved to Chapada. There they founded the current “Estilo Bacalhau e Vinho”, a restaurant where they only served dishes and specialties based on their faithful friend.

In 2015, Vinício de Lima passed away. Accordingly, only his widow received us, happy to have visitors from the “holy land”, so she shows us the kitchen and introduces the maids who worked there.

We were delighted with starters of cod cakes. And with the most tender and succulent cod dish we've ever tasted.

With the next day's program predicting an awakening at seven, after the farewell, we went straight back to the inn.

The Chapada dos Guimarães Water Circuit

It dawns misty. However, the guide in charge of opening the way for us and Elias, Felipe Desidério, is little intimidated. Knowing the area, he turns on the car's four turn signals and speeds flat up and down.

In less than two winding hours, we arrived at Fazenda Buriti, lost in an area that used to be a dense Cerrado that, little by little, the cattle pastures, soybean, cotton and other plantations destroyed.

The refreshing exception was the riparian forest, adjacent to streams and bodies of water, protected by law from greed and rural devastation.

Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, Brazil, turkeys

Upon arrival at the farm, among turkeys, guinea hens, macaws, dogs and cats, the guides introduce us and Regiani – a client of Felipe’s – to Dª Márcia and Paulo, both surnamed Santos, and their children. of four and five years.

We chatter a little. The redneck family is in charge of preparing a barbecue lunch.

We went out to the Águas do Cerrado Circuit, around his site, along the water courses and the rainforest that the farmers were forced to save. The waterfalls do not excite us.

We are rewarded with the invigorating bath in a crystal clear river well, in the shape of a heart and, as such, known as Pocinho do Amor.

Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Pocinho do Amor

We returned, hungry, when Márcia and Paulo were improving the barbecue. For an hour, we delight in their snacks.

And then the Caves Circuit

Then, we set off for a new circuit, this time, designed according to several hyperbolic or eccentric caves in Chapada.

Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, bus from Circuito das Grutas

A small bus takes us and other hikers to the beginning of the trail, which is sandy and, in spaces, given over to a prodigious forest.

The first cave we find is called Aroe Jari.

It became the hallmark of the circuit due to a serpentine strip of damp moss that, due to the light that penetrates, gives the impression of a shallow river.

Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Aroe Jari Cave

At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun's rays hit the entrance to the next cave. They make the turquoise tone of its water shine and justify the name of Lagoa Azul.

The final cave, Kiogo Brado, proves to be massive.

It hides its own internal trail of 764 meters, which we walk through, equipped with frontals, dazzled by the large exit corridor, crammed between walls that erosion bequeathed with different mossy strata.

Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Kiogo Brado cave

We return to the starting point with the afterglow coloring the Cerrado sky and, already at night, to the logistical base of Chapada dos Guimarães.

In its heyday, the fertile lands around Chapada dos Guimarães supplied other cities in the Mato Grosso valley, especially Cuiabá.

In the vicinity of Chapada, there is a viewpoint installed on the exact equidistant place between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Cuiabá and the Geodesic Center of South America

In Cuiabá, however, there is a point with superior geographical importance. We also went there.

A tiled needle at the heart of Praça Pascoal Moreira Cabral points to the sky.

It marks the geodesic center of South America, as determined in 1909 by the Brazilian Marshal Cândido Rondon.

Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, geodesic center of South America

Rondon became such a highly regarded figure in Brazil that Rondônia, the state northwest of Mato Grosso and below the immense Amazon, was named in his honor.

In the past, Praça Pascoal Moreira Cabral was known as Campo d'Ourique. There the slaves were whipped and there the horse riding and bullfights took place.

Much later, it hosted the Municipal Council of Cuiabá and the Legislative Assembly of Mato Grosso.

Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Landmark of the Geodesic Center

The obelisk we were examining appears both on the flag of Cuiabá and on the emblem of the Cuiabá Esporte Clube.

Just a few months before the creation of this text, António Oliveira was hired to coach that same time. At the time, he became the fifth Portuguese coach in the 2021-2022 season to play in the main championship of Brazil.

It thus assumed its own prominent role in the Brasileirão and in the same or more scorching South American heartland.

