A vast protected landscape, and the stage for everything to come

The Serra do Espinhaço Meridional harbors a vast patchwork of protected land: nineteen conservation units and buffer zones spanning nearly five million acres of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest.

Collectively they form the Mosaic of the Espinhaço, home to one of the highest concentrations of plant endemism on Earth and one of Brazil’s least-visited protected landscapes.

For travelers drawn to untouched wilderness, unfiltered culture, and the rare pleasure of moving through a place without tourism infrastructure, this is where the story begins.

More life than land. More urgency than time.

The Espinhaço accounts for less than one percent of Brazil’s territory, yet harbors over seven percent of its species—with more than three thousand found nowhere else.

The ecosystem behind that concentration is the Campos Rupestres: a rocky, flower-strewn expression of the Cerrado so distinct it may eventually be recognized as Brazil’s newest biome.

The range also cradles the westernmost remnants of the Atlantic Forest, making it one of the few places where two critically endangered biomes meet.

It’s a landscape as fragile as it is rugged. Much of the range sits atop quartzite and ironstone, coveted by the mining industry and slow to recover from disturbance.

It’s a privilege to experience it, as it is right now.

Where the past still shows the way

Getting from point A to point B has always been an adventure in the Espinhaço.

The region is threaded with a network of historic paths: colonial stone roads built by enslaved Africans, trade routes carved by mule-driving tropeiros, and smuggler trails later followed by European naturalists.

We’ve spent years exploring these routes, mapping their course, documenting their histories, and stitching together what still remains.

Many of the trails haven’t seen sustained travel in decades. Walking them today feels less like following a path than rediscovering one.

The Espinhaço’s answer to sun, sea, and sand

Take it from us: attempting to count the waterfalls of the Espinhaço is an exercise in futility.

Just as futile is trying to spend more than a day or two on the trail without bathing in one.

Hundreds of falls spill across the range, feeding the rivers that sustain the interior of Brazil.

We’ll pass nearly a dozen falls during the Expedition, from soothing cola-colored cascades to white-sand masterpieces.

Ice-cold has never felt so good.

A colonial gem hidden in plain sight

UNESCO World Heritage city. Terminus of the Estrada Real. Former diamond capital of the world.

Diamantina somehow manages to be all of these things at once while remaining largely unvisited, even by Brazilians.

Música Popular Brasileira drifts through stone alleyways, tropeiro fills plates, and the view out the window could pass for something painted two centuries ago.

At times, Diamantina feels strangely untouched for a place of such beauty and history.

There’s no more fitting place to begin or end a journey in the range. We’ll have a chance to do just that on Days 1 and 12.

Prosa, carinho, and cafézinho

Minas Gerais is Brazil’s heartland, and mineiros (the state’s residents) are its natural hosts.

Easy-going, down-to-earth, famously chatty, and never far from a good cup of coffee or cachaça, they set the tone for life here.

The Espinhaço is still-visited enough that the people you’ll meet here will likely be mineiros: farmers, flower pickers, entrepreneurs, cowboys, homestay hosts, and kids on their way to or from school.

It’s hard to find a more welcoming group anywhere in Brazil.

A centuries-old way of moving through the range

If you’ve ever imagined riding through the hills, rivers, and rocky passes of Brazil’s interior, this is the place for it.

Many of the Espinhaço’s longest crossings were carved by hoof long before they were walked. Even today, horseback remains one of the most natural ways to move through the landscape.

Our traverse of the steep and spectacular Mato dos Crioulos on Day 6 can be done either on foot or by saddle. Inexperienced riders are welcome, but should you prefer to walk, pack animals can carry the weight.

Either way, you’ll be tracing the same routes once traveled by tropeiros and cattle drivers moving through the highlands centuries ago.

Calories for the trail. Food for the soul.

Tropeiro. Torresmo. Frango com quiabo.
If you’re unfamiliar with comida mineira, you will be by the end of the expedition—and Brazilians everywhere will be jealous.

There’s nothing like arriving to a hot plate of homemade, heartland comfort food at the end of a long day. Throw in a few ice-cold beers and the occasional cachaçinha and you’ll understand why nobody leaves Minas complaining about the food.

Weight-loss goals may suffer.
We consider that part of the experience.

Bom apetite.

Delicate, enduring, and impossible to ignore

The namesake flower of Sempre Vivas National Park is as woven into the identity of the Espinhaço as the diamonds that once sustained it.

The range contains one of the greatest concentrations of sempre-vivas anywhere on Earth, including many species found nowhere else. Their delicate blooms appear throughout the highlands, from windswept campos rupestres to high plateaus where residents still gather them each season.

Harvesting them has sustained families here for generations, a tradition recognized by UNESCO and the FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System.

We leave the flower-picking to those who know it best, but we'll pass plenty along the trail: button-sized blooms, starbursts, and tall stalks crowned with white globes rising above the grass.

Once you start noticing them, you won't unsee them.

On the hardest days, they still have a way of lifting the spirit.

A place so special we call it home

Even in a region full of charming colonial-era towns, São Gonçalo do Rio das Pedras feels distinct.

The former mining district sits high in the mountains between waterfalls, trails, and open highland country, with stone streets, quiet corners, and a pace of life still deeply tied to the range around it, despite the occasional cosmopolitan undertone.

We arrive after dark on Day 3, usually tired, dusty, and hungry from a long day on foot. A hot plate of comida mineira and a cold beer at the local pub tend to restore morale quickly.

São Gonçalo has a way of making people want to stay longer than planned.

A mountain. A monument. A milestone.

The region’s undisputed icon, Pico do Itambé (2,052 m), watches over the range like a citadel, living up to its billing as “the roof of the Espinhaço.”

