Posts tagged with "national park"

Off the Beaten Path: Part V

Posted by Rachel No Comments
May 12 2009

Today, we’re going to return to our “Off the Beaten Path” series to discuss less known tourist attractions in Brazil. We’re going to look at Serra da Capivara National Park, located in the northeastern state of Piauí.

An UNESCO World Heritage site, the park is home to cave paintings dated up to 25,000 years old, evidence of one of the oldest civilizations in South America. The park encompasses 319,000 acres, and features not only the paintings, but also the Pedra Furada, numerous hiking trails, rappeling and rock climbing.

Niede Guidon is the park’s head archeologist, who also runs the Museum of the American Man, located in the park. The park is thought to have been home to one of the largest farming communities in prehistoric Latin America.

The park is currently struggling with financial issues, so it is hoping to expand tourism in the area to attract much-needed funding.

For useful travel information to the park, click here.

Off the Beaten Path: Part IV

Posted by Rachel No Comments
Feb 10 2009

Most certainly off the beaten path, the Parque Nacional das Emas is tricky to get to, since it’s nearly 500 kilometers from Goiânia, the capital of Goiás, and almost 400 kilometers from Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul. Ema National Park encompasses 1,300 square kilometers on a plateau with little forest cover.

Since the park is a vast space with little foliage, there are dozens of species of animals to see. You can spot emas, an ostrich-like species, for which the park is named, the largest bird in Brazil. There are several endangered species, including the jacamari, a type of wolf. You can also spot other Brazilian species like tapirs, anteaters, and capybaras, as well as tropical birds, foxes, snakes, armadillos, deer, lizards, and even jaguars and pumas. There also many species of flowers and flora to explore.

One of the features of the park are the glowing termite mounds. Up to two meters in height, the mounds are covered in bioluminescent termite larvae, making them glow at night during the rainy season.

For more information, see the park’s official site.

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