The Best Waterfalls in Brazil

Chapada Diamantina

Cachoeira do Buracão drops roughly 85 to 90 metres into a canyon with layered rock walls. Visitors must hire a local guide, then walk about 3 km of trail. Life jackets are mandatory for the swim. Cachoeira da Fumacinha falls over 100 metres into a pool at the end of a narrow canyon cut by the Una River. Drivers cover about 30 km from Ibicoara, then walk 9 km each way, mostly over riverbed rocks. A guide is advised because GPS is unreliable in the canyon.

Goiás

Salto Paraguassú drops about 94 to 96 metres like a veil between green cliffs. Book ahead with the owner, since the road has streams to cross. Cachoeira do Segredo is over 100 metres high, with a shaded 3.5 km trail below it. Cachoeira Santa Bárbara has a large turquoise pool below a modest fall. Its entry needs a Kalunga guide, R$200 per group. Cachoeira Almécegas I is a wide wall of water on São Bento farm.

Minas Gerais and São Paulo

Cachoeira do Bicame drops about 30 metres over a rock wall in the Serra do Espinhaço hills. Only 30 visitors enter per day. Cachoeira do Juju is a tall fall with an infinity-edge pool at its top. Cachoeira Casca d'Anta is a 186-metre free fall, the first waterfall on the São Francisco River. Cachoeira do Fundão drops down a rocky cliff into a large clear pool. Cachoeira do Meu Deus is a 53-metre fall in the Vale das Ostras gorge, reached with a guide.

Other states and coast

Cascata das Andorinhas falls about 15 metres into a pool inside a horseshoe-shaped sandstone canyon. Cachoeira da Formiga is about one metre high, dropping into an emerald-green pool in Jalapão. Salto Utiariti is 98 metres tall and reached by a long dirt road through an indigenous village. Salto Belo falls about 45 metres from the Sacre River. Cachoeira do Saco Bravo drops into a pool that spills into the sea.