Today, I’m going to talk about a destination I visited some time ago but never got around to sharing here. I took a trip to Serra da Canastra, one of the most incredible places in the state of Minas Gerais and, dare I say, in all of Brazil.
I had been wanting to visit this destination for a long time but had never made it there. The trip, as always, started by car and began in the southern region of Minas, more specifically in the town of Alterosa. This was a place I used to visit a lot with my family when I was a kid and even as a teenager. I have countless, truly countless, happy memories from there, especially with my dad.
It had been many years since I’d last been there, so returning was incredibly emotiona, especially because this was the first time I’d been back since my dad passed away. The main attraction in this area is the Furnas Dam, a spot where people usually go fishing, something I loved doin (and something my dad loved doing even more).
I only spent one day camping there, and then we headed off to the main destination: Serra da Canastra. The Serra da Canastra is massive, with several towns surrounding the region that are part of the tourist circuit. We decided to visit the most famous spot, which is also said to be the most beautiful.
This was a trip that wasn’t fully planned, so we just grabbed the car and the trailer and went kind of aimlessly. We decided to stay in the town of São Roque de Minas, one of the gateways to Canastra, which is home to a large part of the area’s tourist attractions, mainly waterfalls, mountains, and trails.
It’s one of the favorite towns for tourists who travel there. Located in the northern part of the Serra da Canastra National Park, it’s incredibly beautiful. Despite being quite small, it has great infrastructure for those looking to stay either in the town itself or in campsites located in the rural areas. That was our choice, recommended by a local tour guide. We picked a campsite near the base of the park’s mountain range, and the coolest thing about this campsite was that, in addition to being a very large area where there was little risk of other campers being too close to us, there was a river that ran through the campsite and was part of the property. We could swim in the river every day for as long as we wanted. That was amazing.
On the first day, after setting up at the campsite, we spent the day enjoying the river right there on the property, which was a major highlight. The water was incredibly clear and refreshing. To this day, when I think about that river, I feel a deep longing. It makes me sad that here in my area, there’s nothing quite like such transparent, clean water. The next day, we hit the road, and it’s important to note—this has to be done by car, preferably a 4x4—to explore the park. And then, it was an avalanche of hypnotizing landscapes, completely breathtaking.
The vegetation was one of the things that caught my attention the most in Serra da Canastra. I had never seen many of the plants I found there, and I was completely smitten by them, especially this flower called "chuveirinho do cerrado."
Serra da Canastra has so many beauties that I couldn’t possibly cover them all in just one post, so I’ll stop here and continue sharing about this destination in my next post. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far and that you’ll follow along for the next chapter.
See ya.
[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin -20.25106 lat -46.41061 long d3scr))