Accommodation and eating in Goiás and Tocantins states
Although there aren’t many accommodation options, all are perfectly adequate and cheap. Of the hotels in Mineiros, the best is the Pilões Palace (t 64/3661-1547; R$121–260), on Praça Assis, with its own restaurant and bar. The Dallas at 223 Quinta Avenida (t 64/3661-1534; R$41–120) has quite comfortable rooms, while the Líder (t 64/3661-1149; R$71-120) on Rua Elias Machado and Pinheiros (R$41-70) on Rua Oito are serviceable if basic. Accommodation in Chapadão do Céu is much more basic. In town, your best options are Hotel Ipê (t 64/3634-1722; R$71-120), Rua Ipê 213, Pousada das Emas (t 64/3634-1382; R$71-120) on Rua Ipê, and Hotel Rafael (R$41-70) on Avenida Indaia. Out of town, the Fazenda Santa Amelia (t 64/3634-1380; R$121-180) has a pool, chalets and apartments, horseriding and a reasonable restaurant out at Km 65 of the GO-050 road; to find the place take the sign posted turn-off from the GR-050 for 15km (the last 5km of this is dirt track). As for dining options, you’ll be limited to a couple of churrascarias in each town, plus the hotel restaurants – not haute cuisine, but satisfying after a day’s hiking.
Parque Nacional Chapada dos Veadeiros
The Parque Nacional Chapada dos Veadeiros in the north of Goiás is the heart of the planalto, its stunning natural scenery among the most beautiful and distinctive in Brazil. The hundreds of square kilometres of wild and sparse vegetation, extraordinary geological formations, cave systems, waterfalls and hiking trails make this one of the best destinations for ecotourism in the country. A few hours north from Brasília and easily accessible by bus, the park has good local support for tourism, and apart from the occasional holidaying diplomat up from the capital, it is still remarkably unknown as a destination to foreign tourists.
Alto Paraíso de Goiás
The main point of arrival for visitors to the park is ALTO PARAÍSO DE GOIÁS, a base from which to explore the surrounding countryside more than a place to hang out in itself. If you really want to explore the Chapada, your best bet is to take the bus to the village of São Jorge, which is much closer to the national park and the best hiking.
São Jorge
To really get to grips with Chapada dos Veadeiros you need to head 37km further up a good-quality dirt road to the small village of SÃO JORGE, next to the only entrance to the national park. Looking around São Jorge, you can see the potential that ecotourism has to protect landscapes and generate jobs and income at the same time. Before the creation of the national park in 1980, the main industry hereabouts was the mining of rock crystals. When the practice was eventually made illegal in and around the park, the parks authority, prodded and helped by the World Wildlife Fund, recognized the need to create jobs linked to the park and invested heavily in training local ex-miners to be guides – the perfect choice, since no one picked over every remote nook and cranny of the landscape quite like them. So there is a good reason why IBAMA, the federal parks authority, makes it compulsory for visitors to the park to be accompanied by a guide.
Hikes around São Jorge
Hiking options around São Jorge are less strenuous than in the national park, but still spectacular. You could easily spend a week doing a series of rewarding day-hikes without even entering the national park, and for those travelling with children, for whom the long hikes in the park are not realistic, these shorter hikes are a great family outing. All destinations are reached by heading along the road that passes the village, either west or east – that is, towards or away from Alto Paraíso.
The most striking hike around São Jorge leads to Vale da Lua, a forested valley where the river São Miguel has carved a narrow canyon through an extraordinary series of sculptured granite curves. To get there from the village, head to the main road and continue 4km east – in the direction of Alto Paraíso. On your right you come to a signposted trail into the Vale da Lua. There is a nominal entrance fee; you can either follow the trail directly to a swimhole, or else peel left, along a different route towards the swimhole, by walking down the valley, the best route to see its extraordinary geology. Flash floods can be a problem here in the rainy season, given the narrowness of the gorge, so exercise caution.
Back at São Jorge, heading in the opposite direction, away from Alto Paraíso, will take you, in quick succession, to Raizama, a beautiful gorge with a series of swimholes and waterfalls, and Morada do Sol, which has less-spectacular waterfalls, but more spectacular views up and down the valley. Another 5km up the main road will bring you to a private estate, Água Quente, where the owner has channelled a natural warm spring – tepid rather than hot – into a couple of large pools, making this a wonderful place to soak and recover from the walk. All of the above destinations charge a R$2.50–5 entrance fee.
Hiking in Parque Nacional Chapada dos Veadeiros
Visitors to the park are restricted to two trails in its southern corner, both 10km long and each a day’s worth of exploring. Although you’ll only see a fraction of the park, this area is the most spectacular, an unforgettable blend of hills and cliff-faces (mostly in the middle distance; fortunately you don’t have to climb them), plunging waterfalls, swimholes and forests. You encounter the full range of cerrado vegetation as well: veredas (open moorlands lined by burití palms), floresta de galeria (full-sized deciduous forest along watercourses) and campo sujo (the classic, shrubby savanna characteristic of Africa).
Tocantins
Created in 1989, the state of Tocantins is not an obvious geographical or cultural unit, merely a political and bureaucratic invention. Most visitors pass through the region rather than spend time around the state’s hot and flyblown towns. The only attraction here is the Ilha do Bananal – but it is underdeveloped and can be an expensive, tiring headache of a place to get to, unless you’re taking a guided tour; for now, we don’t recommend bothering with it. Otherwise, you may end up changing buses in either Palmas or Araguaiana on your way overland through the state to the Amazon or the Northeast.