The rocky point
Between Guaíba and Patos.
MartinKlippel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Claudete Estulla — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gilson Vargas Pereira — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo rsmenezes — CC BY-SA 3.0 br · Claudete Estulla — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gilson Vargas Pereira — CC BY-SA 4.0
Itapuã State Park is a 5,566-hectare nature reserve in Viamão, about fifty-seven kilometres from Porto Alegre, on a rocky promontory where Lake Guaíba meets the vast Lagoa dos Patos. Its Guarani name means «rocky point». The park protects Indigenous archaeological sites and was a stage for the nineteenth-century Farroupilha Revolution, when the rebels built a fort on its hill to control shipping to Porto Alegre. In the 1970s and 1980s pink-granite quarries scarred the land until they were banned in 1985 after a campaign led by environmentalists, among them José Lutzenberger, and its recovery began. The old Itapuã lighthouse also stands within the park. The park opened to visitors in 2002. Visits are limited to the Pombas and Pedreira beaches, with a maximum of 350 people per beach, and tickets are paid at the entrance. Swimming is allowed only in marked areas, and feeding the animals is forbidden.
Between Guaíba and Patos.
Sand on the lake.
After the quarries closed.
Itapuã district, Viamão municipality, Rio Grande do Sul
Only in the marked areas of the two open beaches.