Serra Dourada, Goiás, Brazil

Where the Cerrado Waves Golden

One of the types of South America savannah, the Cerrado extends over more than a fifth of the Brazilian territory, which supplies much of its fresh water. Located in the heart of the Central Plateau and the state of Goiás, the Serra Dourada State Park shines double.
Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

Lençóis da Bahia: not Even Diamonds Are Forever

In the XNUMXth century, Lençóis became the world's largest supplier of diamonds. But the gem trade did not last as expected. Today, the colonial architecture that he inherited is his most precious possession.
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Polis in the South American Pyrenees

Mines of Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Meia Ponte were erected by Portuguese pioneers, in the peak of the Gold Cycle. Out of nostalgia, probably Catalan emigrants called the mountains around the Pyrenees. In 1890, already in an era of independence and countless Hellenizations of its cities, Brazilians named this colonial city Pirenópolis.
Chapada Diamantina, Brazil

Gem-stone Bahia

Until the end of the century. In the XNUMXth century, Chapada Diamantina was a land of immeasurable prospecting and ambitions. Now that diamonds are rare, outsiders are eager to discover its plateaus and underground galleries
Goiás Velho, Brazil

A Gold Rush Legacy

Two centuries after the heyday of prospecting, lost in time and in the vastness of the Central Plateau, Goiás esteems its admirable colonial architecture, the surprising wealth that remains to be discovered there.
Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

The Swampy Freedom of Quilombo do Remanso

Runaway slaves have survived for centuries around a wetland in Chapada Diamantina. Today, the quilombo of Remanso is a symbol of their union and resistance, but also of the exclusion to which they were voted.
Fazenda São João, Miranda, Brazil

Pantanal with Paraguay in Sight

When the Fazenda Passo do Lontra decided to expand its ecotourism, it recruited the other family farm, the São João. Further away from the Miranda River, this second property reveals a remote Pantanal, on the verge of Paraguay. The country and the homonymous river.
Brasilia, Brazil

Brasília: from Utopia to the Capital and Political Arena of Brazil

Since the days of the Marquis of Pombal, there has been talk of transferring the capital to the interior. Today, the chimera city continues to look surreal but dictates the rules of Brazilian development.
Marajó Island, Brazil

The Buffalo Island

A vessel that transported buffaloes from the India it will have sunk at the mouth of the Amazon River. Today, the island of Marajó that hosted them has one of the largest herds in the world and Brazil is no longer without these bovine animals.

Florianopolis, Brazil

The South Atlantic Azorean Legacy

During the XNUMXth century, thousands of Portuguese islanders pursued better lives in the southern confines of Brazil. In the villages they founded, traces of affinity with the origins abound.

Passo do Lontra, Miranda, Brazil

The Flooded Brazil of Passo do Lontra

We are on the western edge of Mato Grosso do Sul but bush, on these sides, is something else. In an extension of almost 200.000 km2, the Brazil it appears partially submerged, by rivers, streams, lakes and other waters dispersed in vast alluvial plains. Not even the panting heat of the dry season drains the life and biodiversity of Pantanal places and farms like the one that welcomed us on the banks of the Miranda River.
Curitiba, Brazil

The High-Quality Life of Curitiba

It is not only the altitude of almost 1000 meters at which the city is located. Cosmopolitan and multicultural, the capital of Paraná has a quality of life and human development rating that make it a unique case in Brazil.
savuti, botswana, elephant-eating lions
Safari
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

A patch of the Kalahari Desert dries up or is irrigated depending on the region's tectonic whims. In Savuti, lions have become used to depending on themselves and prey on the largest animals in the savannah.
Annapurna Circuit, Manang to Yak-kharka
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna 10th Circuit: Manang to Yak Kharka, Nepal

On the way to the Annapurnas Even Higher Lands

After an acclimatization break in the near-urban civilization of Manang (3519 m), we made progress again in the ascent to the zenith of Thorong La (5416 m). On that day, we reached the hamlet of Yak Kharka, at 4018 m, a good starting point for the camps at the base of the great canyon.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Architecture & Design
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Adventure
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
MassKara Festival, Bacolod City, Philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
Bacolod, Philippines

A Festival to Laugh at Tragedy

Around 1980, the value of sugar, an important source of wealth on the Philippine island of Negros, plummeted and the ferry “Don Juan” that served it sank and took the lives of more than 176 passengers, most of them from Negrès. The local community decided to react to the depression generated by these dramas. That's how MassKara arose, a party committed to recovering the smiles of the population.
Street Bar, Fremont Street, Las Vegas, United States
Cities
Las Vegas, USA

