We have walked alongside enthusiastic travelers with no previous trekking experience who have done extraordinarily well, and with grizzled mountaineer types who have struggled greatly.

Objectively (and conservatively) speaking, you’ll need to be physically fit enough to carry a 5-10 kg (10-20 lb) backpack for 14+ days over an average of 25 km (and 1 km of cumulative gain/loss) across varied mountainous terrain, in warm, sunny weather.

The Serra do Espinhaço is a relatively low-altitude range (avg. elevation 1,042 m; max. elev. 2,002 m), but the nature of the trails themselves (which can be overgrown during stretches) and constant presence of streams, rivers, insects, and overgrown flora can turn otherwise easy hikes into challenges.

While our experience is that Journeys tend to get physically easier as the trip goes along, each individual is different, and personal variables like sleep schedule, food intake, alcohol consumption, and hygiene, as well as external factors like rain, cloud cover (or lack thereof), and terrain consistency can drastically impact the overall experience on the trail.

If you are at all concerned that your fitness level may present a challenge, we encourage you to speak with your trusted medical advisor or physical trainer & assess whether this trip is right for you.

If you’d like to speak more with us about the physical nature of the trip, please don’t hesitate to contact us. While we will make every effort to detail the key metrics of your Journey on your itinerary, we think it’s possible that some folks will overestimate the physical nature of it, while others will underestimate it.

Authenticity is at the absolute core of everything we do on our trips, and this philosophy extends to the food that we eat, from the meals that we share in the mornings & evenings to the smallest of snacks on the trail.

We’ll be breaking bread together dozens of times over the course of your Journey, with the vast majority of our meals occurring in local homes, small restaurants, and pousadas. In practical terms, this means you’ll be eating lots of genuine, homemade, unsophisticated comida mineira—and, good news: the regional cuisine of Minas Gerais is diverse, hearty, and delicious.

While relatively unknown abroad, the cuisine is much-beloved in Brazil, where it is celebrated for both its methodology (traditionally employing wood-fired stoves & cast-iron cookware) and ingredients, which often include locally-sourced fruits & vegetables, fresh dairy products, and pork & chicken—with beef & seafood being notably less common in Minas than in neighboring states.

In the Serra do Espinhaço, specifically, dairy plays a notable role in the economy & kitchen, with several local cheeses having attained significant national and even international acclaim in recent years. At the breakfast table, cakes, breads, and pastries like quitandas and pão de queijo (ubiquitous across Brazil, but decidedly more famous in Minas) often make appearances alongside local fruits & yogurt, while lunches & dinners tend to feature any number of starches (potatoes, pasta, farofa, and angu—similar to polenta), stewed or sautéed vegetables (collared greens are particularly common, but also okra, zucchini, carrots, pumpkin, and cabbage), torresmo (pork cracklings; ubiquitous throughout Minas), and a home-raised protein (usually chicken or pork, but sometimes stewed or salted beef), along with the ever-present arroz e feijão (rice & beans).

When it comes to home-cooked meals, we rarely make special requests—we want our hosts to serve us the food that they feel comfortable preparing, and that they would eat were we not at the table to join them—but we do occasionally ask for beefed up quantities (no pun intended; we’ll be doing a lot of trekking, after all). That said, we cannot emphasize enough how hearty the portions tend to be at the homes & restaurants where we dine, and travelers frequently site meals as being among the true highlights of the trip.

As a final note about home-cooking and restaurants: many of the folks preparing our do so with great humility & gratitude. With the possible exception of Diamantina (where we’ll enjoy more sophisticated meals on the first & final evenings of the Expedition), the Espinhaço is not a wealthy region, nor does it receive much in the way of international tourism. For many of our hosts & hostesses, cooking for a group of famished foreigners is both a rare treat & an event to be taken seriously. We consider it a privilege to break bread with them.

While home-cooked meals typically comprise the bulk of our meals during Journeys, we also enjoy a variety of meals in other settings—particularly in Diamantina, the Sertao, and Sempre Vivas National Park. Should we traverse Sempre Vivas National Park, we’ll likely eat rustic tropeiro-style camp grub: hearty portions of rice, beans, farinha, and salted beef cooked over the campfire. Meanwhile, in the Sertao, where we often stay in nicer pousadas and/or resorts, lavish buffets, gourmet burgers, and Brazilian-style pizzas are options.

Our goal when it comes to food is to portray the diverse culinary realities of the region, while making sure that we always have enough sustenance to make it to the next town. If you’ve read this far, we think you’ll love it.

