The Vale do Pati, or Pati Valley, is a lush, isolated trekking paradise in Brazil’s Chapada Diamantina National Park – also known as the ‘Diamond Highlands’ – where once prospectors, cowboys and criminals dug deep looking to make their fortunes. Today, the land of the park is alive with vibrant greenery, plunging waterfalls and split by winding rivers. It boasts biodiverse flora and dramatic mountains and cliff faces, which tower over all of it.
It’s a place of cliff-top viewpoints which look out onto monoliths, and of waterfalls which plummet hundreds of feet down into idyllic rock pools…
Unlike many areas affected by diamond mining, the soil in this region stayed lush, and so it also served as a site of coffee growing for a long time. The region remains incredibly biodiverse – with monkeys and hundreds of charismatic bird species to see – and if you hike through it, you will be fully immersed. Don’t expect to have phone signal, and don’t expect a warm shower each morning.
The real beauty of this region doesn’t lie down in the mines, but out on the open trails, obvious for all to see. Reached from the cosy, cobblestoned town of Lençóis nearby, the Pati Valley is far-reaching stretches of flat terrain which snake between, and curve up to, exposed rock cliffs. It’s a place of cliff-top viewpoints which look out onto monoliths, of waterfalls which plummet hundreds of feet down into idyllic rock pools and lush vegetation which sends the scents of nature up into the air. This is pure, Brazilian beauty at its best.
There’s a full range of treks in the Vale do Pati (most of which follow old coffee or prospector trails). They range from day hikes up and down a mountain to trails that multi-day hikes, between Andaraí and Vale do Capão, for example. These longer walks are where the area really comes into its own, giving you the time to adjust to the slow…