Chapter II
The Garden
Big cats, (very) sharp plants, and disappearing trails. Lost beaches & nameless peaks. Disputed lands. Forsaken ranches. Fearless residents. And the most biodiverse ecoregion of the most biodiverse country on earth.
Welcome to the Espinhaço’s hinterland.
Chapter II: The Garden
10. Rio Preto Lodge – Inhaí
11. Inhaí – Inhacicão
12. Inhacicão – Taquaral
13. Taquaral – Campos João Alves
14. Campos João Alves – Campos Tristes
15. Campos Tristes – Pé de Serra
Day 10
day 10
Rio Preto State Park - Inhaí
It’s time to say goodbye to the sweeping vistas of the past 9 days—we’re going into the garden.
Today marks the first day of our second Chapter—a 6-day, 6-night stretch in which we’ll venture further into the Espinhaço backcountry than at any other point during our journey. In one sense, we’re just going down the (dirt) road—our gateway to Sempre Vivas National Park, the fascinating colonial town of Inhaí, is just a 60 km drive from Rio Preto State Park. In another sense, we’re about to enter a whole new world.
We’ll start the day off with another round of breakfast at the Lodge restaurant in Rio Preto State Park. Our Toyota Bandeirantes (vintage, diesel-powered Land Cruisers unique to Brazil) are on hand for today’s journey, as are our travel duffels and trusty drivers, André & his brother, Xaxau (“shaw-SHAU”). We’ll have the Bandies for the next 24 hours, so you’ll be able to swap out your trail clothing and grab any other items from your duffels before we begin our journey into Sempre Vivas tomorrow.
We’ll strap our packs to the roof racks, then drive westward along bumpy red dirt backroads towards the sleepy colonial mining town of Mendanha (pop. 639), pausing briefly at the Cachoeira da Fabrica before making our way into town for lunch. Situated unassumingly on the golden banks of the Jequitinonha River, surrounded by the quiet mountains & gorgeous savanna forests of Biribiri State Park, and just 25 km away from Diamantina via the asphalt, Mendanha has a reticent, almost unapproachable air to it. Once a prolific diamond-mining settlement (and all of the riches & ills that came with that distinction), the town manages to feel proud, somber, and aloof at the same time—like a bucolic, forgotten colonial industrial town should feel.
We’ll have lunch on the tiny, but very photogenic, main praça at the Restaurante do Vale, the only (and best) pub in town. Adriana cooks up large portions of mean, down-home Mineiro cooking, and the view from the front porch makes for great people-watching. For those who’d like to beat the river valley heat, there are ice cold beers on hand, as well.
From Mendanha, we’ll drive north on dirt roads alongside the Jequitinonha, crossing over the historic (and thankfully, recently renovated) Amizade Bridge and pausing at Cachoeira do Pinheiros, where you’ll be able to witness the beautiful irony of three centuries of environmental degradation up close, before arriving at our destination: the enigmatic, slightly larger colonial-era backwater of Inhaí.
Tonight, we’ll be staying at the only pousada in Inhaí, Ze Maria’s. Housed in a rustic, but charming, centuries-old home overlooking the colorful main praça, and surrounded by equally charming, rustic homes, the pousada is simple, clean, and homey. It’s also conveniently located, providing a great base for exploring the ramshackle alleys of Inhaí while our crew makes preparations for the coming days.
Distance (km): 64.6 (overland)
Elevation Gain/Loss/Cumulative (m): N/A
Waterfalls: 2 (Fabrica, Pinheiros)
Conservation Units: 2 (Rio Preto State Park, Rio Manso Municipal Environmental Protection Area)
Accommodations: Pousada do Zé Maria (Historic Inn; Inhaí)
Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks (Trail), Dinner
Connectivity: Painfully slow (but manageable) Wi-Fi at the Lodge restaurant in the morning; 5G/4G/3G & not so great Wi-Fi in Pousada Zé Maria in Inhaí
Brazil’s 1st Tollroad, Mendanha
Ponte da Amizade, Inhaí
Day 11
day 11
Inhaí - Inhacicão
For such an understated river, it’s difficult to overstate the historical significance of the Jequitinonha on the western world. For nearly 200 years, it quietly played a leading role in the global diamond trade, buoying the declining Portuguese Empire, and changing the fortunes of western Europe, Africa, and the colony that would later become the independent nation of Brazil, in the process. Today, the river provides an economic lifeline to the nearly half-million Brazilians who live within its Basin, many of whom are deeply impoverished (in 1974, the UN cited the Jequitinhonha Valley administrative region—of which Diamantina is the capital—as one of the poorest regions in the world, dubbing it the “Valley of Misery”).
