The Secret Mecca
AN Introduction to Trekking, Riding & Overlanding in The Serra do Espinhaço
Trekking, Riding & Overlanding with Gift of Go
All of our trips in the Serra do Espinhaço are dedicated to sharing the Story of Brazil, and the mountainous backcountry around Diamantina provides us with the most enchanting setting possible—a gorgeous backdrop of high savannah, Atlantic Rainforest, and towering peaks, against which many of the country’s diverse ecological & cultural elements coalesce and the defining themes of brasileiridade (Brazilianness) reveal themselves.
Whether you’re joining us on a Private Journey, Small Group Expedition, or Bespoke Trip, you’ll find that trekking, riding, and overlanding each have a part to play in our storytelling process. In our minds, there is no more enriching way to experience a place than to travel slowly through it, and the Espinhaço’s labyrinth of historic trails & bucolic dirt roads lend themselves perfectly to that endeavor.
Caminho dos Escravos, Diamantina
The Trails
Getting from Point A to Point B has always been an adventure in the Serra do Espinhaço, and nowhere is this more evident than along the region’s spectacular—and virtually empty—network of historic trails.
While urban footpaths, game trails, sparsely used dirt roads, former railways, and Park-administered nature trails abound, 3 types of trails predominate the backcountry here: remarkable, colonial-era stone pathways built by slaves to facilitate the diamond trade along the Estrada Real; winding historic trails used by mule-driving tropeiros to facilitate regional commerce until as recently as the 1980s; and centuries-old descaminhos blazed by diamond smugglers and later revisited by European naturalists (including Sir Richard Francis Burton & Augustin Saint-Hilaire) during expeditions across the Cerrado in the 19th century.
Our team has spent 3 years rediscovering this lost network, documenting its history, geography & inhabitants, and charting our expeditions. As much as we’ve loved having the trails to ourselves, it’s an even greater pleasure to share them with other curious, adventurous minds.
Trekking in the Jequitinhonha River Valley
Trekking
In our minds, there’s no better way to immerse deeply in the nature, culture, or history of a place than by traveling slowly through it, and in the Serra do Espinhaço, there’s often no better way of doing so than with our own two feet.
Trekking isn’t just a rewarding way to pass the time between culturally-enriching mornings & evenings, though—in the backcountry, it’s often the only way to travel between communities.
You don’t need to be a seasoned trekker or highly conditioned athlete to enjoy hitting the trails with us in the Espinhaço, but if you’re planning on joining us on a Private Journey or Small Group Expedition, you should be aware that we tend to push our legs quite a bit—the natural consequence of wanting to experience as much of the region’s nature & culture as possible during a limited timeframe. Trekking days during Journeys & Small Group Expeditions tend to average 20-25 km per day and about 1,000 m of cumulative elevation gain & loss over varied mountain terrain.
If that sounds overly ambitious, or if you’d like to do a shorter trek or mix-and-match a bit of overlanding, riding, and hiking, we’re more than happy to craft & guide an itinerary that suits your goals via a Bespoke Trip.
As our most sought out guided activity, we tend to see the region through the eyes of trekkers. From our vantage point, it’s a sight to behold.
Horseback Riding
Horses and pack animals have been integral to life in the Espinhaço since the discovery of gold in the region in the early 18th century, and they continue to play a vital role in local culture, industry, and transportation today.
If you’ve ever dreamed of riding through the Brazilian hinterlands, now’s your chance: the Espinhaço is a welcoming setting for new riders & skilled equestrians alike, and few places in the country lend themselves so readily to joyous saddle time. From the spectacular riverside trails and rocky mountain passes of the Serra, to the wide open dirt roads & big sky vistas of the Sertão, it’s incredible how fluid & diverse the landscapes, vegetation, and roads of this region are.
If you’re joining us on a Private Journey or Small Group Expedition, you should expect at least a handful of optional riding days (which double as rest days for weary legs). If you’re planning to join us on a Bespoke Trip, know that we’re as happy to craft riding-only itineraries as we are mixed trips that feature hiking, overlanding, and riding.
Regardless of whose hoofs are moving during your time with us, we recommend you catch your breath, take in the scenery, and immerse in the Espinhaço’s long and storied tradition of tropeirismo & cavalgadas.
Overlanding
The majority of our earliest explorations of the Espinhaço (from 2018-2020) weren’t done by foot or hoof. Instead, we explored the region primarily by vehicle, hopping from one small community to another in a 1989 Toyota Bandeirante named “Gaúcha”. Once settled into a new place, we’d grab our packs & trekking poles and visit local sites by foot, taking our time to enjoy & document each, before returning to explore local dining options & watering holes in the evening.
During Private Journeys & Small Group Expeditions, we tend to overland solely when necessary—usually, in order to cover large distances (particularly during stretches of unremarkable trail)—but this is misleading, since the merits of traveling the Espinhaço by vehicle are… Overlanding allows us to cover large distances in (relative) comfort (our standard fleet consists nearly entirely of 30-year old Bandeirantes), us with the best possible base of knowledge for our later explorations of the Espinhaço backcountry.
As much as we enjoy exploring the Espinhaço by trail, there’s something to be said about being able to cover large distances in (relative) comfort, particularly when time is of the essence and the list of places to see (& waterfalls to swim in) is long.
The Espinhaço is an overlander’s dreamscape: a sparsely-populated carousel of rural hamlets & big mountain vistas tied together by a winding labyrinth of little-used backroads. Here, washboarded doubletrack, slave-built stone pathways, human-sized potholes, and the occasional stunning water crossing are all just part of the commute—and that’s just the front country.
In Sempre Vivas National Park, the roads become obstacle courses, with sandpits, jagged rocks, seasonal marshes, harrowing craters, and white sand trails providing some of the region’s most exhilarating windshield time.
As your captain speaking, we recommend you relax & enjoy the ride.
Trekking On the Chapada do Couto (July)
Bespoke Treks, Rides & Overland Tours
In 2025, for the first time, we’ll be crafting & guiding bespoke treks, rides, and overlanding tours of the Espinhaço.
To learn out more about our Bespoke Trips, including our Circuits, please visit our Bespoke Trips page. In the meantime, here are the important bits to know about trekking, horseback riding, and overlanding with us:
- Each & every one of our treks, rides, and overland tours is custom-built for the travelers who come with us;
- All are intended to be as all-inclusive as possible from the moment you touch down in Belo Horizonte (the capital of Minas Gerais, and the rendezvous point for all of our trips in the Espinhaço) until your departure
- If this is your first trip with us in the Espinhaço, we strongly recommend beginning with our Serra Circuit, and incorporating additional Circuits as time allows;
- All of our trips require a minimum length of 7 days on the ground in order to encourage a baseline of immersion. There is no maximum number of days for a Bespoke Trip;
- We craft & guide a limited number of Bespoke Trips each year, on select dates from April 1st to September 31st.
If you’d like to do a Bespoke Trip with us, send us a message and we can set aside your date and begin your application asap.