Vale do Pati Trek

10 Days / 9 Nights

Hiking Tours of Brazil

Our Hiking Tours of Brazil are all basic ideas that can be tailor-made to match your requirements. Any tour can include one or more destinations, and can be purely dedicated to hiking, although some mountains may include a little climbing that is still suitable for those without much experience. We can also arrange serious climbing trips. We can also mix them with other activities such as climbing, kayaking or tandem hang-gliding flights, some regular tourism, and some nightlife. We include all that you need during your trip, the accommodation with breakfast; all airport transfers and other road journeys; any activities and excursions with English-speaking guides and relevant entrance fees; plus some popular extras. For our Hiking Tours of Brazil, you only need to bring your favourite hiking boots and regular outdoor clothing and equipment. Any parts where a little climbing is necessary will include ropes, helmets and safety harnesses. All hikes and climbs are undertaken with an experienced, qualified local guide, with activity insurance included.
This ten days in Bahia takes you first to Salvador de Bahia, the capital of Afro-Brazilian culture such as samba and capoeira. You then travel to Lençois and the Chapada Diamantina National Park for one of the finest treks in Brazil. The Vale do Pati trek takes you between small villages set in lush valleys, with spectacular waterfalls, wonderful natural scenery and unique flora and fauna.

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from $ 1,725 USD

Vale do Pati Trek

10 Days / 9 Nights

Destinations Visited

Salvador
Lençois & Chapada Diamantina

Trip Style

Adventure

Activities Included

Hiking & Trekking
Ecotourism

Tailor Made Tours

All our Brazil and South America Tours, are completely flexible with regards to dates, duration or the tours, activities and accommodation that we can include. All the tours featured on our website are our recommendations based on our experience of how to make the very best of your time in South America. We can adjust these details in any way that you wish. We are here to organise a tour that suits you after all!

Itinerary

Day 1

Arrive in Bahia

Destination:

Your flight arrives in Salvador after flying over the beautiful coastline of Bahia in Brazil's north-east. A window seat should give you a view of endless miles of white sand, palm-tree groves and blue ocean. On arrival in Salvador, the state capital of Bahia and first capital of Brazil, you will be welcomed at the airport and transferred to your hotel in the historic centre of the city around Pelourinho. Your day is then free to recover from the journey and enjoy Bahian cuisine such as acarajé or moqueca, usually based around seafood, spices and coconut milk.

Day 2

Afro-Brazilian Cultural Capital

Destination:

Your morning tour of Salvador begins by the lighthouse and fort at the entrance of All Saints Bay and continues via the port which unloaded boats from Africa. Ascending to the Upper City, the Lacerda Elevator has exceptional views over the bay. The tour continues on foot through squares and narrow streets lined with colorful colonial buildings to Pelourinho, the heart of the city. This square contained the whipping post where Africans were sold as slaves. The afternoon is free to browse the historic area. Evening brings a spectacular Bahia Folkloric Show, with representations of candomble rituals and capoeira demonstrations.

Day 3

The Chapada Diamantina National Park

Destination:

After breakfast you travel to Lençois in the Bahia interior, either by plane (Thursday/Sunday only), public bus or private vehicle. The road west from Salvador passes market towns, plantations, and the dry lands of the Sertao, the Brazilian desert interior. The area around the old diamond mining town of Lençois and the National Park of Chapada Diamantina is an oasis in the dusty outback. Flat-topped mountains rise to 1600m, and the valleys between them are covered in lush forests and tumbling waterfalls. After arriving you can explore the cobbled streets of the charming colonial town, or swim at the beautiful Serrano Falls a short walk upriver.

Day 4

Hiking in the Chapada Diamantina National Park

Destination:

A morning departure on the Vale do Pati Trek takes you first by car to the foot of Morro do Pai Inacio, one of the flat-topped chapadas and a postcard of the national park, with views of the Vale do Cercado and the Tres Irmaos (Three Brothers) mountains from the top. A flat 14km hike takes you past Morrao, another Chapada postcard with a stop for lunch with the birds at the Aguas Claras swimming holes. The afternoon hike continues into the Vale do Capao where a possible quick detour by vehicle finishes the day with another plunge into the pools below the Riachinho Waterfall. The night is spent in the village of Capao, a quiet and relaxed interior town.

Day 5

Hiking to the Highest Waterfall in Brazil

Destination:

The hike to the top of Cachoeira da Fumaça, the highest waterfall in Brazil, begins from the village and heads up a steep path rising 2km from the floor of the valley to the top of the Serra do Sincora. The views along the valley and to other chapadas are stunning. The next 4km are on the flat summit until you reach the top of Cachoeira da Fumaça. At almost 400m, the falls are so high that the water doesn't reach the bottom! The fall disappears into the spray for which the falls are named. You can also peer down to the lake from an overhanging rock... if you dare! This fantastic photo opportunity comes before you return to your pousada in the valley, with a stop for the local jaca pastel after you descend.