We’ve traced, touched, and crossed the beautiful, degraded banks of this legendary waterway a few times to this point in our journey. Today, we’ll be getting acquainted with one of its principal tributaries, the surreally beautiful Inhacica Grande (known locally as the Inhacicão). The scenery around the Inhacicão is as gorgeous & intriguing as the river, itself, with stunning veredas, foreboding serras, obscure archeological sites, and hidden waterfalls along its course. The river’s closest community, the tiny quilombo of Vargem do Inhaí (pop. 30 families), is also its keeper, with deep economic & cultural ties to both the Inhacicão and the flowering high campos located within Sempre Vivas National Park, just a few (arduous) kms away.
After a simple breakfast buffet (and any last-minute messaging—we won’t have reliable connectivity for the next 5 days) at Ze Maria’s in Inhaí, we’ll take the Bandies north along 28 km of old dirt roads through an increasingly-wooded landscape, passing through lonely fazendas and crossing small streams en route to our stopping point, a rickety wooden bridge leading to the final stretch of land before the Inhacicão begins. Here, among the riparian trees, tall savanna grasses, & striking palm groves, we are at the doorstep of Sempre Vivas, and the river is our entranceway.
A winding, little-used trail brings us onto Park land—at this juncture, an enormous private ranch, with no permanent inhabitants—through marshland and white sand and red dirt, alongside cola-colored streams lined with buritis (Mauritia flexuosas) and matas de galeria & ciliar. We’ll meet up with Gomercindo, a fisherman from nearby Senador Mourão, on the soft white shores of the Inhacicão, where a small fleet of aluminum jon boats await us.
A 6-km ride through pristine waters & a brief (1 km-ish) hike along the rocky coastline later, and we’ll arrive at our lunch spot: a striking, lunaresque waterfall whose existence is known to only a handful of people on earth. This is Fundão, and it is gorgeous. From Fundão, we’ll ride (2 km) & hike (another 1 km-ish) to our final destination this evening, a picture-perfect patch of powder white sand known as the Prainha do Inhacicão (or Prainha, “Little Beach”, for short), where we’ll say goodbye to Gomercindo and meet our newest crew members, Paulo & his trusty mule.
We’ll be sleeping on the beach tonight, alongside gently flowing waters & a smattering of small cascades, underneath the stars. There are fish to grill, cola-colored pools to bathe in, pristine water to drink, and plenty of cachaça to go around. It’s time to get the fire started.
Distance (km): 28 (overland) 8 (boat) + 4 (hike)
Elevation Gain/Loss/Cumulative (m): 116/125/241
Waterfalls: 1 (Fundão)
Conservation Units: 1 (Sempre Vivas National Park)
Accommodations: Prainha do Inhacicão (Wild Campsite; Sempre Vivas National Park)
Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch (Trail), Snacks (Trail), Dinner
Connectivity: Slow Wi-Fi at the Pousada Zé Maria in Inhai; no Wi-Fi or 5G/4G/3G at Prainha do Inhacicão; no Wi-Fi or reliable 5G/4G/3G for the next 5 days (until the evening of Day 15)
cachoeira do fundão, Sempre vivas NP
boating down the Inhacicão, Sempre Vivas NP
Day 12
day 12
Inhacicão - Taquaral
Welcome to Sempre Vivas National Park. It’s time to put on your snake gaiters.
We’ve lingered around the eastern edge of the Park for days now. Today, we’re going in in by foot; Day 1 of our 4-day, westward crossing (we’ll spend 3 more days in the Park heading southeastward in Chapter 4). Don’t let the relatively short distances of our days here fool you—kilometers make sense in the serra, where open vistas lend themselves to distance as a way of judging progress, but here they’re misleading. In a world in which the trail is constantly disappearing, the vegetation feels like its out to get us, and animal tracks outnumber footprints exponentially, “steps” are often a more appropriate measurement of forward progress.
