Qualla: Várzea Grande

Várzea Grande: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mateus Hidalgo, CC BY-SA 2.5. The Cuiabá River runs between two cities that were never meant to be separate. On the east bank, Cuiabá - the old gold-mining capital of Mato Grosso, founded in 1719 when prospectors struck the metal in the Coxipó stream. On the west bank, Várzea Grande - which means Big Floodplain in Portuguese, a name that tells you everything about how the land lies when the rains come. Together, the two cities hold about 834,000 people. Apart, they have separate mayors, separate budgets, and separate civic pride. The Sérgio Motta bridge carries traffic across the river. Everyone who flies into Mato Grosso lands in Várzea Grande, because the international airport is on this side. Everyone who gets off the plane promptly drives into Cuiabá, because that is where most visitors think they are going.

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Image: Mateus Hidalgo | CC BY-SA 2.5

Várzea Grande: The Airport on the Floodplain

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trabalho próprio (Own Work): Pedro Spoladore, CC BY-SA 2.5. Marechal Rondon International Airport takes its name from Cândido Rondon, the Brazilian explorer and Positivist general who strung telegraph wire across Mato Grosso in the early twentieth century and whose advocacy for indigenous peoples shaped the nation's Indian policy for deca...

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Image: Trabalho próprio (Own Work): Pedro Spoladore | CC BY-SA 2.5

Várzea Grande: Two Churches, Two Centuries

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mateus Hidalgo, CC BY-SA 2.5. The Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Guia stands on the small rise where the oldest part of the city began. Elesbão Pinto built it in 1892 in honor of Our Lady of the Guide, the patron saint of the city. A few kilometers away, in the Passagem da Conceição district, the Igreja de Nossa ...

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Image: Mateus Hidalgo | CC BY-SA 2.5

Várzea Grande: The Feast of Saint Peter

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mateus Hidalgo, CC BY-SA 2.5. On June 29 each year, the district of Bonsucesso hosts the Festa de São Pedro - the Feast of Saint Peter. Saint Peter is the patron of fishermen, and in a city where the Cuiabá River has always yielded fish, the feast is a nationally known event. The Rota do Peixe - the Fish Rout...

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Image: Mateus Hidalgo | CC BY-SA 2.5

Várzea Grande: The Brown Sugar Mill

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mateus Hidalgo, CC BY-SA 2.5. In Bonsucesso there is a working engenho - the Engenho Dona Buguela - a traditional brown sugar mill still open to visitors. Engenhos defined colonial Brazil; the country's entire economy once ran on sugar crushed by oxen-driven rollers and boiled in copper pans. Most engenhos ha...

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Image: Mateus Hidalgo | CC BY-SA 2.5

Várzea Grande: Second City, Not Second Place

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mateus Hidalgo, CC BY-SA 2.5. With 260,000 residents in its urban core, Várzea Grande is the second-largest municipality in Mato Grosso by population, behind Cuiabá. It is a city that serves without demanding center stage. Most tourists arrive at its airport and leave for the Pantanal or Chapada dos Guimarães...

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Image: Mateus Hidalgo | CC BY-SA 2.5