Catimbau National Park
In Brazil, you can plunge headlong into the real jungle and admire the waterfalls, go down in a flimsy boat from the mountains or enjoy the enchanting beauty of lakes hidden from prying eyes. And you can visit the amazing Katimbau National Park. It is considered the second most important environmental object of the solar country after Serra da Capivar.
The Serra do Katimbau Park was formed in 2002 and today occupies more than 62,000 hectares. Here you can admire the surviving drawings of the oldest people, who can hardly be ranked in the Homo Sapiens clan, marvel at artifacts whose age exceeds 6000, visit numerous caves, where once lived distant, distant ancestors. More than 2000 such caves are located in the park, however, you can only get into the fully studied dwellings of ancient people.
But most tourists are attracted to the Katimbau park by no means archaeological excavations, but an amazing piece of a real African shroud, miraculously preserved among moist forests. « White Forest » or kaating, as scientists call it, appears before travelers in the form of a relatively small area that most resembles Africa's usual semi-desert in school textbooks. There are small shrubs and trees that can dump foliage in an overdone season, thus reducing the evaporation area of precious moisture. Particular attention is paid to funny bottle trees resembling real vessels of water that they collect during heavy rains, dry-resistant herbs and all kinds of succulents. And, of course, inspection will not do without the famous Brazilian cacti and lush agave.
The climate of this territory is also noteworthy: a sultry summer reigns here for 9 months, trying to burn all living things, it rains for 3 months, but precipitation falls completely irregularly. An additional charm to the park is attached by a small number of tourists: Katimbau is not one of the places for compulsory visit, so with lovely views of deep canyons, steep, weathering for millions of years of rocks, sandbags can be admired almost in proud loneliness, especially since the entrance to the park is free.
In the west of the unique reserve there are small Indian settlements, but they are too far from the paved hiking trails, so it will not be possible to assess the life of local residents.
You can get to Kaimbau on your own by rented car or local bus, but most tourists prefer to study the lovely savannah and unique cave paintings as part of sightseeing groups.