We have camping equipment with us now: our personal tents, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads, as well as a heavy, tropeiro-style kitchen, replete with rustic (well-seasoned) cast iron pots, pans, cooking irons, and tableware. Thankfully, we also have Paulo, who in addition to being one of the region’s most experienced navigators, is a great camp cook, and his mule (who, in addition to being great company on the trail, has a strong back). After an open-fire breakfast at our camp this morning, we’ll pack our things and begin moving further into the Park.
“Lush” is not a word often used when describing the Cerrado, but the Park’s eastern borderlands provide an exception. Tall grass & moist, restinga-like vegetation slowly give way to drier scenes of virgin forest as we make our way into the serra. The ever-changing pristine landscapes are magical; the isolation, intoxicating. There is an undeniable air of danger in Sempre Vivas—we’re in the hinterlands of the Espinhaço now, and the wilderness is palpable.
We’ll pause for lunch & potable water at an abandoned mining site, replete with dilapidated mud home and picturesque waterfall. Then it’s back onto the trail, into the woods, ever upwards into the rocky, inhospitable serra. After several hard-fought kilometers, the dense forests will give way to pointy grasses, jagged outcrops & open vistas. This is Taquaral, one of the most notoriously wild stretches of one the wildest places in the Espinhaço.
Tonight’s accommodation in the abandoned main residence of the remote Fazenda Arrenegado (literally, Forsaken Ranch) couldn’t sum the mood up any better. Our host, Sr. Levi, has been the Fazenda’s lone resident for nearly three decades now. A full day’s trek through untamed brush from his closest neighbor (Geraldinho, who we’ll be visiting tomorrow), Levi has become something of a living legend among the folks living in the borderlands; the mere mention of his name eliciting reverence, sympathy, gossip, and outcry in short order. He is a man with stories to tell, and precious few visitors to tell them to.
The trappings of our accommodations at Arrenegado are beyond rustic, but we’ll make the best of them, using kerosene & solar lamps to brighten the kitchen, tinder & fallen limbs to fire up the neglected wood-fired stove, and a bit of cachaça-inspired creativity & elbow grease to conjure up hot plates of Grade A camp grub. There won’t be any hot water showers from here until the evening of Day 15 (in Pé de Serra). On the bright side, if you’ve never bathed in a horse trough before, this is your chance.
We are firmly in the “Wild Tales” portion of our journey now. Aproveitem!
Distance (km): 10 (trek)
Elevation Gain/Loss/Cumulative (m): 497/112/609
Waterfalls: 1 (Name Unknown)
Conservation Units: 1 (Sempre Vivas National Park)
Accommodations: Casa dos Nascimentos (Wilderness Refuge; Taquaral)
Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch (Trail), Snacks (Trail), Dinner
Connectivity: N/A
Teacher (right) & Student (Left), Taquaral
Levi’s House, Taquaral
Day 13
day 13
Taquaral - Campos João Alves
It can be a little difficult to envision given its current state, but it wasn’t all that long ago that the shabby environs we find ourselves in this morning were the lively part-time residence of the Nascimentos. A traditional Diamantina family bordering on nobility, their property line—both then & now—spans from the Inhacicão to the dead center of the Park, which we’ll be heading towards today.
As recently as twenty years ago, Fazenda Arrenegado was a thriving ranch, the National Park was (just) a controversial idea (eventually coming to fruition in 2002), and the Nascimentos & their workers, including Levi, commuted regularly between the prolific fields to the west of us and the house where we now find ourselves. Even then, by all accounts, the road was “rustic” (a ravaged, decades-old Ford jeep near the entrance tells the tale), virtually impassable to all but horses, pedestrians, dirt bikes, and the heartiest of automobiles.
This morning, after breakfast and some time to explore the local grounds with Levi, we’ll head south along the footpath that was the “road”. The scenery is untamed, and it is, for a certain type of mind (ours included), spectacular: jagged outcrops, thick fields of thorny scrubland, and tall grass—some of it head-high—hide rock shelters & unnamed caves, some of which once served as dormitories for ambitious garimpeiros (diamond miners), and others still featuring anonymous, undated pinturas rupestres (cave paintings).
It’s not much of a road, but unlike much of what’s to come, it is very clearly a trail. Once we turn off of it and begin heading westward towards the campos, the bush becomes thicker and the footpaths, narrower.
