The reservoir
Guarapiranga's shores.
Guarapiranga Ecological Park is a state park in São Paulo's South Zone on the shores of the large Guarapiranga reservoir, which supplies part of the city's water. It opened in 1999 over some 250 hectares, 160 of them for visitors, and takes up about seven per cent of the reservoir's shoreline. Its main purpose is to protect the area's plants and animals and to raise environmental awareness among its more than 270,000 visitors a year, most of them from the surrounding neighbourhoods. It was designed to cause as little harm as possible: the walkway to its main buildings is raised for five hundred metres so as not to touch the soil, and large windows make the most of daylight. The park has trails through native and replanted vegetation and Atlantic Forest remnants, a lake, a «Rubbish Museum» explaining recycling, a library, an environmental education centre and a plant nursery. Entry is free.
Guarapiranga's shores.
Recycling lessons.
Above the soil.
Jardim Riviera, on the Guarapiranga reservoir, South Zone of São Paulo
Yes, it is a free state park.