Chapada Diamantina Loop: Morro do Pai Inacio to Ibicoara

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Morro do Pai Inácio

   Morro do Pai Inácio is a flat-topped hill that rises out of the scrub of the Chapada Diamantina in the interior of Bahia, standing a little above a thousand metres. It is the sort of place where the earth seems to have been cut and left. The sandstone plateaus of this region, called chapadas, are ancient, eroded into cliffs, canyons and tabletop hills, and the Morro is one of the most photographed. From the top, a short, steep walk of perhaps fifteen minutes from the road, you look out over the valley of the Rio Utinga and the plateaus beyond, in a view that stretches to the horizon.

   Read the complete Morro do Pai Inacio write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Morro do Pai Inácio is where the day begins. Next is Lencois.

2. 2. Lençóis

   Lençóis is the town that the diamond rush built, and it still looks like it. In the 1840s prospectors poured into this corner of Bahia, and the name is said to come from the white tents they pitched along the river, which from the hills looked like sheets laid out to dry. The stone houses along the cobbled lanes are a leftover from that money, painted in faded colours, with a river running clear and tea-brown just below the square, stained by the plants upstream rather than by anything dirty.

   Read the complete Lencois write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lençóis comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mucuge.

3. 3. Mucugê

   Mucugê has a cemetery that nobody expects. Walk up from the main street and you find the so-called Byzantine cemetery, a field of small white chapel-shaped tombs on a dusty hillside, a legacy of the diamond miners who made this town rich in the nineteenth century and then left it half-empty when the stones ran out. It is a quiet, slightly eerie place at the end of a long day on the road.

   Read the complete Mucuge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Mucuge. Next is Ibicoara.

4. 4. Ibicoara

   Ibicoara is a small town at the southern end of the Chapada Diamantina, in the highlands of Bahia, far from the more touristy centre around Lençóis. The town sits at a cool altitude, which makes it good for growing coffee, and the hillsides around are covered with plantations, as well as potatoes and other vegetables. It is known for its waterfalls, in particular the Cachoeira do Buracão, an eighty-five-metre cascade that drops into a great rock amphitheatre, reached by a walk and a swim across a pool, and often described as one of the most beautiful in the region.

   Read the complete Ibicoara write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ibicoara closes the day.