One of the most compelling & enriching aspects of all of our trips is the diverse array of accommodations we stay in, including a number of distinct private residences.

We’re incredibly dedicated to bringing travelers into the wide range of realities that exist (ad co-exist) within a Place, and spending time with local families is an essential part of that. Given that each of the homes we stay in differ greatly in terms of location, appearance, hygiene, privacy, connectivity, and comfort, as well as the nature and number of folks living in the household, however, it’s tricky to generalize about the experiences as a whole.

That said, all of the homes we be stay in could be described as (at least) welcoming and safe, with beds, kitchens, restrooms, furniture, protection from the elements, and varying degrees of creature comforts (refrigerators, couches, porches, etc.) to accommodate their respective dwellers. Almost all have electricity; several have some form of connectivity or another (either Wi-Fi or 3G/4G); and man have hot water showers (whether electric, gas-fired, or wood-fired). Most of the homes that we stay in are made of modern materials (concrete, wood, etc.), with a few notable exceptions being handmade using local clay or mud, branches, and palm leaves.

Bathrooms range from “oh, this is nice!” to (how should we put this) less-than-well-thought-out, and beds vary greatly in their stiffness (from “wow, that’s stiff” to “wow, that’s not stiff at all”). If you have a dialed-in mattress at home, it won’t be anything like that, but it also usually beats a sleeping pad & sleeping bag (you’ll have plenty of experience with both to compare afterwards).

With a very small handful of exceptions (all of which are remote), the homes we stay in do not belong to folks in abject poverty (although, depending on the itinerary, we may pitch our tents in abandoned homes in vast wilderness areas—these as “wilderness refuges”, not “homestays”), nor do any belong to the rich & famous. Many of the families we stay with during our trips had never received paying guests prior to our initial field trips in the Espinhaço, and only one had ever received a foreigner.

Of course, the real magic of homestays happens within the homes: during meals, loose conversations, and by simply enjoying the presence of one another. There’s nothing in the world like being warmly received and well fed after a long day on the trail, especially when it’s by folks as gracious & humble as these.

If you’ve read this far, we think you’ll love it, and we guarantee it will be one of the most memorable & enriching experiences of your time here.

For more information about specific homestays, please feel free to contact us.

3G, 4G, and (to a lesser extent) 5G signals are widely available across the Espinhaço frontcountry (where we will spend the majority of our evenings & mornings), but are sporadic in the backcountry (where will spend the majority of our days). Your connectivity will depend largely on your carrier & plan; if you’d like, we can provide you with a Brazilian SIM card upon your arrival. WiFi is available at our accommodations during the majority of the mornings & evenings of the Expedition.

Walking along uneven trails, pot-holed dirt roads, and large (& small) rocks for weeks on end can take a toll on any of us. To that end, we employ two (2) full-time support vehicles (and 2 full-time Drivers) to accompany our expedition during each day of your Journey: one 4x4, and one dirt bike (a motorcycle built for trails). These vehicles run parallel to our expedition, and maintain contact with us via radio (and satellite, when necessary).

In the event of a non-life-threatening injury, travelers have the option of either returning home or (hopefully) remaining with us in Brazil. In the case of the latter, should you find yourself too tired or injured to continue with our itinerary, we will move to an itinerary that will allow you to experience the region by vehicle as opposed to foot.

During certain days when horses or pack mules are available, injured or tired travelers may opt to use those animals as transportation until reaching our destination.

Life-threatening injuries will be treated as such, with travelers being escorted to the appropriate local facilities, where further determinations will be made. It is imperative that you have purchased travel insurance prior to your trip with us. For more information, please see our application or feel free to contact us.

First & foremost: if you have any dietary restrictions, we ask that you communicate them to us as early as possible (our Application covers this, as well), so that we have adequate time to prepare a solution together. This is especially important (as you know) with regards to food allergies & intolerances.

Generally speaking, veganism, vegetarianism, lactose intolerance, gluten intolerance, kosher, keto, dairy-free, diabetic, and low carb diets will not pose a problem on our trips, but it’s imperative that we a) understand the nature of the restriction(s); and b) have ample time (60 days absolute minimum) to prepare a meal plan for you, given the complex nature of the trip.

You’re here because you want to truly understand a Place, and we’re here because we want to share that Story.

We’ve operated trips of various lengths over the years—from 7 days to 35—and have found that 10 days is a sort of sweet spot. For one, we find it exceedingly difficult to attempt to convey the myriad realities of any Place—let alone a country as complex & diverse as Brazil—in less than 2 weeks. We also find that it can be challenging for visitors to immerse in their surroundings in a shorter time frame.

