In the Itatiaia Region of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range one can splash in waterfalls, hike trails, and wine and dine – all without getting too far away from the luxuries of civilization. I'm standing on the balcony of my Swiss-styled chalé of the Hotel do Ypê minutes after the dawn, looking down the steep, green valley of the Campo Belo River.  The sky is clear.  A crispy, nippy wind is blowing through the trees, clapping the leaves, and whistling in my ears.  Small tropical colored birds are singing about, rustling through bushes spotted with colorful flowers, and skipping through the air, chasing behind one another.  Crashing against the rocks that line its bed and edges, I hear the Campo Belo River roaring quietly, yet forcefully in the background, cutting through the silence of the dawn.  I have the sensation I'm in the middle of nowhere, far off and deep in the middle of nature.  Tranquil moments as this one, just plain enjoying what the Hotel do Ypê has to offer, would be enough to relax and satisfy anyone.  Yet, my objective here is far more reaching. I've come to see if this vast playground, the Itatiaia Region consisting of the Itatiaia Park, Visconde de Mauá, Penedo, and Serrinha, really is an area filled with natural wonders and treasures.  I've come to see if the park really presents two different aspects of conventional tourism with well-equipped hotels for people that just want to relax, along with excursions available for serious Alpinist.  I've come to see if the multitudinous waterfalls of the Itatiaia Park and Visconde de Mauá are as enchanting as people say.  I've come to see if the Agulhas Negras Peak and Prateleiras Massif are as monstrous and challenging as I've heard.   The Itatiaia region has gone through many changes in the past.  The area where the Park lies today, which is located between the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo was once the property of the Viscount of Mauá.  The Brazilian government bought it from him in 1908.  The Emperor Dom Pedro II had bought the land to grow cold weather fruits.  He sent European immigrants there to cultivate the land, yet the plantations never yielded good crops owing to the poor soil and the project failed. Brazil was slow to join the international trend of creating nationally protected areas.  In 1929, the land became the property of the Ministry of Agriculture.  Later on, it turned into a biological station connected to the Botanic Gardens of Rio de Janeiro.  When the Park was created in 1937, it became Brazil's first national park.  From that point on, people have been taking advantage of its treasures. Throughout the years, the Park has received many improvements such as a main road, a natural history museum, and lodges for researchers and mountaineers. After my wife and I come down the steep, winding driveway of the hotel, we take a left onto a dirt road that down the way connects with the main paved road that leads out of the park.  The road is lined with two dense walls of tall vegetation, crisscrossing at various points above our heads.

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Within a few minutes we find what we are looking for: a trail marked Hotel Simon is off to the side of the road.  We walk up the steps and start the trail.  Immediately, we enter the well-marked trail and into a dense wooded area.  It's a Coastal Rain Forest ecosystem with a mix of pine trees and grooves of palms.  The air is fresh, clean, and green. 

As the sun brakes through the leaves atop the trees, it highlights the small bushes to the side dotted with those same various, colorful flowers, their petals glowing with a bright transparency.  The trail continues level and plane until it widens out and a steep incline begins.  At that point, we reach a brown plaque that reads Três Picos.  Now, the true hiking begins.

The Park is divided into two distinct sections.  The upper part that is mountainous and hilly forms the Planalto of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range. The Planalto is filled with water springs and undulating earth.  Hikers and Alpinist come to the Park desiring the Planalto because the Agulhas Nergras Peak and the Prateleiras Massif are located there.  In the lower part you have a forest that is seven hundred and fifty meters above water.  Três Picos is one of the main highlights of the lower part of the Park. Located in the Palmital Mountain Range, a six-kilometer hike takes you to the top, where valleys and hills form an immense, boundless, rough sea of green. (1.6662m) 

Tries Picos, or three peaks give the appearance of a women lying down.  This originated from the legend of Jandira.  She was a Puri, or one of the half-bred Indians that once occupied the mountain regions north and west of Rio de Janeiro.  Her name signified honeybee.  Two warriors of Jandira's tribe loved her.  Even though her heart belonged to Jatir, or clear bee, his rival killed him.  As the legend goes, in those days, there was a state of alert between the Indians and the whites and the Puris ended up fleeing, and spreading out within the Mantiqueira Mountain Range. Jandira was the only one that stayed and awaited her death, wanting to meet Jatir.  She roamed through the forest among the settled people of Penedo before being killed.  Três Picos is considered to be her burial site. 

