Qualla: Serra Azul State Park https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/v/4/v/serra-azul-state-park-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Serra Azul State Park https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park Serra Azul State Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park/ Photo credit Wellyngton Nunes, CC BY-SA 3.0. The official center of Brazil is here. Not the geometric middle of the country's borders as drawn on a map, but the geodetic center - the reference point from which every other coordinate in Brazil is calculated. The marker sits inside Serra Azul State Park, planted in the cerrado somewhere between sandstone escarpments and waterfall-carved gullies in the municipality of Barra do Garças, in the far east of Mato Grosso. From here, surveyors triangulate the country. Paragliders, meanwhile, just launch off the cliffs.

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Image: Wellyngton Nunes | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/v/4/v/serra-azul-state-park-wp/6v4v-serra-azul-state-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Serra Azul State Park: The Shape of the Land https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park/ Photo credit Iracema lima, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park covers 11,002 hectares of the Guimarães plateau, a bulge of uplands bounded by three different depressions - Paranatinga to the north, Araguaia to the east, Parecis to the northeast. The terrain is not gentle. Elevations climb from 350 meters at the entrance to 730 meter...

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Image: Iracema lima | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/v/4/v/serra-azul-state-park-wp/6v4v-serra-azul-state-park-the-shape-of-the-land.mp3 0:06 2 full Serra Azul State Park: Place of Birds https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park/ Photo credit Edevilson, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Bororo people lived here before the state park existed, before the cattle ranches it was carved from existed. They called this place Kieguereiral - the Place of Birds. The name held up: as of 2015, 180 bird species had been documented inside the park, alongside around 800 spe...

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Image: Edevilson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/v/4/v/serra-azul-state-park-wp/6v4v-serra-azul-state-park-place-of-birds.mp3 0:06 3 full Serra Azul State Park: Fires and Recoveries https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park/ Photo credit Edevilson, CC BY-SA 3.0. The dry season brings fire. The park has burned hard in 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2012, and again in August and September of 2014 when flames swept through 80 percent of the vegetation and the park closed entirely. Cerrado is adapted to fire - many species depend on it for germinatio...

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Image: Edevilson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/v/4/v/serra-azul-state-park-wp/6v4v-serra-azul-state-park-fires-and-recoveries.mp3 0:06 4 full Serra Azul State Park: Paintings and Paragliders https://qualla.com/serra-azul-state-park/ Photo credit Iracema lima, CC BY-SA 4.0. For pilots, the appeal is the escarpment. Stable thermals rise off sun-heated sandstone, and the launch points on the Serra Azul ridge give clean air for hours of soaring over cerrado stretching to the horizon. For hikers, there are fifteen waterfalls along park trails, plus Chri...

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Image: Iracema lima | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/v/4/v/serra-azul-state-park-wp/6v4v-serra-azul-state-park-paintings-and-paragliders.mp3 0:06 5 full