Rising more than a thousand meters above the surrounding peaks, it marks a hard divide between the Jequitinhonha and Doce river basins, and a softer one between the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado.

Reaching the summit after a sustained climb (Day 5) is one of the most satisfying moments to be had anywhere in the Espinhaço.

Forest, water, and time

Stretching between the foot of Pico do Itambé and the high grasslands of Rio Preto State Park, Bica d’Água is one of the most resplendent valleys in the Espinhaço.

Pastureland, Atlantic Forest, waterfalls, streams, and towering stands of indaiá palms create a landscape that feels remarkably abundant after the exposed highlands above it.

Once inhabited by hundreds, the valley today is home to only a handful of residents. The old footpaths remain, winding between homesteads that now sit far apart in the silence.

We’ll spend the night here with Santo and Dona Maria (Day 5) before continuing our crossing toward Rio Preto (Day 6). Few places feel more closely tied to the story of the range.

A chance to touch time

The peaks and parks may draw the eye, but nothing has shaped this region or its fortunes more than the rivers that run through it.

None more so than the Jequitinhonha.

Solemn and dignified, even after centuries of extraction and neglect, its diamond-rich waters once buoyed a distant empire and helped shape a nation. Today, scarred and overlooked, it sustains more than half a million Brazilians living downstream.

In theory, we’ll cross enough rivers, creeks, and streams during the Expedition to become routine. There’s something about standing on the banks of the Jequitinhonha, then stepping into it, that never does.

Across the highlands

Rio Preto State Park was the first conservation unit in the Espinhaço, and it remains among the most beloved.

It protects more than 26,000 acres of pristine Cerrado and some of the range’s most important headwaters, along with fast-moving rivers, white-sand beaches, swimming holes, and afternoon-worthy waterfalls.

We’ll spend three long days (Days 6–8) crossing the Park during the expedition, moving from the high campos of the south into the thick forests of the north through deep canyons, steep escarpments, river crossings, and waterfalls.

The pace softens briefly here. Long swims, cold water, and one of the expedition’s most comfortable stays arrive before the crossing turns west toward Diamantina.

Iconic silhouette. Zero crowds.

Few mountains in the Espinhaço announce themselves quite like Serra da Maravilha.

Rising abruptly above the surrounding highlands and the tiny hamlet below it, the peak’s distinctive profile is visible from surprising distances and impossible to mistake once you’ve seen it.

Despite its striking appearance, the mountain remains little known outside the immediate region—even in Diamantina.

We’ll encounter Serra da Maravilha from several different angles on Day 3. By the end of the day, you’ll understand how it earned its name.

Marvelous, indeed.

A high point. And a turning point.

Twin peaks rise above the windswept fields at the southern edge of the Chapada do Couto, dividing the Black and Araçuaí river basins in the process.

Known for generations as Serra Grande (“Big Mountain”) by the residents of the valley below—who could only see the taller twin—Pico Dois Irmãos (1,825 m) is one of the highest summits in this part of the Espinhaço and one of its most rewarding climbs.

A day-long approach through valleys and highlands on Day 6 leads to a short, steep ascent and a panoramic view that includes both Itambé and the western lowlands.

It marks the high point of one of the expedition’s most exhilarating days.

An early test. And a view that keeps going.

Pico do Raio (“Lightning Peak”; 1,387 m) rises quietly above the highlands and surrounding villages, serving up one of the finest views of Itambé anywhere in the range.

We’ll climb this “little” peak on Day 4 on our way to Capivari. For some, this is where the crossing first begins to feel real.

The trail follows historic paths through marshes, rocks, and high fields of exuberant campos rupestres before descending toward white sand, cold water, and one of the range’s most welcome swimming holes.

We’ll climb higher peaks during the expedition. Few arrive this gracefully.

A vila between two worlds

Just outside Diamantina, Biribiri State Park is the Espinhaço’s most visited conservation unit, and one of its strangest contrasts.

The Park protects more than 42,000 acres of Cerrado surrounding a former textile village that shifts constantly between quiet highland outpost and bustling weekend destination, depending on the day and hour you arrive.

Visitors gather around the waterfalls, roadside bars, and the old village center, while long stretches of trail sit empty just beyond them.

It’s the perfect place to spend our penultimate night (Day 10), and a natural transition back toward Diamantina and the modern world beyond the range.

A path carved in stone and memory

Many of Brazil’s colonial roads—and nearly all of its stone ones—were built by enslaved Africans. In the Espinhaço, however, the term Caminho dos Escravos (Slave Way) refers specifically to a 20-kilometer stretch of stone road leading north from Diamantina toward the former mining district of Mendanha.

Steep, exposed, and physically demanding, the Caminho once carried diamonds, supplies, miners, armed escorts, bandits, and the enslaved Africans forced to build and move them through the highlands.

Today, it remains one of the country’s most remarkable surviving examples of colonial roadwork, and one of the clearest physical reminders of the systems that shaped Brazil’s interior.

We’ll walk parts of it twice during the expedition: first on Day 10 en route to Biribiri, and again on Day 11, our final day on the trail.

To life in the Espinhaço

From diamonds and stately architecture to former presidents and legendary Carnaval celebrations, Diamantina has no shortage of claims to fame.

It’s a bit ironic—and perhaps endearing—then, that one of its most beloved traditions is also one of its simplest: the Vesperata, a festive nighttime concert where musicians perform from balconies and windows while the audience gathers in the cobblestone streets below.

We’ll have the privilege of attending a Vesperata on the evening of Day 11. Expect a joyful mix of samba, bossa nova, Música Popular Brasileira (MPB), Beatles covers, and the occasional sing-along wedding-rock tune.

There may be more polished orchestras elsewhere. But there isn’t a place on earth where we’d rather celebrate the final night of the expedition together.