Buraco do Padre
Falls in a rock bowl.
Achernicharo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wellington Silva Nascimento — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Simplus Menegati — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Carlos Souto — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gabriela Delcin Pires — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Carolina Zabini — CC BY-SA 3.0
Campos Gerais National Park, the «General Fields», protects about 21,300 hectares of Paraná's central plateau. It was created on 23 March 2006 in Ponta Grossa, Castro and Carambeí, about two hours' drive from Curitiba. Its terrain is rugged, with cliffs, canyons, faults and caves among open grassland and araucaria forest, and the Tibagi and Ribeira de Iguape rivers rise here. Its best-known sight is the «Buraco do Padre», an underground rock amphitheatre 30 metres across into which a 45-metre waterfall drops, along with the Mariquinha waterfall, the São Jorge falls and bridge, the «Capão da Onça» and the twin sinkholes of «Furnas Gêmeas» and «Furna Grande». The park holds plants found nowhere else, including a ball cactus. The sights are spread out among farms and dirt roads, so a visit needs a car and a full day, and some sites are privately run with small fees. It is often combined with nearby Vila Velha State Park on a trip from Curitiba.
Falls in a rock bowl.
Twin sinkholes.
Among the trees.
Ponta Grossa, Castro and Carambeí, Paraná
The Buraco do Padre, a rock amphitheatre with a 45-metre waterfall, the Mariquinha falls and Furnas Gêmeas.