Qualla: Cavalcante

Cavalcante: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Laura serradourada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cavalcante sits where two Brazils meet. To the south stretches the Chapada dos Veadeiros - crystalline plateaus, white sand rivers, and some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth, now protected as a national park. To the north and east stretches a different country within a country: the Kalunga lands, where descendants of people who escaped slavery two centuries ago still live in valleys most Brazilians have never heard of. The town is small - about 10,000 people - but it anchors some of the most distinctive landscapes and communities in interior Brazil.

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Image: Laura serradourada | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cavalcante: Oldest Town in the Chapada

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Texugo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Diogo Teles Cavalcante officially founded this town in 1740, making it the oldest municipality in the Chapada dos Veadeiros. The gold rush that drew him here is long gone - the Lava Pés stream stopped yielding meaningful ore by 1806 - but the colonial street grid and some of the ...

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Image: Texugo | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cavalcante: Kalunga Country

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 128688968@N02, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Kalunga people have lived in these mountains for generations - approximately 4,500 people today, spread across parts of Cavalcante, Monte Alegre de Goiás, and Teresina de Goiás. Their ancestors were enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations in the 18th and 19th centuries...

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Image: 128688968@N02 | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cavalcante: Waterfalls, Many of Them

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) Cel.Mostarda at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. The country around Cavalcante is corrugated by water. More than 150 cataloged waterfalls fall within the municipality's boundaries - most of them reachable only on foot, down trails that pass through cerrado forest and over crystalline rock. The Santa Bárbara waterfall is among t...

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Image: User: (WT-shared) Cel.Mostarda at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Cavalcante: Getting There

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Laura serradourada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cavalcante is 320 kilometers north of Brasília - a six-hour bus ride on Empresa Santo Antonio's two daily services from the Rodoferroviária. By car, the route runs BR-020, then DF-345, then BR-010 for 225 kilometers, then GO-241 for the final 21 kilometers. The roads are paved bu...

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Image: Laura serradourada | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cavalcante: Rural Goiás in Rhythm

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vinicius Cunha, CC BY-SA 3.0. Unlike the more tourist-oriented Alto Paraíso de Goiás or São Jorge to the south, Cavalcante has a much more traditional rural Goiás feel. Cattle graze at the edge of town. The main cultural activities are religious processions and pilgrimages, traditional dances like lundu and s...

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Image: Vinicius Cunha | CC BY-SA 3.0