CENTRAL WEST BRAZIL - Brazil - page 312

The spectacular vista of the Chapada dos Guimarães plateau, Mato Grosso

Cuiabá 1
Mato Grosso. * 483,400. ~
@ n Sedtur, [phone].
_ Festa de São Benedito (Jul).

The most interesting of the
city's sights is the small
university-run Museu do
ĺndio Marechal Rondon . The
museum holds some exquisite
and priceless pieces of
indigenous art. These include
exhibits of the Xavante,
Bororo, and Karajá peoples.
The museum
houses some
beautiful, Bororo
and Rikbaktsa head-
dresses and superb
pieces of Kadiwéu
ceramics from Mato
Grosso do Sul.

center, the tablelands of the
Chapada dos Guimarães are
reputedly imbued with ener-
gizing powers strong enough
to reduce the speed of a car
and said to be attractive to
UFOs. While the residents of
the Chapada claim this effect
has been documented, cynics
believe otherwise.
The little town has
numerous shops, cafés, and
a daily fair selling local arts
and crafts. There are also
several spiritual centers
devoted to the New Age
movement, which is growing
in Brazil. Nature-lovers come
here to admire the scenery.
The edge of the Chapada
offers sweeping vistas out
over the patchy, remnant

Mato Grosso's capital and the
warmest city in Brazil sits on
a low, languid plain at the
foot of the Chapada dos
Guimarães hills.
Situated on the banks
of the Rio Cuiabá, a
tributary of the Rio
Paraguai, the city has
some leafy squares
and is known as the
Cidade Verde or the
Green City. Cuiabá is also a
good starting point for
excursions into the Pantanal,
a vast wetland area (see
pp320-21) .
Like Cidade de Goiás
(see p310) and Ouro Preto
(see pp126-7) , Cuiabá was
originally a flourishing gold-
mining town, full of hand-
some buildings and fine
churches. Almost all were
demolished in a spate of
hasty modernization in the
late 1960s. The town has lost
most of the splendid works
of José Joaquim da Veiga
Valle (1806-74), one of the
country's great geniuses of
the Baroque. Fortunately,
some of his exquisite crafts-
manship can still be seen in
the well-preserved, vast, rect-
angular interiors of the new
concrete Catedral do Bom
Jesus, which has an unusual
square, Moorish façade.

Kadiwéu pottery,
Museu Rondon

E Museu do ĺndio
Marechal Rondon
Av Fernando Correia da Costa.
Tel [phone]. # 7:30-
11:30am & 1:30-5:30pm Tue-Fri,
1:30-5:30pm Mon. & ^

Chapada dos
Guimarães 2
Mato Grosso . * 13,500. @ from
Cuiabá. 8 Eco Turismo, Av Cipriano
Curvo 655, Centro, [phone].
_ Festival de Inervo (Jul). www .
chapadadosguimaraes.com.br

The town of Chapada dos
Guimarães is set on a plateau
of the same name. Said to
be about 500 million years
old, the majestic honey-
colored tablelands and
escarpments of the plateau
are among the oldest rock
formations in the world.
As the continent's geodesic

Véu de Noiva, the highest waterfall
in Chapada dos Guimarães

For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp385-6 and pp409-10