Cable car
Down to the cave.
Otávio Nogueira from Fortaleza, BR — CC BY 2.0 · VanessaRPF — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Otávio Nogueira from Fortaleza, BR — CC BY 2.0 · AlexCarvalho82 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · VanessaRPF — CC BY-SA 4.0
Ubajara is Brazil's smallest national park, about 6,300 hectares on the edge of the Ibiapaba plateau in western Ceará, some 320 km from Fortaleza. It was created in 1959 and packs two contrasting worlds into a small space: humid forest on the plateau and dry caatinga scrub in the valley below, with cliffs, waterfalls and trails in between. Its star is the Ubajara cave at the foot of the mountain, with stalactites and stalagmites shaped by water and limestone over thousands of years. You reach it by the cable car, which runs about 550 metres from the mountain station to the valley station at the cave mouth; it reopened in February 2022 after a modernisation costing about R$12.7 million, and the ride is now free with online booking. If you'd rather skip the cable car, a guided trail of about seven kilometres leads down instead. Inside the cave visits are guided through lit sections. The park also has viewpoints over the valley and small waterfalls, and the plateau is noticeably cooler than the Ceará coast.
Down to the cave.
Stalactites and stalagmites.
Plateau over the caatinga.
National park road, Ubajara, Serra da Ibiapaba, Ceará
No; since it reopened in 2022 the ride is free, but it needs an online booking in advance.