Our destination this evening is Folheta, an Edenesque patch of high Cerrado hinterland used seasonally by local flower-picker Geraldinho & his family. The route we’ll take to get there following our departure from the road is equal parts technical and meditative, but never boring. A stretch of bush trails teleport us through groves of “clean” (grassy) & “dirty” (shrubby) savannah fields via a series of forest tunnels & creek crossings, eventually intersecting with a larger strip of path. This is the Telegraph Trail, the Park’s oldest remaining north-south footpath. Wide enough to be (for the most part) unmistakable, and marked by periodic meters-high posts, the trail is like a lost highway, and we’ll ride it for all that its worth.
Pace permitting, we should find ourselves in the gorgeous, windswept fields near Geraldinho’s home before sunset. From here, Folheta is just 4 km away, down a winding, step-like slab that makes for one of the most enchanting & memorable stretches of trail on the Expedition.
Tonight, we’ll sleep underneath the stars, outside of a thatched-leaf shelter used by Geraldinho & his wife to store large bundles of flowers—hard-earned fruits of the family’s labor. We’ll check the environs for snakes & scorpions, set up the tents, get a fire started, and begin cooking dinner in short order. For those who’d like to take a bath, there’s a spring-fed creek with a shallow pool just 100 m beyond our campsite (the water is simultaneously perfect and freezing cold).
We’re in the center of the Park now, and curious 4-legged visitors are a very real possibility once the fire dies down. There are few places as wild, magical, and unvisited as Folheta. We hope you enjoy it.
Distance (km): 16 (trek)
Elevation Gain/Loss/Cumulative (m): 504/357/861
Conservation Units: 1 (Sempre Vivas National Park)
Accommodations: Folheta (Wild Campsite; Campos João Alves)
Inclusions: Breakfast (Camp), Lunch (Trail), Snacks (Trail), Dinner (Camp)
Connectivity: N/A
Typical trail, Taquaral
The “Road”, Taquaral
Day 14
day 14
Campos João Alves - Campos Tristes
The trail is arduous, but it is glorious. Sparsely-walked, copper-colored earth appears & disappears beneath thick mats of fallen leaves & tree limbs; out-stretched branches and sticky, thorn-covered vines reach out for the eyes; and steep, mud-lined banks & well-camouflaged barbed wire fences provide us with a chance to stretch our legs, requiring us at times to jump, duck, and pass our packs from front to back, hand to hand.
At least there’s shade! Usually provided by colorful mata seca, often in the form of tunnels. And flowers: impressive groves of magnificent Paepalanthus & Eriocaulaceae specimens, yes, but also prolific patches of less-heralded canelas-de-ema (Vellozia squamata) & palmeirinhas-azul (Syagrus glaucescens), indicators of the wondrous ecoregion we find ourselves in, and testaments to the good health of this part of the Cerrado.
It’s easy to see why Augustin St. Hilaire was so taken by the Espinhaço during his travels in Brazil. Accounting for nearly 15% of all of Brazil’s species—while covering less than 0.8% of its national territory—its campos rupestres (rupestrian fields) are perhaps the single most biodiverse ecoregion in the most biodiverse country on earth, and nowhere is it more pronounced—or pristine—than the stretch of Park land where we find ourselves today.
With 124.555 ha (approx. 1,242 km2; about half the size of Rhode Island), Sempre Vivas is the largest National Park in Minas Gerais, and the second largest conservation unit in the Cerrado biome, trailing only its more famous (and far more-visited) sibling, Chapada Diamantina National Park, in Bahia. Today, we’ll be crossing through the center of it, from our flower shack campsite at Folheta to the storied fields of Campos Tristes, whose name (literally, the Sad Fields) speak to their remoteness.
It’s going to be a long day, but a special one. We’ll begin it with a tropeiro-style breakfast at our flower shack, before continuing north along the old Telegraph Trail in the direction of Campos Ferreiras. We’ll cut west, ascending further into the serra along a series of little-used (and little-known; it took us multiple visits—and many hours staring at maps—before we could even confirm their existence) flower-picker trails to the northern terminus of Campos Tristes. Here, like great islands between rocky peaks, windblown fields of flowery grasses shimmer like glacial lakes, each forested passage revealing new peaks & fields, each conjuring images of a lost Elysium.
