Chapada dos Veadeiros: Goiás's Crystal Highlands
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Chapada dos Veadeiros: Goiás's Crystal Highlands

The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park — 260 km from Goiânia — is one of Brazil's most extraordinary landscapes: waterfalls, canyons, and the Vale da Lua moonscape carved from quartz in the world's oldest plateau

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  1. 1

    Vale da Lua Moonscape

    Vale da Lua - Moon Valley - is a 1.8-billion-year-old quartz river bed carved into smooth circular pools by the Rio São Miguel; the landscape looks genuinely otherworldly

  2. 2

    Catarata dos Couros

    Couros Falls — Brazil's highest waterfall at 120 meters — cascades through the cerrado highlands; the hike to the base is one of Chapada dos Veadeiro's amazing walks

  3. 3

    Cachoeira Santa Bárbara

    The three-tiered Santa Bárbara Falls are the park's most beautiful — the crystal-clear water cascading into emerald pools in a setting of dramatic quartzite cliffs

  4. 4

    Alto Paraíso New Age Culture

    The town of Alto Paraíso – the gateway to Chapada – has attracted a spiritual community since the 1980s; the crystals, the adaptation to the energy of the Cerrado and the alternative culture make it distinctly

  5. 5

    Cerrado orchids and wild flowers

    Chapada dos Veadeiro's highland cerrado blooms with endemic orchids and wildflowers — the thin soils of the quartzite plateau support plants found nowhere else on earth

  6. 6

    Dark Sky Stargazing

    Chapada dos Veadeiro's high altitude, dry air and distance from city lights make it one of Brazil's best stargazing spots — the Milky Way visible with extraordinary clarity in the dry season sky

#nature#hiking#scenic