Quartzite walls
Up to 80 m.
Luiz coelho — CC BY-SA 3.0 · y.naomi from São Paulo, Brazil — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Claudio JJ — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo JC Nogueira — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Furnas canyons are quartzite walls up to about 80 metres high that drop straight into the green water of the Furnas reservoir at Capitólio, in south-west Minas Gerais, earning them the nickname «Brazil's fjords». The lake itself is man-made: the dam on the Grande River was built between 1957 and 1963, creating a reservoir of about 1,473 km² that borders thirty-four municipalities. The classic outing is a boat trip on the lake among the canyons and waterfalls, at about R$100 a person on shared boats. On 8 January 2022, after heavy rain, a block of rock broke from one wall onto tourist boats and killed ten people; since then helmets and life jackets are compulsory, boats stop at a buoy line watched by inspectors, the site is checked geologically every day before boats are let in, and canyon trips are suspended when it rains. The dry season from April to September is best. On long weekends and in the July and December holidays hotels fill up, so book your stay and the boat trip a month or six weeks ahead; morning slots sell out first.
Up to 80 m.
Among the canyons.
A green lake.
Furnas Reservoir, Capitólio, south-west Minas Gerais
Rules were tightened afterwards: helmets and life jackets are compulsory, boats stop at a monitored buoy line, the site is checked geologically every day, and trips are suspended in rain.