I only intended to stay a week or so at the Brazilian park Serra do Cipó, arriving on Christmas Eve and looking forward to spending the holiday through New Year doing lots of rock climbing at this place that I enjoyed so much last June and July (which I blogged about here).
Three weeks later, I’m still in Serra do Cipó! I spent extra time researching an article about how this place has become something of a rock climbing mecca in South America.
As you can tell by the headline of my article published today in Fusion, “How cliffhanging daredevils saved a mountain from mining companies,” there’s also a cool history about how this place saved from being turned into a rock quarry.
The surrounding rivers and waterfalls also offer excellent hiking and some deep-water free-solo climbing, as a buddy is doing here:
In a bizarre twist to my time in Serra do Cipó, I stayed at the same pousada as a famous telenovela actor and comedian, Tonico Pereira, who was relaxing here for several days with his family. He had a pot belly because of all the climbing he’d been doing, he told me, claiming that it was actually a large callous from wearing a harness so much.
