The Discovery Coast is one of the harder sites to visit in Brazil. It is centered around the city of Porto Seguro, which isn’t that well-connected to the rest of the Northeast. Also, it involves renting a car and the best part of the day to get anywhere close to the core zone and get a feel for its OUV. So although it was on the initial itinerary of my 2022 Brazil trip, I dropped it in the final preparations as it just seemed too much hassle for an unsure reward.

Fast forward to December 2022: travelling in Brazil turned out to be a breeze, everybody is just flying anywhere and my first car rental had turned out fine. So as I knew that I had a spare day each in Sao Paulo and Rio, I started looking for flights that would allow me to ‘do’  the Discovery Coast as a day trip from there. And I found a flight by Azul that leaves from Rio Santos Dumont to Porto Seguro at 7.30 in the morning, arriving at 9.00. Choosing a return flight in the evening would leave ample time on the ground to look at some forest!

During my first preparations, I had set my eye on the location called “Veracruz Station” – lately renamed to “Veracel Station”, as it is sponsored by a bioeconomy firm. This lies just 15km outside of Porto Seguro, probably even reachable by an Uber from the airport. They require booking in advance for a visit, so I sent them an e-mail in my (and Google Translate’s) best Portuguese. Unfortunately, I never heard anything back.

So on the day itself, I went to Pau Brasil National Park, some 40km from the airport. The flight unfortunately was delayed by an hour and the car rental pick-up was from an off-site location, so I did not get going until 10.45. I had read Wojciech’s review where he described the confusing logistics, and had also copied directions from the official park website. For both, however, it is important to establish first from which direction you are approaching the area: from Porto Seguro airport you can go right (east), then take a ferry to Arraial D'Ajuda, and then drive west again. Or you go left (west), and turn south after about 30km towards the road BA-001. I did the latter and indeed found a weathered signpost to the park entrance at -16.420911882855464, -39.28836103861423 near the town of Vale Verde. I entered this unpaved road, but after a km or so the road was totally flooded (it had been raining a lot for the past week). I did not see a way around it, and also still wasn’t 100% sure whether I was at the right location. I thought of pinging Wojciech to verify if I was right and how far it was to the reception area (so maybe I could leave the car and walk). But there was no cell phone reception.

I saw no other option than to turn the car and continue on the main road, looking for other possible ways to enter (you see the thick Atlantic forests on the horizon all the time by the way). Beyond the turn-off to Arraial D'Ajuda, I spotted a ‘Welcome’ sign and an open gate to the ‘RPPN Rio do Brasil Reserva’. By that time I was ready for some welcoming Brazilians, core zone or not! The RPPN is a private reserve, a former cacao plantation that has been established to widen the ecological corridor around Pau Brasil National Park. It has only opened to visitors since last year. They offer guided hikes and also canoeing. We settled on a medium-level hike, for 180 R$. A 4wd safari jeep brought us (myself and 2 guides) to a spot deeper in their reserve.

The guides had asked me what my interests were, and my 10 lessons in Brazilian Portuguese Duolingo allowed me to say “birds” and “monkeys”. The head guide went into full birding mode, with binoculars, a speaker to play the bird sounds, and a laser pen to point out the birdies to me. The foliage here is very dense, and the birds (all passaros = small birds) often would sit in the 10th or 20th layer of branches. This is terrible for photography, as there is always another tree branch your camera autofocuses on.

We saw two species of monkey as well right at the start – one white-headed marmoset (top right photo) and the other a less spectacular greyish one. The guides were quick to name every plant or animal species but knew them only in Portuguese.

The walk felt like a true jungle experience, with mosquitos and ants attacking us when we stood still looking for birds. Spiders, millipedes and insects appeared every time we looked at the ground or at each other’s clothes. The jungle here has a mix of tree species endemic to the North-Eastern Atlantic Forest and invasive ones such as the fig and the bread tree (which are also common in the buffer areas of the South-East Atlantic Forest WHS). But I did get to see plenty of interesting native species, such as a seedling of the Pau Brazil, the Sucupira whose fruit resembles a small ceramic cup and is loved by the monkeys for the seeds it contains, and the massive Red Juruena (top-to-bottom left in the photo collage). The two guides were lovely and they seemed to enjoy being out there as much as I did – we stayed out for 3,5 hours.

P.S.:

On my drive back I noticed another road entrance to the Pau NP, some 100m north of the one described above. This is an unpaved road as well, straight, and looked better than the one I had been at before. By now it had started raining heavily however and I had to get back to the airport, so I leave that one for future reviewers to explore.