All the literature I've read about this trail before coming indicated that the hike was not difficult.  The problem is we left late and now it is 11:00 AM.  Another problem is my wife.  Whereas I've trained before in the Tijuca National Forest in Rio de Janeiro, which is close by our home, she hasn't trained at all.  She has come to the Park more to rest.  I've come more for the adventure.  So, she is hiking with me to make me happy. Regardless, it's always more enjoyable hiking with another person, especially a loved one.

The first part passes by fast, as we snake through the Coastal Rain Forest.  Along the way we run into a couple from Denmark that have no intention of hiking to the top and are just taking pictures of the nature.  The second part has a constant climb and takes us from Costal Rain Forest into dry altitude fields.  Here, the dense vegetation is low due to the large quantity of rocks.  During this part, we hike up steep slopes with beautiful vistas of the foothills of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range.

As we get to the end of the second part, we run into three different couples that gives us three different answers of how far away from the top we are.  I know something is wrong because the trail is much harder than everything I've read.  Then comes a German guy in jeans and no shirt. He has red welts and small cuts across his chest and back.  My wife asks him how far we are from the top, and he tells her in the most sympathetic way that we are far away.  This guy is believable.

With all the stop and go, it has taken us a while to get here.  It's 2:30 PM and it gets dark here around 5 PM.  So, we have to make a decision. We try crossing over a tree trunk that leads to dense, closed wood to the right of the waterfall.  Yet, we turn around because it doesn't seem right.  We reason that it is too hard.  We go back, pick up the trail we left again, and run into this large trunk.  It seems to stop at a dead end. Taking into consideration how tired my wife is and how late it is, I decide to abort the mission and head back to the hotel.  The view of the foothills of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range is way worth the climb to this point.  Now, I know you need a guide to get to the top or at least consult someone that knows before you set off.

The major highlights of the lower part of the Park are the waterfalls . The Hotel do Ypê is situated in an optimal position for visiting all of them because it sits at a high point within the Park, the highest of any Hotel or pousada (a Brazilian Inn).  Above the hotel sits the Maromba Waterfall and lake, Vêu da Noiva Waterfall, and Itaporani Waterfall.  Down the hill sits the Pitu Waterfall. Further down you have the Poranga Waterfall. Although it is one of the biggest and most spectacular waterfalls, the Poranga Waterfall is closed to visitors due to preservation.

My six-year-old daughter decides to forgo the recreation activities offered for the children by the hotel and opts to hang around the chalê with my wife and I.  So, we take the opportunity to get out and do an activity together as a family and visit the three waterfalls situated above the hotel.
Walking up the dirt road, the sides still lined with tall vegetation, we pass by privately owned property.  These are private properties that have been here since the creation of the Park.  As their land wasn't expropriated with the creation of the Park, many private properties within the bounds of the Park including farms, hotels, and country estates have remained. 

In about twenty minutes or so we reach the end of the dirt road.  The roaring Campo Belo River is crashing down the rocky bed.  A small parking lot is filled with casually dressed tourist along with seasoned Alpinist.  Older people, younger people, and families were getting out of their cars to walk and see the waterfalls.  In fact, many women were in high heels and some men were in slacks even.  So, I quickly realize that this hike is very much a tourist activity and doesn't take a lot of energy and skill to complete.

My daughter and I rush to the stairs and step down as fast as possible, racing to the end.  Once to the bottom, we step across from rock to rock, until we reach the edge of the large and wide, transparent pool.  The waterfall that let into the pool is only a few meters high.  From the sun shinning, we see the light cutting through the water, exposing just how crystal clear it is.  Rocks several meters below the surface are distinguishable.  The luster highlights the ripples on the surface of the water.  All around the sides of the landscape is thick forest and abundant vegetation.

