Global Health Adventures: Parque Nacional Ubajara

This past weekend, I made my second journey to a Brazilian National Park, this time to Ubajara in my home state of Ceará. Ubajara is Brazil's smallest national park, and is home to a cave, hiking trails, and waterfalls. The park is a bit inland, directly west of Fortaleza, 5-6 hours by bus.

A day before we headed to the park, we welcomed another American student to Fortaleza. Alex Rogers is a fourth year medical student from Wake Forest who will be in Fortaleza for two months working in our lab. Despite arriving early on Thursday morning, she was willing to join Nate and I for an early Friday morning bus to the park.

After a six hour bus trip west of Fortaleza passing through the town of Itapaje and the apparently "reviled" town of Sobral, and concluding with an ascent of roughly 2500 feet, we arrived in the town of Ubajara. We began walking in the direction of the pousada where we had arranged lodging, unsure of the distance to the pousada. After 45-60 minutes, we arrived at Sitio do Alemão, a pousada run by a German who has lived in Brazil since the early 1980s. We settled in to a nice chalet at the pousada, and joined the owner for a trip to a nearby spring to collect water. We rested for the remainder of the day enjoying the views of the surrounding area from the pousada.

We awoke Saturday and prepared for a hike through a nearby area that had a series of waterfalls. After a somewhat harrowing trip in the very old car driven by the German owner of the pousada, Herbert, we began our hike. We stopped at each waterfall, spending time swimming, or in my case, slipping on wet rocks into deeper pools of water soaking my clothes...

Finally we approached the final waterfall in the series, which apparently was the tallest and most impressive. Viewing this fall though required a bit of effort, in the form of a descent down a 30-40 foot cliff using tree branches and a rope ladder. The water fall proved quite impressive, and allowed us a chance to cool off before beginning the hike back out of the canyon. After an enjoyable afternoon hiking and viewing the waterfalls, we retired to the pousada to rest before our Sunday hike through the national park, descending to the cave.

Sunday morning, we began the 7 km descent to the cave at around 9 am. During the descent, we viewed a few waterfalls which currently were rather dry due to the late start to the rainy season. We also passed a series of donkeys being steered down the same trail to deliver supplies from Ubajara to a town at the bottom of the mountain. After a few hours of hiking, we arrived at the Ubajara cave, and were taken on a guided tour of the cave's outer chambers. The cave likely pales in comparison to some of the famed caves of the US, but still was impressive. After the cave tour, we boarded a cable car for the journey back up the mountain. After an afternoon at the pool of a nearby pousada, we headed into town for dinner before we boarded an overnight bus back to Fortaleza.

The weekend in the mountains was a welcome respite from the heat and traffic of Fortaleza, and I'm already looking forward to my upcoming trip to southern Brazil and Argentina. Lab work is actually progressing quite well also, and I'll probably write an update regarding my research later this week. Photos from Ubajara follow.

Pousada Sitio do Alemão