Qualla: Ubajara National Park

Ubajara National Park: Introduction

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Otávio Nogueira from Fortaleza, BR, CC BY 2.0. Ten people step into a cable car on the rim of an 820-metre escarpment. The doors close. Then the car slides out over nothing - tree canopy hundreds of feet below, cloud sometimes drifting across the window, the green hem of the Caatinga rolling westward toward the flat light of the Sertão. Three minutes later the car docks at a platform on the cliff face, and from there a path leads, improbably, into the mountain itself. This is the way to the Ubajara grotto: the smallest national park in Brazil, and the only place in Ceará where limestone caves are open to the public.

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Image: Otávio Nogueira from Fortaleza, BR | CC BY 2.0

Ubajara National Park: A Small Park With a Big Escarpment

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marques Honorato, CC BY-SA 3.0. At 6,200 hectares, Ubajara is modest by Brazilian standards - the country has national parks hundreds of times larger - but much of its drama is stacked vertically. The Ibiapaba plateau ends here in a single 820-metre limestone cliff, and the park climbs and drops across that edg...

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Image: Marques Honorato | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ubajara National Park: Into the Grotto

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Breno merenço, CC BY-SA 4.0. The grotto is what draws almost everyone. A hidden cave begins behind a waterfall and unfolds 500 metres into the mountain in a chain of nine chambers, each with its own character and its own old Portuguese name. The Pedra do Sino, the 'Stone Bell,' reverberates with the impact o...

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Image: Breno merenço | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ubajara National Park: Cloud Forest and Cat Country

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The plateau forest is a working ecosystem, not a showpiece. Colonies of bats live in the grotto chambers. Monkeys move through the canopy; tapirs, capybaras, anteaters, and deer use the streamside trails. The big cats are here too - pumas patrol the more remote draws - but the wi...

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ubajara National Park: Waterfalls for the Ambitious

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nickolas Souza Silva, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park has at least three waterfalls over 70 metres high, and one - Gavião - drops almost 100. The easiest to reach is the Cafundó, a 90-metre fall at the end of the Samambaia trail, a three-kilometre walk each way that passes the Gameleira Viewpoint and the Fern Garden. The po...

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Image: Nickolas Souza Silva | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ubajara National Park: Getting There

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cassio Gusson, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park is not quite remote, but it takes some effort. The nearest city with commercial flights is Fortaleza, about seven hours away by road. From Fortaleza, the Viação Princesa bus company runs frequent service - roughly every thirty minutes - to São Benedito, a trip of about s...

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Image: Cassio Gusson | CC BY-SA 4.0