What the "Cerrado" has to offer; Waterfalls & Exotic Plants

 

(FYI- don’t forget to click on the four videos below. Click twice on them to watch.)

The Cerrado (Savanna) of Brazil

            There are some amazing things to do in the small historic town of Pirenopolis. Some awesome things I have done include going to waterfalls, visiting the historic churches, flying in an air balloon, eating yummy food, walking through the beautiful town with the beautiful, exotic plants, observing all types of birds, monkeys, and more.

Watch this video I made that sums up a lot of cool stuff in one!

 In this post, I will share with you my experience of visiting the waterfalls, and sightseeing through the “cerrado” grasslands with its exotic plants only found in this area of Brazil.

"Wow! Look at the cactus wrapped around that tree!"

·       BUT, what is the “Cerrado”? It is a type of tropical Savanah! It is a unique. It is mainly located in the capital of Brazil, Brasilia, the heart of the Cerrado (wwf.Panda.org).

We always think of the Amazon when we think of Brazil, which it is huge, but the cerrado is there too!

 

“Covering 2 million km², or 21% of the country's territory, the Cerrado is the second largest vegetation type in Brazil after the Amazon” (WWF.Panda.org).  

Take a look here, just click on this: look at this cool map

“Since then vast amounts of research have proved that the Cerrado is one of the richest of all tropical savanna regions and has high levels of endemism.” (Wikipedia) This means, these plants are not found anywhere else on earth (endemisim). 

No wonder I thought they were cool enough to take pictures of! I don’t usually stop to take pictures of grass or trees! lol 

The Waterfalls in Pirenopolis, Brazil:

I went to several different waterfalls in Pirenopolis (city), Goias (state). I made the first video you saw at the beginning, that shows us driving up and down and up again into the mountain surrounding the small historic town. It is bumpy ride but it is a beautiful view! Here is one of the waterfalls, it is called Rosario.

On the way to the waterfalls, sometimes it is a bumpy ride and sometimes you see horses in the middle of the road.

The first time I went with Luis and his mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and son, we had to walk a little but half of the way there and back consisted of Luis giving me piggy back rides! I had my crutches but it was hard with a broken foot. The trail wasn’t even that far but because of my foot it was hard to do. Along the way, I took tons of pictures of trees, plants, flowers because I hadn’t seen this type of vegetation before. Pretty cool!

You can see Luis' mom carrying my crutches. Obrigada Maria!

We brought some snacks and sat down when we got there, under the shaded trees. Half of us were sitting on seats made of stone while others laid out a nice blanket on the sandy area surrounding the pool of water that lead to the waterfall. Swimming there was nice, we could mostly see down at our feet below the water. We spent some time there and then left back to the house for lunch.

He said "It feels so good!"

We went to another waterfall the next week, with Luis’ cousins and uncles/aunts. This time the trail was a little shorter, consisting of a pretty long wooden bridge. This one had some cool sites, a small stream along the way leading to the main waterfall, with people sitting and swimming along the trail. Once we got there we could stay or continue to climb up some more to see a second waterfall, but I decided to stay because of my foot. Luis brought his drone and got some cool shots.

Animals and plants in nature

            Along the way, we saw animals walking through the dirt road as some people lived on the mountain side. We saw horses, birds, cows, and other farm animals. We saw some really cool plants too, which I will share photos, besides the ones in the video you see here below.

(This is the “Pequi” tree, which grows the pequi fruit, only found in the cerrado, that the locals pick the fruit which you can’t see any on this tree, and add it to dishes. 

I’ve tried eating it in rice and also by eating the outer layer by scraping it with my teeth.  The “meat” does not go too deep. If you bite too hard you will enter the inner core of the fruit and have hundreds of spikes in your mouth, sending you straight to the hospital!)

            We saw two large birds eating something weird, tearing it apart with their beaks and claws. They were same size as me! They are called seiremas. Have you heard of them? Here is a link if you want to see more, although I have also posted pictures and a video of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seriema 

We saw all kinds of birds in Brazil, which I will post more about in a future post, along with my experience in a hot air balloon!

    All in all, the nature in Brazil is one of a kind, since it is so diverse in just one city, let alone in the country as a whole.

 I love it here in Pirenopolis, and recommend you come visit! The food alone is what brings me back, besides the nature! Expect a post on all the food I ate too! It is coming up soon!

Interesting links:

·       This link instantly takes you to a cool Google map of the world, with the different types of vegetation highlights in different colors. You can see that the green is the Cerrado and a pretty large area in Brazil:

look at this cool map

·       Check out this link for more info on the Brazilian Cerrado:

https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/cerrado/?

·       Wikipedia lists some interesting facts about the cerrado here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerrado