Several hours north of Brasília is one of Brazil’s best run national parks, where I spent an otherworldly long weekend.
“I have a a theory that many of Brazil’s best kept secrets – such as Worm Farm Inn – are at the end of a long dirt road…. So it was a good omen that São Jorge, in northern Goiás, is over thirty kilometers of washboard dirt roads from Alto Paraíso, tucked under the southern boundary of the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park.” [To Belém & Back, p.64]
“At the park entrance, between [our guide] Mari’s explanations and a few fading wall exhibits, we learned that the then-named National Park of Tocantins was founded in 1961 with an optimistic six hundred thousand hectares (by none other than President Kubitschek, on a roll after Brasília), which soon fell to a tenth of that size due to encroachments by farmers and ranchers. Such is the usual path in Brazil, where the rule of law – and plenty of attractive, finely-tuned laws there are – makes way for the reality on the ground.” [p.65]
“After the park’s official boundaries steadily reduced in the 1960’s, the remaining stump was renamed Chapada dos Veadeiros, in honor of the deer hunters who roamed freely throughout. Several of the older guides whose paths we crossed were former deer hunters, or veadeiros, themselves: an example of the Brazilian talent for co-opting either the dispossessed or former adversaries in the fullness of time.” [p.66] [please hover over images for captions]
![Waterfall contemplation – “...the Veadeiros is ‘Brazil’s water-box,’ which Mari attributes to deep subterranean quartz walls that block the passage of water, forming a high, underground reservoir. In a sense we were standing on or near triple continental divide, from where water leeches and eventually flows north to the mouth of the Amazon (via the Tocantins River), south all the way to Buenos Aires along the Paraná and then Prata Rivers, and eastwards to the São Francisco.” [p.66]](https://backroadsbrazil.com/wp-content/gallery/goias-interiors-iv/Goias704-209w.jpg "Waterfall contemplation – “...the Veadeiros is ‘Brazil’s water-box,’ which Mari attributes to deep subterranean quartz walls that block the passage of water, forming a high, underground reservoir. In a sense we were standing on or near triple continental divide, from where water leeches and eventually flows north to the mouth of the Amazon (via the Tocantins River), south all the way to Buenos Aires along the Paraná and then Prata Rivers, and eastwards to the São Francisco.” [p.66]")
![Vale do Rio Preto – “As we climbed into the southernmost tip, where the lackadaisical trails only penetrate one twentieth of the park’s length, the cramped scenery finally opened up to what Mari called campo limpo, or the naturally ‘clean fields’ of the highland cerrado untouched by man.” [p.68]](https://backroadsbrazil.com/wp-content/gallery/goias-interiors-iv/Goias704-227w.jpg "Vale do Rio Preto – “As we climbed into the southernmost tip, where the lackadaisical trails only penetrate one twentieth of the park’s length, the cramped scenery finally opened up to what Mari called campo limpo, or the naturally ‘clean fields’ of the highland cerrado untouched by man.” [p.68]")
![Mari mediating at Cachoiera das Cariocas – “At each and every waterfall visited over two days, Mari would adopt a lotus position facing the falls and meditate for a while, for as long as her guidely duties allowed. She had an endearing habit, when leaving such nature nooks, of throwing her stringy arms into the air and yelling her thanks up to Mother Nature with a good-natured ‘Obrigada Mamãe!’” [p.68]](https://backroadsbrazil.com/wp-content/gallery/goias-interiors-iv/Goias704-230.jpg "Mari mediating at Cachoiera das Cariocas – “At each and every waterfall visited over two days, Mari would adopt a lotus position facing the falls and meditate for a while, for as long as her guidely duties allowed. She had an endearing habit, when leaving such nature nooks, of throwing her stringy arms into the air and yelling her thanks up to Mother Nature with a good-natured ‘Obrigada Mamãe!’” [p.68]")
![Sunset gathering – “I liked Mari a lot, and at our last seven o’clock lunch I shared a small guide to the Mineiro Cerrado with her, to help identify some of the birds and mammals common to the savannas of Goiás. I called her ‘my dear Mineira’ and she gave me a warm and, for her, demonstrative career on the back. She also wrote down her phone numbers, as I promised to return when the park opens a new trail, a truly day-long hike across the park’s mid-section, so she can show the way.” [p.75]](https://backroadsbrazil.com/wp-content/gallery/goias-interiors-iv/Goias704-263w.jpg "Sunset gathering – “I liked Mari a lot, and at our last seven o’clock lunch I shared a small guide to the Mineiro Cerrado with her, to help identify some of the birds and mammals common to the savannas of Goiás. I called her ‘my dear Mineira’ and she gave me a warm and, for her, demonstrative career on the back. She also wrote down her phone numbers, as I promised to return when the park opens a new trail, a truly day-long hike across the park’s mid-section, so she can show the way.” [p.75]")
![Sunset – “...in the meantime, I can still see [Mari] meditating on the river-smoothed rocks, or gathering her small flock into a matra circle, or throwing up her sinewy arms skywards in thanks for the day, the sun, and the hard, clean water.” [p.75]](https://backroadsbrazil.com/wp-content/gallery/goias-interiors-iv/Goias704-279w.jpg "Sunset – “...in the meantime, I can still see [Mari] meditating on the river-smoothed rocks, or gathering her small flock into a matra circle, or throwing up her sinewy arms skywards in thanks for the day, the sun, and the hard, clean water.” [p.75]")
“Veadeiros has recently quadrupled in size, back to nearly half of the original proportions laid down by that dreamer, President Kubitschek, eight years before Woodstock. I was encouraged to see an Ibama jeep along the bumpy road back to High Paradise, scanning the park boundaries for brush fires, for it showed they might actually have the resources to patrol and protect a much larger area.” [p.75]
I loved these photos. Your travels and photographs take me comfortably outside of my ‘white cubby hole home.” They truly are beautiful, Ben.
Molly
Thanks so much, Molly, that is darling of you! Particularly in the vast interior of Brazil, taking decent photos is so easy, the people and landscapes so compelling. Several of these shots made it into the small photo essay which accompanies the eBook and accompanied several book launches, both in Brazil and Miami Beach.
I love this article too! Would be cool to learn more about any worm farming activities, if they still continue. Worms are critical for the health of the soil and also an important food source of high quality protein in many cultures! https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/10/489302134/should-we-make-room-for-worms-on-our-dinner-plate Look forward to more updates!
Much appreciated, Tim! Delighted you’re on board, as conversations are always enlivened. I am relieved, though, to see that earthworm cuisine is still a southern Venezuelan specialty, and has not yet jumped the border into Brazil as far as I know…