Qualla: Itapuã State Park

Itapuã State Park: Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit (WT-shared) Ricardo Rmx, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a place south of Porto Alegre where two great bodies of water meet, and a lighthouse has marked the spot since 1860. To the west spreads Lake Guaíba; to the south and east, the vast Patos Lagoon. Between them juts a granite promontory the Guaraní named *Itapuã*, meaning "rocky point," and on it survives something that has nearly vanished everywhere else nearby: the original, untamed landscape of southern Brazil. That survival was not inevitable. It took decades of fighting to keep this ground wild.

Read more: Itapuã State Park on Qualla

Image: (WT-shared) Ricardo Rmx | CC BY-SA 3.0

Itapuã State Park: Where the Waters Meet

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gilson Vargas Pereira, CC BY-SA 4.0. Itapuã guards a promontory of hills, beaches, dunes, lagoons, and marshes in the municipality of Viamão, just 57 kilometers from the state capital. The park preserves one of the last remnants of the environment that once covered the entire Porto Alegre metropolitan region, a pock...

Read more: Itapuã State Park on Qualla

Image: Gilson Vargas Pereira | CC BY-SA 4.0

Itapuã State Park: A Fight to Stay Wild

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lechatjaune, Public domain. For much of the twentieth century, Itapuã was almost lost to the very governments meant to protect it. Land was expropriated in the 1950s, 70s, and 90s with grand plans attached - one decree in 1973 envisioned an "Itapuã Tourist Complex" of resorts and handicraft centers. Instead...

Read more: Itapuã State Park on Qualla

Image: Lechatjaune | Public domain

Itapuã State Park: Howlers, Otters, and Wings

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lilogoes2011, Public domain. What that recovery protected is a genuine refuge. The brown howler monkey lives in these forests, locally threatened with extinction, its deep calls carrying across the hills at dawn. Neotropical otters slip through the waterways, and the elusive margay, a small spotted cat, hunt...

Read more: Itapuã State Park on Qualla

Image: Lilogoes2011 | Public domain

Itapuã State Park: Relics of a Rebellion

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricardo630, CC BY-SA 4.0. History clings to the rocks as stubbornly as the howlers cling to the trees. Inside the park, a small museum displays weapons and boat parts left by combatants of the Ragamuffin War, the long Farroupilha rebellion that convulsed Rio Grande do Sul from 1835 to 1845. Relics from th...

Read more: Itapuã State Park on Qualla

Image: Ricardo630 | CC BY-SA 4.0