Ultimately, we believe that the longer you travel with us, the more rewarding & memorable your experience will be, but 10 days gives us enough time for us to accomplish our respective goals.

If you’d like to explore the possibility of traveling with us for less than 14 days, please contact us.

If you’d like to explore the possibility of traveling with us as part of a larger group, please contact us.

Clothing & outdoor gear are an important component of this trip, and we will cover the topic in detail during our exploratory (and especially) pre-expedition meetings.

To schedule an exploratory meeting, please Apply here or contact us.

Our Journeys are intended to be as all-inclusive as possible. Unless otherwise noted, all personnel; accommodations; meals & snacks; in-country transportation; and permits, permissions & entrance fees are included in our prices, as well as “big ticket” trail items (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc.; although you are certainly welcome to bring your own); multiple pre-expedition meetings; expedition dossier; and select GOGO merch.

Our prices do not include airfare, travel insurance, personal trekking equipment (including clothing, footwear, headlamp, etc.; although we may be able to provide this upon request), alcoholic beverages, or discretionary expenses (e.g. for souvenirs, additional snacks, etc.), or gratuities.

For more info about what is included in our trips, please see the “Inclusions” sections of our Journeys & Small Group Expedition, or feel free to contact us.

Unless otherwise agreed to prior to your departure, the rendezvous point for all of our Journeys is Tancredo Neves International Airport in Confins, Minas Gerais (Brazil). You will need to provide us with your flight information during the Application process, but it’s critical that you provide us with any last-second updates or changes to your flight so that we can rendezvous at your terminal by noon on Day 1.

While we do not handle any airfare involved with getting to/from the rendezvous point, we are more than happy to refer you to an agent who does. We’re also happy to recommend routes, accommodations (whether in Confins, nearby Belo Horizonte, or elsewhere), ground transportation options, and anything else you might need to help you arrive comfortably at our rendezvous point by the time our expedition starts.

Should you have any questions or concerns about getting to/from Brazil, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Booking is done on a first-come, first-serve basis. Given the limited number of travelers we guide each year, we recommend that you book as early on in the process as you feel comfortable.

Great question. With all accommodations, meals, personnel, transportation, and other significant travel expenses already paid for—and with the vast majority of establishments in Brazil accepting credit card—how much cash should you exchange/bring on your Journey?

The answer is, it depends. While itineraries vary greatly, your best opportunities to spend cash will likely be on alcoholic beverages and local souvenirs. If you plan on tipping, that may be a consideration, as well.

Ultimately, if your time in Brazil will be limited to your time with us and you are bringing a credit card (which we strongly recommend), we think $250-$500 total cash should be plenty. If you plan to travel around the country before and/or after your trip, however, you’ll want to factor that in separately.

Regardless of how much spending cash you’d like to have on hand during your trip, you’ll want to do all of your currency exchanging either prior to leaving your country of residence or at Tancredo Neves International Airport upon your arrival, as there are no currency exchange houses in the Serra do Espinhaço, and foreign currency is not (usually) accepted.

By and large, Brazilians enjoy partaking in a good drink or two, as does our Crew.

During the evenings of your Journey, ice-cold beer and/or locally-made cachaça will usually be available either on the premises or on in town. Cachaça may be available during our camping nights in the bush, as well.

Our policy on alcohol is that it should be consumed responsibly only after our arrival at that evening’s destination, and that it not interfere with your—or our Crew’s—ability to respectfully immerse in our surroundings and achieve our goals each day.

At the end of the day—literally and figuratively—we want nothing more than for everyone to enjoy themselves, and alcoholic beverages certainly play a part in that.

If the behavior becomes a problem, however, we have an obligation to remove you from the trip as per Section #12 of our Terms & Conditions policy.

Tips are unexpected, but always welcome. They are also 100% at your discretion.

We only ask that if you do decide to tip, that you do so at the end of your Journey, to the Expedition Leaders, who will then distribute those tips on your behalf and per your direction.

If you’d like to tip specific amounts to specific individuals (or make donations to specific communities), we are more than happy to deliver those contributions on your behalf following the conclusion of your trip. Otherwise, any/all tips received by GOGO during your Journey will be split equally among all Crew Members, including both full-time & part-time Members.

If, during your Journey, you’d like to tip someone outside of our Crew (for example, a host/hostess or local cook), you may do so either during your interaction with that individual (e.g. after your meal, after your stay, etc.), or at the end of the trip (by specifying to the Expedition Leaders the individual whom you’d like to tip and the amount that you’d like to contribute).