Day 6

Valley Vistas

Destination:

Today's hike takes you first a little further into the Vale do Capao where you begin a hike of 22km with the trail out of the valley. Climbing up the Bomba trail, you reach the head of the valley with stunning views all the way down the Vale do Capao, and verdant chapadas stretching up on either side. After traversing the high meadows of the Gerais do Vieira and the Rio Preto, a stop for lunch high on the escarpment gives a wonderful view of the Serra da Lapinha in the middle of the valley and down into the Vale do Pati below it. After dropping back down to the head of the Pati Valley, you spend the night in simple local accommodation with a warm welcome and warm regional food.

Day 7

The Falls and Caves of the Pati Valley

Destination:

After breakfast, a 12km day of hiking the old trails of the remote and enclosed Vale do Pati begins. The first trail follows the riverbed of the Rio Funis, passing various cascades until you reach the waterfall of the same name. Cachoeira dos Funis provides another stop for lunch and a swim in the pools. The trail continues up to the top of the Serra da Lapinha, where you will find the Gruta do Castelo (Cave of the Castle), a huge quartzite cave. The cave passes right through the mountain to the other side, giving views of both sides of the Pati Valley, although never at the same time! After time for photos from way above the valley, you return to the bottom.

Day 8

Above the Big Waterfall

Destination:

As if the scenery around the Vale do Pati wasn't already fantastic, today's 15km takes you to perhaps the most scenic point in the valley and of the trek. Perhaps... Cachoeirao is the big waterfall, with a drop of around 300m in up to 20 falls in the wet season of April and May. The best view of these falls is from the opposite side of Pati, from a rock ledge that looks down on the falls and down, down to the bottom of the valley directly below. This vertigo-inducing view is one of the best in the whole Chapada Diamantina National Park, and your photos from here are likely to be amongst your very favourites of Brazil or anywhere else. The day finishes down in the valley at another simple lodging.

Day 9

Striding Out of the Pati Valley

Destination:

The final day of the Vale do Pati Trek begins climbing out of the Vale do Pati, the hardest part of the 15km route to the village of Guine. The major part of the hike is across the Rio do Preto meadows, crossing the Black River along the way, its waters coloured by the soil of the surrounding hills. The final part of the trek is the descent of the Morro do Beco, the old pack-horse and mining trail to Pati. The trail drops steeply through a chasm in the escarpment, with long-distance views over the flat lands surrounding the Chapada Diamantina National Park and even to the mountains in the west of Bahia, bordering the states of Goias and Tocantins. You return from Guine to Lençois by road.

Day 10

Walking Away from Bahia

Destination:

After breakfast you begin the journey back to Salvador by road or the biweekly flight (Thu/Sun only). This Vale do Pati Trek can also be combined with any of our other destinations in Bahia, such as Praia do Forte or Morro do Sao Paulo. You can also include it as part of a larger tour around Brazil, or even as the first part of a far longer trek around the Chapada Diamantina National Park. The possibility exists to link these areas in the north-west of the park with those towards the southern end in a spectacular long-distance trail including parts of the park only recently opened up in some of the very best hiking country in the whole of Brazil.

Prices

* Domestic Flights Estimated Price
$320 USD

** Prices Per Adult based on two people travelling and sharing accommodation
Simple B&B
from $1,425 USD Request Quote
3 Stars
from $1,725 USD Request Quote
4 Stars
from $1,950 USD Request Quote
5 Stars
from $2,375USD Request Quote
* Prices vary depending on travel dates and flight availability. Peak periods in Brazil including Carnaval, public holidays and Christmas/New Year usually require a minimum number of nights, so in these cases itineraries may need to be changed. ** Domestic flight prices are estimated on typical values when reserved six months before travel. Prices can never be guaranteed until reservations are made, and do usually become more expensive closer to the travel period.

* Domestic Flights Estimated Price ** Prices Per Adult based on two people travelling and sharing accommodation

$320 USD

Simple

3 Stars

4 Stars

Luxury

from

$1,425 USD

Request Quote

from

$1,725 USD

Request Quote

from

$1,950 USD

Request Quote

from

$2,375 USD

Request Quote

* Prices vary depending on travel dates and flight availability. Peak periods in Brazil including Carnaval, public holidays and Christmas/New Year usually require a minimum number of nights, so in these cases itineraries may need to be changed.

** Domestic flight prices are estimated on typical values when reserved six months before travel. Prices can never be guaranteed until reservations are made, and do usually become more expensive closer to the travel period.