Brazil
Canyon Guartelá
A river that refused to go around cut Brazil's longest canyon dead straight for thirty kilometres.
The Iapó rises on the plateau to the east and meets the Devonian Escarpment head on. Instead of turning, it cuts: a gorge of about thirty kilometres running almost in a straight line, 450 metres deep at its deepest, walled in Furnas sandstone. Geologists writing it up called the erosion here ruiniform, because the rock weathers into shapes like the remains of buildings.
The Parque Estadual do Guartelá protects 798.97 hectares of the canyon's central stretch, created by decree on 27 March 1992 and put into operation in 1997. The gorge is not accidental in shape: it follows long northwest to southeast faults and fractures tied to the Ponta Grossa Arch, some of them filled with diabase dykes, which is why a river cut something this straight. Thin, poor soils on the sandstone and the isolation the escarpment imposes left relict patches of cerrado up here, vegetation from a drier past climate with nowhere else to go. Below the Furnas sandstone lie the Silurian Iapó Formation and the Ordovician Castro Group, and it is over the Castro rocks that the Iapó runs, throwing off waterfalls and rapids. The name is a warning that stuck: a resident of the Tibagi region who heard of a Kaingang attack sent word to his neighbour ending 'Guarda-te lá, que eu aqui bem fico', guard yourself over there, I am fine here.
Solo
The basic trail is a three-hour out-and-back of medium difficulty, and you can walk it without a guide. Watch the clock, since the last start is half past four and everyone has to be back at the reception centre by six.
Friends
Book the guided rock-painting trail through a local agency before you come, and keep a spare day in hand, because rain on the day or in the two days before cancels it. The panelões on the Córrego do Pedregulho are the one place bathing is allowed, and the municipality tells you to go in with your socks on, because the slab is slippery.
- The self-guided Trilha Básica is about five kilometres there and back over three hours, reaching the natural pools, the canyon viewpoint and the Ponte de Pedra waterfall.
- The Trilha das Pinturas Rupestres runs only with a conductor authorised by the park, booked in advance, and leads to shelters holding paintings around seven thousand years old.
- Trails are closed on rainy days, and the guided route does not run if it rained on the day of the visit or in the two days before.
- Entry is free, the park opens Wednesday to Monday from eight until six with the basic trail starting by half past four, and a van now carries walkers back to base.
Paçoca de pinhão com charque, pine nuts and dried beef pounded together in the drovers' pantry the state counts Tibagi among.
Arroz tropeiro and virado de feijão from the same tradition, carried in, because nothing is sold in the park and the visitor centre runs to drinking water.
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