Safari to Nascentes do Parnaiba

a frontier area for dry forest conservation in Brazil

Set in northcentral Brazil, some 2000 km (1200 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, Nascentes do Parnaíba (Parnaíba Headwaters National Park) is a remote and little-visited conservation area.

Despite being so little-known and rarely-visited, this is undoubtedly one of the most entrancing wildlife areas in Brazil.

At 7243 square kilometres (2800 square miles), this is a large and scenic national park, a part of the cerrado biome of dry tropical forests and savannas that covers over 20% of the country.

The cerrado may not contain the same prodigious range of species of the Amazon Basin or Pantanal, but the undulating landscapes and dry climate make for a refreshing change from those relentless humid flatlands.

The reserve was only established in 2002. The area and its wildlife is very little-researched, whilst the conservation and tourism infrastructure remains very much in its infancy. This is a pioneering area for wildlife viewing.

Fortunately the national park contains three outstanding wildlife spectacles, any one of which should be enough to encourage people to visit. They are maned wolves (the world’s largest canid), bearded capuchins (the world’s only tool-using monkeys) and hyacinth macaws (the world’s largest parrots).

Other mammal species in the reserve include jaguars, pumas, ocelots, jaguarundis, hoary foxes, black-and-gold howler monkeys, tufted marmosets and giant armadillos.

Other birding highlights include green-winged macaws, blue-and-gold macaws, Spix’s macaws, blue-crowned parakeets, swallow-tailed hummingbirds, burrowing owls and great potoos, as well as over twenty endemics, including blue-eyed ground doves and Brasília tapaculos.

The reserve contains just two small sister lodges, Wolf Valley Camp and Wolf Cliffs Camp, which are usually visited in combination.

Unfortunately the area is quite complicated to access, usually involving two flights and often an overnight in Belo Horizonte.

The best time to visit Nascentes do Parnaíba is generally considered to be during the Aug-Feb dry season.

The city is classified as having a tropical rainforest climate and has a distinctly different and more challenging climate than Rio de Janeiro. You really do need to enjoy tropical conditions.

There are two clearly defined seasons …

May-Sep : dry season

During the May-Sep dry season the daytime temperatures are relatively high at around 31C/88F, whilst the nighttime low temperatures drop nicely to around 15C/59F. Rainfall is almost negligible, at around 10mm (0.5”) per month. Sunshine is around 9 hours per day (around 90% of daylight hours), meaning that there is rarely any significant cloud around. Humidies tend to drop significantly during this period, which makes conditions a good deal more comfortable than in most parts of the country.

The best period for viewing maned wolves, bearded capuchins and hyacinth macaws is May-Aug (although the macaws are only ‘guaranteed’ 15 April to 15 July).

Oct-Apr : rainy season

During the Oct-Apr rainy season the daytime temperatures remain high at around 31C/88F, whilst the nighttime low temperatures remain much higher, at around 21C/70F. The rainfall is reasonably high, at around 150mm (6”) per month. Sunshine is around around 7 hours per day (around 60% of the slightly longer daylight hours), meaning that there is usually at least some cloud around. High humidities mean that conditions are usually uncomfortable or oppressive.

Compared with most other areas of Brazil, Nascentes do Parnaíba remains relatively pleasant throughout this season, with very little flooding, virtually no mosquitoes and plenty of sunshine. The wildlife may be slightly less predictable, but remains sufficiently active to make a visit well worthwhile.

Getting there

Unfortunately getting to Nascentes do Parnaíba can be a bit of a palaver. This is such a remote and little-visited location that easy-access routes have yet to be established.

If you are coming in from Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo it’s not so very painful. There are flights to Belo Horizonte, where you change to pick up the small plane service to the small regional airport at Barreiras.

However, if you are connecting in from the Iguacu Falls, Pantanal or Manaus Amazon areas, then you will almost certainly need to overnight at a bland airport hotel in Belo Horizonte on the way through. It’s not a complete train smash, but it does mean that only the most committed travellers tend to make it out this far.

The flights between Belo Horizonte and Barreiras are usually only on weekdays, not on the weekends.

From Barreiras it’s a road transfer of around five hours. The first part of this journey travels north on a good sealed road for around 250 km (150 miles), passing largely through farmland and a few ramshackle towns, where it’s possible to stop for lunch.

The last hour of that leg, between the town of Corrente and the hamlet of Sao Goncalo do Gurgueia, is quite scenic, featuring dramatic 300 metre (1000’) cliffs of red sandstone.

At Sao Gonçalo we switch from an air-conditioned minibus into an open safari vehicle. Turning west on a small dirt track, continuing for about 90 minutes (13 km or 8 miles) through increasingly wild terrain, with patches of caatinga dry scrubland and cerrado dry gallery forest for the last 30 minutes before we arrive at Wolf Valley Camp.

At the end of the visit, the outbound journey retraces the same route.

Where to stay

The only places to stay in Nascentes do Parnaíba are the two camps operated by Dr Charles Munn’s pioneering SouthWild group.

The main base is Wolf Valley Camp, with Wolf Cliffs Camp being used as a satellite facility in order to explore further into the reserve and, specifically, to increase the chances of close-up encounters with maned wolves.

remote and difficult to access