My trip to Monte Verde, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Whatever it is that you like to do. Whatever your “thing” is, Monte Verde is the place. Do you like trekking? There are trails. Want a romantic trip? You’re going to be sick of all the romance. Do you want a cold place in Brazil? It’s cold sometimes too. Adventure? Four wheels Motorcycle. Height? Zipline.  Therefore, you got the message, right? Anyway,  we went for trekking.

It was a “one day trip”, so we left my place in the early morning, and 3 hours after we were already in the town. And where do we go first? Breakfast time! The best meal ever and, dude, you’re in Minas Gerais, that means, the best breakfast ever!There is no food in this world that it could be compared to any food from Minas. But be it, after the wonderful breakfast, we returned to the trekking plan. The “Pico da onça”trail, but in our way to the trail we end up talking with one of the town residents, and she warned us that the trail at the time was not in good condition because it was raining a lot in the previous days but that we could do another one, almost as cool:  the  “Trilha do selado”.

To get to that one, is a very easy path: Enter the city, go straight down the main street until you reach the Bradesco bank, then you turn right (before the bridge), on the shopping street. This street has several signs indicating the path. For the “Pico da onça” you just need to fo forward at that street.

At the “Trilha do Selado” there is a parking place and a fruit shop, before you get in to trail you should pass by the shop to take a picture of the trail map and to drink a delicious shake and then, let’s trekking! 

The beginning of the trek is a hill, but a chill one don’t worry, and then start to appear several bifurcations, I think, at that part, they probably all lead at the same place, but I like to believe that we kept going because of my amazing theory, a theory created by my brain for these situations, It’s very complicated so pay attention.  First, you have to check the one that looks  more like the right one, if you can not feel the right path, I take the one that is on the same side of the end goal. And if, even of all those amazing tips, I’m still in doubt, I’ll take the left one.  Just because I want. You can think what you want, the important thing is that it always works.

Moving on, through the path you will pass by some stones, they are not that big deal, but  I love stones, so I always talk about them, get used to it. After a 20 minute walk forward, you’ll arrive at the first viewpoint, the “Pico da bruxa”(witch peak) , from there, you can see the “Pico do selado” (the end goal), and you also can sit and rest while enjoying the view before heading back to the trail.

You just need to follow the path that you will arrive in a giant plateau, from there, you have the entrance for practically all the paths of the place. So, I have a very strong recommendation for you, mark the exit path. Since there is entrance to almost all the paths, it is very easy for you to get lost in the back, believe me, it happens. So follow my beautiful advice and put some rocks on the corner of the path that you can recognize on the way back. 😅

And everything was beautiful, until we bump to a guy, the bastard was doing the same track as us but alone. Do you know what happened? The dog went with him, left us behind to go with the guy who was faster. Dude, the dog called us slugs (Brazilian way to say someone is slow) in the face. That’s alright. We can see you true self now dog! That’s alright! Aaarg! Okay, I understand, you wanted to go, and we were super slow, especially me, sinking my foot in all the mud pits in the way. I know, I know, it’s rained and we need to be careful on the trail, but I just can’t. A bird singing, a flying insect, a leaf with the reflection of the sun, it’s all so beautiful that when I see I’m stuck in the mud. It just happens.

Anyway, we had to continue, and even without the dog,  there is something special on this trail, before you arrive at the Pico do Selado, you go through several viewpoints with sensational views. And there you go, around all those viewpoints until you reach the highest rock, a place that has nowhere else to go. Then you arrived at the Pico do Selado. Something like that:
– Folks, does anybody see any trail that we can go?
– Oh, I think this thing here looks like a trail?
You did not arrive yet, continue to swim little Nemo.

At the end you will arrive in a small plateau, with a view of everything. On the left of the plateau, you can be adventure and keep going down to the limit, where you can see the trees rising down. And to the right you have a massive place to sit and enjoy. And that was what we did for some good couple of hours, just talking, admiring the landscape , having a lunch. And in the middle of all that observation we noticed a huge fog coming towards us. (please read as if this was a terror book), We stay there, seeing the mist approaching slowly as we innocently admire its beauty without understanding its real danger. Danger we understood when we decided to go back, and it follow us, and when we arrived at the big plateau (the one with entrance to everywhere), the fog, ooooh fog, the fog was there, covering all the exits, all the entrances, all the trails.

Until then, I had not given myself the hint of putting some stones in the corner, so guess what ?? We did not know which trail to take! Soooooo, what should we do? We chose one by the power of deduction, what means, getting into the first one we saw, and then we went, and going, and going. It’s kind of weird, did we pass through here in our way in? I’ve never seen these rocks, and this trail is different from the other right? Hey, and this river here? I did not even know there was a river here! Wait a minute, how the hell there is a river in the way back if there is no river in the way we went in the first place?? I have a slight feeling that maybe, you see, maybe, we’ve taken the wrong path.

In the middle of this deep perception, after a depth study of the cases presented to us we arrive at the conclusion that we might be on the wrong path, and we will have to make all the way back through it to find the right one. That sound like it gonna make us thirst. So, humbly, we used our supervision to declare that the river water was clean enough to fill our water bottles, I would advise no one to do it but if you’re thirsty, well, the vermifuge company thanks you. 

Dude, let me tell you something, to arrive at the river we kind make a huge way down, what it was kind of ok because we thought that we were going to the exit. But now, in the way back? It was a dammed climb! It was a huge hill! Oh God! That was so unfair! What’s that for? To punish the already punished poor? The return of those who did not go because they made a mistake? Lord of glory, Mary of Joseph. Not damned fair! Can someone install an electric ladder? please.
Now, let me ask you, after all that effort, do you think we arrived at the plateau and everything was alright? Of course not !!!! That huge mist was still miserably there, covering all the entrances! So, using our amazing brain that our parents provided us, we did what any analytical person would do. We tried all the entrances! 😂😂

Our technic was very complex, we start the trail, and if we didn’t recognize anything we would come back and try the next one! hehe
Ok, we did more than that. We used deep analysis of footprints, tennis shoes and even a broken branch, until, after an eternity, we came across dog footprints in the mug, yes, a dog footprint!Even now, the dog, in spirit, was guiding us. Blessed you dog. Bless all the dogs in these world!!!
Moving on, on that trail we went. And everything was beautiful, it’s right here, I recognize these stones, I recognize this peak, I recognize this butterfly that is flying here. Everything beautiful, everything wonderful, everything so good that we relaxed too much and stopped paying attention again. And then suddenly we arrived in a really nice viewpoint, and we took sometime there admiring the landscape, so nice, so cool, so… hey, we did not pass through here in our first way!! OOOOOOOO DAMNEEEEEEEED!!!! We are lost again!! How my lord? Hoooooooow?

There were also some good fellows over there, they kindly informed us that we were very close to the exit, it was just a different trek than the Pico do Selado

You know, we spent much more time than what we planned in this trek, and as it was summer in Brazil, the day is longer, so when we finished the trek the sun was still there. It’s not a really dangerous forest, but it’s never nice to be lost. So, just take some care and precautions . 


Contribute to the environment

  • Take your trash
  • Collect rubbish if possible
  • ALWAYS PRESERVE THE NATURE

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