Serra da Capivara
All of Brazil, within reach.
Thirteen alternating green and yellow stripes with a blue canton bearing a white star, the star that represents Piauí on the national flag. Adopted in 1922, it gained the inscription '13 de Março de 1823' in 2005, recalling the Battle of Jenipapo.
Serra da Capivara in pictures
About Serra da Capivara
Serra da Capivara National Park protects about 130,000 hectares of canyons, sandstone cliffs and caatinga dry forest in the semi-arid southeast of Piauí. Inscribed by UNESCO in 1991, it holds several hundred archaeological sites, with rock paintings of hunting, childbirth, kissing and animals in motion that make it one of the most important prehistoric landscapes in the Americas. Excavations at Boqueirão da Pedra Furada, with radiocarbon dates reaching back tens of thousands of years, placed the park at the centre of the debate on when humans reached the continent. About 400 sites have been catalogued, 64 of them open to visitors along 14 trails, and the park also shelters jaguars, the mocó, a rodent endemic to the caatinga, and bearded capuchins that use stone tools. The work was led for five decades by archaeologist Niède Guidon and her foundation, FUMDHAM, which also runs the Museu do Homem Americano in São Raimundo Nonato and the Museu da Natureza at the park's edge. For agencies, this is a destination for curious, well-travelled clients: archaeology and science enthusiasts, photographers, special-interest groups and anyone combining Brazil's cultural heritage with the caatinga dry forest. Sites are reached on marked trails, and every park visit must be made with an ICMBio-accredited guide, which suits private and small-group formats. The dry season, from May to mid-October, brings the most stable conditions, and the two museums, the Cerâmica Serra da Capivara pottery and sunset at Baixão das Andorinhas round out a program. Access needs honest framing. The Serra da Capivara regional airport has no scheduled flights, so the practical gateway is Petrolina in Pernambuco, about 295 km and five hours by road; Teresina is about 530 km away. A program of three nights is the realistic minimum.
Petrolina–Senador Nilo Coelho International Airport
In neighbouring Pernambuco, the closest airport with scheduled service, with Azul to Campinas and Recife, Gol to Salvador and LATAM to São Paulo–Guarulhos and Recife.
Teresina–Senador Petrônio Portella Airport
Piauí's main domestic hub, useful when the program also includes Teresina or the Parnaíba Delta.
How Serra da Capivara came to be
Sourced milestones your team can use for guest briefings and storytelling, not filler copy.
Curiosities & practical notes
What's on the table
Maria Isabel
Piauí's emblematic rice cooked with sun-dried beef (carne de sol) and assertive seasoning.
Arroz de capote
Guinea fowl, known locally as capote, shredded into rice with annatto and herbs, prized for its crisp pan-bottom crust.
Paçoca de pilão
Sun-dried beef pounded in a mortar with manioc flour and seasonings.
Panelada
A long-cooked, robust stew of beef tripe and offal, a sertão classic.
Cajuína
Clarified, caramel-toned cashew juice without alcohol, registered as Brazilian cultural heritage by IPHAN in 2014.
What there is to see
Marked where a site carries UNESCO World Heritage status directly, versus a locally or nationally protected landmark.
Serra da Capivara National Park
A caatinga park of canyons and sandstone cliffs holding one of the largest concentrations of prehistoric sites and rock paintings in the Americas.
Boqueirão da Pedra Furada
The park's best-known rock shelter, with painted walls and excavations central to debates on early human presence in the Americas.
Baixão das Andorinhas
A canyon inside the park and a classic sunset stop, where swallows sweep over the valley before roosting in the rock crevices.
Museu do Homem Americano
FUMDHAM's museum in São Raimundo Nonato, presenting the region's prehistory with funerary urns, tools, skeletons and finds from Pedra Furada.
Museu da Natureza
Opened in 2018 in Coronel José Dias, twelve themed rooms on the geological and biological history of the caatinga.
Cerâmica Serra da Capivara
An artisan pottery at Sítio Barreirinho, founded in 1992 with FUMDHAM, whose pieces reproduce rock art figures.
Serra das Confusões National Park
A vast caatinga park created in 1998, linked to Serra da Capivara by an ecological corridor, for longer expedition-style extensions.
What else we brief agencies on
This is what we prepare for every RFP, whether or not it's published on this page yet:
On request for every proposal
- Best season / weather windows and blackout dates for groups & MICE
- Permit and quota logistics for regulated attractions, lead time and group-size caps
- Accessibility notes and physical-difficulty ratings per activity
- Vetted ground partners, guides and transport already used on past programs
- Sustainability / certification credentials relevant to client RFPs, where they genuinely exist
- Real, checked room and vehicle availability for your travel dates, not a generic quote
