Free fall
196 metres.
Marcos Guerra — Public domain · Willian Ricardo de Oliveira Silva — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Larissa Warnavin — CC BY 2.0 · O Bicho Geográfico — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fabiano Ferrari — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carlos Eduardo Chagas Pereira — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Luli Hata — CC BY-SA 4.0
Salto São Francisco is the highest waterfall in southern Brazil and one of the highest in the country, dropping about 196 metres in free fall, the height of a sixty-storey building, so that the water turns to mist before it reaches the ground. The fall lies in the Serra da Esperança, where the boundaries of Guarapuava, Prudentópolis and Turvo meet in Paraná, inside the Salto São Francisco da Esperança State Park. The range marks the border between Paraná's second and third plateaus, the third built from vast basalt flows between 137 and 127 million years old. On the Guarapuava side the town has created a park with walking trails and panoramic lookouts over the fall, and from the Prudentópolis side longer trails lead to its base. The whole area belongs to the «land of the giant waterfalls», so allow a full day and visit other falls nearby.
196 metres.
Before the ground.
Basalt cliffs.
Serra da Esperança, between Guarapuava, Prudentópolis and Turvo, Paraná
From the Guarapuava park lookouts, or from its base via Prudentópolis trails.