Brazil’s Best-Kept Secret: The Canyons of Santa Catarina

The Serra Catarinense mountain range, located in Brazil’s deep south, is a vast region of plateaus bedecked with craggy peaks and plunging waterfalls. Measuring about 6,000 square miles, the area runs through Santa Catarina, Brazil’s second southernmost state. The rugged landscape reverberates throughout the local gaucho culture, which celebrates the cowboy way South American style. I’ve been to Brazil about a dozen times and lived there for five years. I had never heard of the Serra Catarinense mountain range until a few years back when I noticed a series of majestic canyons appear on the screen while watching my favorite telenovela “Além do Tempo,” a tale of immortal love told in a mere 161 episodes. To my disbelief, my wife Juliana, who is from Brazil’s northern coast, told me the canyons were part of the Serra Catarinense, a few hours’ drive from the island of Florianópolis, perhaps my favorite place to vacation. I hoped to one day see them for myself.

Earlier this year I traveled to Brazil with my mutt Gypsy. After spending a few months in Florianópolis, and with the fading summer giving way to fall, the canyons came to mind again. Serendipitously, I met Pedro McCardell, a Brazilian poet turned habitual explorer, who told me that not only did he know the Serra Catarinense well but he was also headed there in the following days. With plans to lead a group of dirt-bike-riding surfers on a short expedition to Serra Catarinense, Pedro suggested I tag along.