SOUTHEAST BRAZIL - Brazil - page 127

Fumaça railway station, is a
tiny locomotive museum hous-
ing an old, Philadelphia-built,
narrow gauge steam train. It
sits alongside the Pullman
carriages used by Emperor
Dom Pedro II when he trav-
eled to Minas Gerais from Rio
by train in the 19th century.
R

Igreja de São Francisco
de Assis
Praça Frei Orlando. Tel [phone]
3110.

8am-5:30pm Mon-Sat,
7am-4pm Sun. ^
E

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Giant anteater in the Parque
Nacional Serra da Canastra

Museu Ferroviário
Estacão Ferroviária, Rua Hermílio
Alves 366. Tel [phone].
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stream cutting through rugged
terrain. Bare granite peaks rise
to almost 4,920 ft (1,500 m).
Sparse cerrado forest sprinkled
with boulders gathers at their
feet. Around the numerous
waterfalls and along the wild
rivers are stretches of lush,
gallery forest. The most famed
of the falls is the Cachoeira
d'Anta . Here the river's ice-
cold waters form a series of
pools before plunging 186 m
(610 ft) off an escarpment.
The park's most famous trail,
the Trilha Casca d'Anta ,
begins in front of the water-
fall and offers a spectacular
view out over the park to the
denuded pasture land beyond.
There is plenty of wildlife in
the Serra da Canastra, though
it can be hard to see. Maned
wolves and giant anteaters are
relatively common here, as are
the pig-sized giant armadillos.
The park is especially rich in
birdlife, and is one of the few
places in the world where it is
possible to see the endangered
Brazilian Merganser duck.

Façade, Igreja de São Francisco de
Assis, São João del Rei

9-11am & 1-5pm Tue-Sun. &

E

Museu Regional do Sphan
Praça Severino Resende s/n. Tel
[phone].

The principal reason for
visiting São João is to see the
magnificent Igreja de São
Francisco de Assis , whose
unusual curved façade, turtle-
back roof and intricately
carved medal overlook a
beautiful square lined with
towering palms. The square
is in the shape of a lyre and
at sundown the shadows of
the palms form the instru-
ment's strings. Together with
the Santuário do Bom Jesus
do Monte Sítio in Braga,
Portugal, and the church of
São Francisco in Ouro Preto
(see p126-8) , this church is
one of the jewels in the crown
of Baroque architecture.
The town has a handful of
other interesting sights. The
Museu Regional do Sphan , a
colonial mansion built in 1859,
is full of antique furniture and
sacred art, and is one of the
best in Minas Gerais. The
Museu Ferroviário , at the Maria

noon-5pm,
Tue-Sun, 9am-noon Sat & Sun.

#

&

Parque Nacional
Serra da Canastra 9
@

IBAMA,
Av Tancredo Neves 498, São Roque
de Minas, [phone].
#

from Belo Horizonte. n

8am-6pm daily. &

The extensive Parque Nacional
Serra da Canastra, tucked
away in the far southwest of
Minas Gerais, protects the
head-waters of one of South
America's largest rivers - the
Rio São Francisco. This great
waterway flows 1,963 miles
(3,160 km) through the rip-
pling hills of Minas, and the
bone-dry deserts of the north-
eastern interior. But in the
Serra da Canastra, it is little
more than a large mountain

Granite peaks looming over the cerrado and pasture land beyond, Parque Nacional Serra da Canastra