But Elysian fields they are not. As we weave & bob among the flower-tipped grasses, you’ll note that the fields are often marked—sometimes with stakes & string, other times with small barbed wire fences—demarcation techniques of a bygone era, but a present reminder that, despite their location deep within a conservation unit, the campos continue to be harvestable, profitable, and, in many cases, disputed.
This is where the deepest challenges facing Sempre Vivas lie; why the Park has waited 21 years (and counting) to open to the public; and why its future continues to be uncertain.
It’s a long story, but a good one, and you’ll have plenty of time to hear it at tonight’s accommodations. There’s a large mangueira (Mango tree) marking the southern terminus of the Campos Tristes. From there it’s a 5.5-km descent along a wide & well-marked trail (this is actually the main Park road—we’ll talk more about it in Chapter 4) to a large outcrop lying conspicuously amidst the fields. Tonight’s accommodations will be in the three small caves that occupy the outcrop.
It’s time to get that fire started.
Distance (km): 22 (trek)
Elevation Gain/Loss/Cumulative (m): 504/357/861
Conservation Units: 1 (Sempre Vivas National Park)
Accommodations: Lapa Cassemiro (Flower Shack; Campos Domingos)
Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch (Trail), Snacks (Trail), Dinner
Connectivity: N/A
Park Road, Sempre Vivas NP
Rapateaceae, Sempre Vivas NP
Day 15
day 15
Campos Tristes - Pé de Serra
We spent 5 days trekking towards the eastern slope of the Espinhaço at the beginning of our journey. Today, 9 days later, we’ll complete our journey to its western slope. In the process, we’ll also bid ciao (for now) to Sempre Vivas… at least, in the geographic sense. While the surrounding topography & vegetation couldn’t be any more different, in the cultural sense, our destination tonight, the dusty flower-picker community of Pé de Serra (pop. unknown), is a direct extension of the flowing campos where we’ll begin our day.
Our morning begins—as all mornings should—with breakfast in a cave. From our rocky outcrop, we’ll head westward across wildflower-speckled grasses towards the craggy, canyon-like edges of the range, descending through kilometers of scenic shrubland and dry-wooded landscapes before descending sharply into the lush Sertão (lowlands) below. By the time we reach the bottom, we’ll have lost nearly 1 km of elevation on the day—not since Itambé have we put this kind of damage on our knees.
Our destination this evening is the tiny locality of Pé de Serra, a string of modest ranches & homesteads strewn across a series of dusty foothills connected by an iron-tinged dirt road. Our descent will eventually lead us to this road and beyond, to the tiny, Wild West-like square—replete with dusty church, butecos with hitching posts, and the occasional tumbleweed sighting—in the middle of “town”. Tonight’s accommodations lie about 10 km from the town square, so after we’ve had some time to rehydrate & celebrate our collective survival in the Park, we’ll be strapping our packs to the top of the Bandies and heading north.
Humble, gracious, and eager to please, our hosts this evening, local school bus driver Codé & his lovely wife, Elisangela, epitomize acolhimento Mineiro (warm, Minas-style hospitality), and are a prime example of why we believe so strongly in community tourism. Our presence at their home & dining table this evening will be a welcome financial buoy for their growing family, and the feelings of gratitude are mutual: after 5 days in the sticks, good company and a warm and welcoming home are just the thing we need. We’ll happily eat whatever Elisanagela is cooking up, sip cachaça on the homestead’s spacious front porch, and enjoy the tranquility of the Sertão night in the company of good friends.
As a sidenote, it’s now been 5 days since we’ve had reliable 5G/4G/3G or Wi-Fi. If you’d like to let your loved one(s) know that you’ve survived Chapter II, André will be happy to drive you to the closest signal (it may or may not be a long drive). Otherwise, we’ll have strong 5G/4G/3G & serviceable Wi-Fi at our destination tomorrow night.
Distance (km): 20 (trek)
Elevation Gain/Loss/Cumulative (m): 304/860/1164
Waterfalls: N/A
Conservation Units: 1 (Sempre Vivas National Park)
Accommodations: Casa do Codé (Homestay; Pé de Serra)
Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch (Trail), Snacks (Trail), Dinner
Connectivity: Weak, unreliable Wi-Fi at Casa do Codé; accommodations can be made to travel to the closest signal following our arrival at Casa do Codé