Returning back to the top, we head up the well-marked stairs going towards the Vêu das Noiva and Itaporani Waterfalls.  It is a narrow, civilized, public-friendly trail that is well preserved.  It is lined with stairs, flat, stable rocks that you can easily step upon, and well-paved dirt trails.  We pass people the whole time for 500 meters until we get to a fork in the road.  We go to the right to see the Vêu da Noiva Waterfall first.  We then come through a cave and cross a bridge that leads to the waterfall, sitting off to the left.  Moisture fills the air turning it humid and damp.

Vêu da Noiva is a very tall, steep waterfall.  Large, wet, slippery rocks around the base sticking halfway out of the water, creates scattered pools. Vêu da Noiva, or the Veil of the Fiancée, looks like a veil from the white water sliding down its 30-meter high face.  The whole waterfall is enveloped in a fine cloud of mist that spreads out into the wind, refreshing the close surroundings.  Below it forms a natural pool with transparent water.  The vegetation is exuberant with an abundance of flowers between the trees.  It consists of orchids, bromeliads, begonias, and white, blue, yellow, red, and violet roses.  The area is inhibited with an infinite amount of birds melodically singing.

Returning back to the trail, we hike 500 meters more to the Itaporani Waterfall.  The trail is packed with many rocks.  Once we get there, the trail opens up into a perfect waterfall.  Itaporani is a three-level, ten to twelve meters high waterfall that lets into a hug pool of crystal water with golden ripples rushing over the surface, a dense forest all around the sides.  The vegetation here is new and young with a big representation of palms, vines, lianas, roses, dicksonia tree ferns, and trees that have no equivalent in the United States such as mimosas, bignonias, and borages. 

At 7:00 AM I go to meet the ecotourism and adventure agency, Gute's Ecological Ride, in front of the Itatiaia Bus Station.  It is a nippy morning. When the blue, old and rugged, Toyota Jeep pulls up, I walk over bundled up in my jacket, my breath trailing behind me.  Cêlia Regina, a short, thin, energetic-looking white woman with a short, perky, blond haircut jumps out the front passengers seat.  In Portuguese, I ask her if she is with the Gute's agency and she says yes and asks for my name, our voices fogging up in the morning cold.  Once everything was confirmed, she tells me that she will be my guide tomorrow for Visconde de Mauá.  I get happy because she is the owner, and I will have a whole day to talk to her about her company. 

She then introduces me to my guide, Linus.  I reach through the open window and shake his hand.  We look into each other's eyes briefly.  He is a thirty-something white male, medium build, with unlined stubble on his face and a short buzzed haircut.  He has on a worn out leather jacket and sweat pants.  I then jump into the front seat and we take off.  In the back seat is a couple from Rio de Janeiro, who are biologists that have come to observe the land.  I turn around and greet them.  The older man has a healthy head of grey hair and a youthful look.  His name is Sergio.  His wife, a younger looking woman, has curly, dirty-blond hair with grey streaks mixed in between. 

When we hit the Rio-Caxambo Highway, a road that connects Rio de Janeiro to Minas Gerais, the whole landscape changes.  Instantly, we wind through short beige and brown foothills, climbing towards the Planalto.  The foothills then give way to larger mountains with rocky peaks mixed with wood, others have jagged, craggy summits.  Along the way, flanking the highway, are small nurseries and mom-and-pop shops selling homemade preserved foods and craftwork. 

The whole way up Sergio and Linus talk about the politics affecting the area, along with other biological issues.  After and hour or so, we turn onto the Rodovia das Flores, or the Flower Highway.  It is an 18 Kilometer dirt road loaded with rocks and potholes.  As we ride, the Toyota Jeep rocks and shakes along.  Exotic, rare birds in the bushes that flank the road fly in front of the jeep. 

Now, all those mountains I saw coming up the Rio-Caixambu Highway sit eye level with us.  With the sun still rising and the day awaking, we begin to make sharp turns next to cliffs, the whole time breath-taking views unfolding right before us.  There is no limit for my eyes.  From left to right, I see immense green summits.  The spur of the Mantiquiera Mountain Range, with steep cliffs, dense forest of pines, and araucarias spread about. Looking down onto the green summits along the horizon, I see a dance of highs and lows of valleys, an undulation of hills, a sea of hills that is the characteristic of this part of the mountain range.  At first, Manaca rain trees flank the sides of the road.  As we continue climbing up, the vegetation becomes lower and in the valleys and cliffs below I see grooves of Eucalyptus.  It's the zone of transition from tropical forest to Alpine meadows where the forest cover is lost and stunted trees and perennial herbs start to appear. 

