Cambará do Sul

Canyon country in southern Brazil, where the Itaimbezinho and Fortaleza canyons, within Aparados da Serra and Serra Geral national parks, have sheer cliffs hundreds of meters high.

Cambará do Sul lies on the plateau of northeastern Rio Grande do Sul, at about 1,000 m elevation and about 190 km from Porto Alegre. It calls itself “Brazil's Canyon Capital.” Here the edge of the basalt plateau has been cut by dozens of canyons, some hundreds of meters deep. The most famous, the Itaimbezinho Canyon, lies within Aparados da Serra National Park. The Fortaleza Canyon is in Serra Geral National Park. In 2022, the entire region was added to the UNESCO Global Geoparks network as the Canyons of the South.

Highlights by area:

① Clifftop trails of the Itaimbezinho Canyon, southeast of town.

② The Fortaleza Canyon, Secret Stone, and Tiger Falls, east of town.

③ Buva Valley and the Malacara Canyon floor hikes, on the Grande Praia side in Santa Catarina state, below the canyons.

④ The Monte Negro Canyon, about 50 km north.

Seasons: April–May and September–November have less fog and excellent visibility. Winter, June–August, is cold, with occasional frost and snow. Summer afternoons bring fog and thunderstorms. The canyons can disappear into fog, so leave a spare day in your schedule.

Transport and tips: drive about 3 hours from Porto Alegre. Bus services are very limited, so local agencies offer canyon tours with guides. Most roads to the canyons are dirt and become muddy after rain. Tickets to the national parks must be booked online, and guides are required for the canyon floor trails. Plan to stay 2–3 days. Stay in town for the clifftop views, or in Grande Praia if you want easy access to canyon floor hikes.

Top sights

• Itaimbezinho Canyon – The core canyon of Aparados da Serra National Park. Basalt cliffs rise about 700 meters deep, and clifftop trails offer views of twin water…
• Fortaleza Canyon – A giant canyon about 7.5 km long inside Serra Geral National Park. Clifftop lookouts reach out over the coastal plain toward the Atlantic.
• Rio do Boi Trail – Hike upstream along the Rio do Boi from the canyon floor into the heart of Itaimbezinho Canyon, looking up at cliffs hundreds of meters hig…
• Malacara Canyon – A short hike entered from the bottom of the canyon, following the creek up to the mouth of Malacara Canyon, with clear natural swimming poo…
• Pedra do Segredo – A seemingly precarious balancing boulder on the edge of Fortaleza Canyon, with a nearby lookout over a corner of the canyon.
• Tigre Preto Waterfall – A waterfall that plunges from the highland edge into Fortaleza Canyon, with a viewpoint that shows it falling all the way from the cliff to…
• Monte Negro Canyon – A canyon beneath Monte Negro Peak, the highest point in Rio Grande do Sul, where the clifftop grasslands and sea of clouds create spectacul…
• Cachoeira dos Venâncios – A group of small waterfalls and pools on the plateau west of town, on a private farm, a place for light water play away from the canyons.
• Índios Coroados Canyon – A canyon between Itaimbezinho and Malacara Canyon, whose clifftop viewpoints draw far fewer visitors and reveal layered sheer cliffs.

Where to eat

• Galpão Costaneira – A wooden ranch-style restaurant beside the church in the town center, serving gaucho home cooking from iron pots on woo…
• O Casarão Cantina e Galeteria – A long-standing restaurant preserving the Italian immigrant recipes of Serra Gaúcha, famous for its table-served galeto…