The blue beam
Lighting the water.
Danielguimaraessouza — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Leonardobatista — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alexandre Magno Teles Zimerer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cesar Monteiro — CC BY-SA 4.0
Poço Encantado, the Enchanted Well, is an underground cave in southeast Chapada Diamantina with a lake at its bottom so clear and some sixty metres deep that the floor and the fallen rocks seem to hang in the air. Its best-known sight is a beam of sunlight that enters through an opening in the roof between April and September, lighting the water a brilliant blue, the scene visitors come for. A blind, colourless catfish lives in the lake, evolved in the dark and found nowhere else, so swimming is forbidden and protection is strict. It lies far from Lençóis, so it is visited on a day trip, often combined with nearby Poço Azul. It is best to arrive around midday in the beam season.
Lighting the water.
60 metres deep.
Found nowhere else.
Itaetê, southeast Chapada Diamantina
Between April and September, around midday, when sunlight enters through an opening in the cave roof.