Once we get to the entrance of the Park, we park the Jeep and set out.  We continue walking down the same rocky dirt road that cuts across the Planalto until we cross over onto the real trail and into two-meter tall bush.  Large boulders we have to climb begin to make up the trail.  After an hour and a half hike and a moderate climb, we get to the rocky base of the Prateleiras Massif, high upon the Prateleiras Mountain Range. 

The Prateleiras Massif looks like a fragile pile of rocks stacked on top of one another that could fall if just one more is stacked on top or if you could push hard enough on its side.  It is a grey colored granite rock with few black highlights.  We rest here for about thirty minutes before making the final climb to the top.  The rock base has a few small shrubs and little friendly birds accustomed to humans such as the Sanhaço-Fraude, Pampa Finch, and Spintail would come and eat from my hand. 

Looking over the Planalto from here gives a better perspective of the area.  The most significant geological point of the region is the bunch of rocks that are not common around the country, or the world, but are found here in the Planalto.  Rich in almost pure bauxite or aluminum ore, the massif of Itatiaia is formed by intrusive, crystalline rock, a rare composition.  Rocks spread out everywhere on all the parts, dividing the space with shrubs, moss, lichen, bromeliads, Asparagus Fern and dry areas with marsh and swampland.  Rocky outcrops are common, and the soil is quite deep . The flowers of the swampland are especially beautiful, as it is spotted with lilacs.  Besides the large variety of flowers, the area is lavished with mines and the beginnings of small streams and creeks, small threads of brooks that run through rocks and feed into the Campo Belo River that parallels the main dirt road crossing the Planalto.  The species that have survived here have adapted to the condition of intense cold, frost, and the formation of ice crust.  In the summer season when it rains, water moistens the soil and creates mud puddles.

The Agulhas Negras Peak, or Black Needle Peak and the Prateleiras Massif are the two culminating points of the Planalto and the state of Rio de Janiero.  Agulhas Negras, with dark colored rock pointing towards the sky stands 2.787 meters.  It is the highest point in the state of Rio de Janeiro.  The imposing rock block of Prateleiras is 2.548 meters above water.  From the base where I'm standing, I can see the Agulhas Negras peak, the Fina Mountains Range, and Três Picos, down to the right in the distance.  When I look at the massif, I don't see how we are going to get to the top.  Linus tells me that we are going to wind up the right side towards the back, twisting.  I still don't see what he is talking about until we start. 

The boulders are big and wide and have gapping holes between them, big enough for one to fall into easily and continue dropping.  One wrong step and you are severely hurt, possibly trapped.  The granite however gives great traction, and you only have to trust in your feet and everything is fine.  We go hoping from one boulder to another, leaning onto one, and pushing off and up to the next, crawling through some caves and climbing higher. 

The further we go the more dangerous it becomes.  Rocks splinter away from one another.  Yet, the granite continues to give good traction.  I just have to remember to trust in my feet.  Before I know it, we are really high up.  Even though I'm afraid of heights, my determination to get to the top conquers my fear.  Before it was one bad step and into a hole.  Now, it is still one bad step and into a hole, but also, due to the height, it is one bad step and over an edge and down to your death.  Along the way, Linus tells us that the Prateleiras Massif takes more skill, but Agulhas Negra takes more strength and endurance. 

As we come to the last part called "cats leap," a deep crack in the rock over which is necessary to leap, we stop and gather our breath and courage.  Linus goes first, then Sergio, then me.  After that, Linus climbs up over the ridge and walks up to the top and ties a rope for us to use and pull ourselves up.  At the top we have a dizzying view of the Planalto.  No words are shared amongst us, just the joy of the vista and the sound of the swirling winds.  After a while, Linus opens up this metal box and we sign a book that is left for everyone that makes it to the top.
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