The Sin City Cradle

The famous Strip has not always focused the attention of Las Vegas. Many of its hotels and casinos replicated the neon glamor of the street that once stood out, Fremont Street.
Meal
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Casa Menezes Braganca, Chandor, Goa, India
Culture
Chandor, Goa, India

A True Goan-Portuguese House

A mansion with Portuguese architectural influence, Casa Menezes Bragança, stands out from the houses of Chandor, in Goa. It forms a legacy of one of the most powerful families in the former province. Both from its rise in a strategic alliance with the Portuguese administration and from the later Goan nationalism.
Swimming, Western Australia, Aussie Style, Sun rising in the eyes
Sport
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Traveling
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a Chame, Nepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
Bride gets in car, traditional wedding, Meiji temple, Tokyo, Japan
Ethnic
Tokyo, Japan

A Matchmaking Sanctuary

Tokyo's Meiji Temple was erected to honor the deified spirits of one of the most influential couples in Japanese history. Over time, it specialized in celebrating traditional weddings.
View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

View from John Ford Point, Monument Valley, Nacao Navajo, United States
History
Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

Iconic Western filmmakers like John Ford immortalized what is the largest Indian territory in the United States. Today, in the Navajo Nation, the Navajo also live in the shoes of their old enemies.
Bright bus in Apia, Western Samoa
Islands
Samoa  

In Search of the Lost Time

For 121 years, it was the last nation on Earth to change the day. But Samoa realized that his finances were behind him and, in late 2012, he decided to move back west on the LID - International Date Line.
Northern Lights, Laponia, Rovaniemi, Finland, Fire Fox
Winter White
Lapland, Finland

In Search of the Fire Fox

Unique to the heights of the Earth are the northern or southern auroras, light phenomena generated by solar explosions. You Sami natives from Lapland they believed it to be a fiery fox that spread sparkles in the sky. Whatever they are, not even the nearly 30 degrees below zero that were felt in the far north of Finland could deter us from admiring them.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Nature
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
lagoons and fumaroles, volcanoes, PN tongariro, new zealand
Natural Parks
Tongariro, New Zealand

The Volcanoes of All Discords

In the late XNUMXth century, an indigenous chief ceded the PN Tongariro volcanoes to the British crown. Today, a significant part of the Maori people claim their mountains of fire from European settlers.
Praslin Island, Cocos from the Sea, Seychelles, Eden Cove
UNESCO World Heritage
Praslin, Seychelles

The Eden of the Enigmatic Coco-de-Mer

For centuries, Arab and European sailors believed that the largest seed in the world, which they found on the coasts of the Indian Ocean in the shape of a woman's voluptuous hips, came from a mythical tree at the bottom of the oceans. The sensual island that always generated them left us ecstatic.
Earp brothers look-alikes and friend Doc Holliday in Tombstone, USA
Characters
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
El Nido, Palawan the Last Philippine Border
Beaches
El Nido, Philippines

El Nido, Palawan: The Last Philippine Frontier

One of the most fascinating seascapes in the world, the vastness of the rugged islets of Bacuit hides gaudy coral reefs, small beaches and idyllic lagoons. To discover it, just one fart.
Mount Lamjung Kailas Himal, Nepal, altitude sickness, mountain prevent treat, travel
Religion
Annapurna Circuit: 2nd - Chame to Upper BananaNepal

(I) Eminent Annapurnas

We woke up in Chame, still below 3000m. There we saw, for the first time, the snowy and highest peaks of the Himalayas. From there, we set off for another walk along the Annapurna Circuit through the foothills and slopes of the great mountain range. towards Upper Banana.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
full cabin
Society
Saariselka, Finland

The Delightful Arctic Heat

It is said that the Finns created SMS so they don't have to talk. The imagination of cold Nordics is lost in the mist of their beloved saunas, real physical and social therapy sessions.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Jeep crosses Damaraland, Namibia
Wildlife
damaraland, Namíbia

Namibia On the Rocks

Hundreds of kilometers north of Swakopmund, many more of Sossuvlei's iconic dunes, Damaraland is home to deserts interspersed with red rocky hills, the young nation's highest mountain and ancient rock art. the settlers South Africans they named this region after the Damara, one of the Namibian ethnic groups. Only these and other inhabitants prove that it remains on Earth.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
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