Qualla: Serra da Canastra National Park

Serra da Canastra National Park: Introduction

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Casca d'Anta is the first waterfall on the São Francisco River. One hundred and eighty-six metres of white water comes off the escarpment edge and lands in a pool at the foot of the cliff, and by any measure it is a spectacle. What makes it strange is the timing. The São Francisco is the great river of the Brazilian interior, a working artery that will eventually cross most of the country's northeast — and here, barely out of the ground, it is already throwing itself off a cliff. Serra da Canastra National Park exists in large part to protect the few kilometres of tableland upstream where that river begins.

Serra da Canastra National Park: A Divide You Could Walk Across

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The park sits on the watershed between two of South America's major river systems, which is a more consequential piece of ground than the gentle grassland suggests. Water falling on one side of the Canastra tableland goes east with the São Francisco toward the Atlantic. Water fal...

Serra da Canastra National Park: Rock Formations With Working Names

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two of the park's landmarks carry names given by people who had cattle on their minds rather than tourists. The Garagem de Pedras — the stone garage — and the Curral de Pedras, the stone corral, are rock formations on the tableland named for the shapes they suggested to whoever w...

Serra da Canastra National Park: The Wolf and the Duck

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two animals define Canastra for anyone who comes looking. The maned wolf is not a wolf at all but a long-legged, red-coated canid built for seeing over tall grass, and the park's open cerrado is prime habitat. The other is a duck, and its situation is far more precarious. The Bra...

Serra da Canastra National Park: Forty-Five Plants That Live Nowhere Else

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Botanically the Canastra tableland is an island. Forty-five species of flora here are endemic — found in this range and nowhere else on the planet — including *Barbacenia fulva*, *Microlicia canastrensis*, *Chaetostoma canastrensis* and *Miconia angelana*, alongside undescribed s...

Serra da Canastra National Park: The Cheese and the Deed

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nothing carries the name of this range further than its cheese. Queijo canastra is made from raw cow's milk in the municipalities that ring the park — São Roque de Minas, Vargem Bonita, Delfinópolis, Medeiros, Bambuí, Piumhi and Tapiraí — and its dense, spicy character is credite...