Gift of Go have just announced an exciting new two week expedition itinerary for 2024 as part of Diamonds/Wild Tales + Lost Trails, part of their inaugural Collection of Experiences.. Set in Brazil’s majestic Serra do Espinhaço, entitled “An Exploration of the Highlands of Brazil”, the trip will be a incredible, immersive two week 200-km journey into one of the most precious and under-visited places on the planet.
About the Expedition: ‘An Exploration of the Highlands of Brazil’
Over the course of 14 days in May of 2024, 8 travelers and 10+ expedition crew members (including both of GOGO’s founders) will trek, horseride, boat, bike, bushwhack, and overland their way across a labyrinth of lost historic trails & backroads, through a wonderland of Dr. Seussian landscapes, soaring peaks, enchanting colonial villages, white-sand-beach-waterfalls & pristine cola-colored rivers, and little-visited UNESCO sites, culminating with an unmissable “Vesperata” celebration in Diamantina, the city of Diamonds, on the final evening.
During their time on the trail, travelers will chase the ghosts of prolific 19th-century naturalists down centuries-old trails pioneered by miners, slaves, and diamond smugglers, swim in dozens of waterfalls (including mighty Telésforo), climb the region’s highest peak (Pico do Itambé), and venture deep into one of the wildest stretches of high savannah in the country (Sempre Vivas National Park) – the forgotten corner of the Espinhaço, all en route to some of Brazil’s most fascinating & welcoming communities, including enchanting quilombos, bucolic colonial hamlets, festive agrarian cowtowns, and mystical former railway settlements. Along the way, they’ll immerse deeply in Brazil’s most beloved regional cuisine, comida mineira, and sleep in a spectacularly wide variety of accommodations—from heart-warming homestays to daunting wilderness campsites, elegant historic inns to abandoned ranches & schools, and even an oasis-like resort in the sertão.
About Brazil’s Serra do Espinhaço
Once the epicentre of the global diamond trade, Brazil’s Serra do Espinhaço was abandoned and largely forgotten by the outside world for nearly two centuries. Today, with 3 UNESCO designations, dozens of conservation units (8 of which will be traversed during this expedition), 2 globally recognized biodiversity hotspots (the Brazilian Savanna & the Atlantic Rainforest; each home to thousands of irreplaceable species that are facing multiple, urgent threats), and an estimated 3,000+ species of plants (comprising 7% of Brazil’s total biodiversity), the region is of upmost importance, and is being recognized as one of the most spectacular places on earth.
With Brazil continuing to be one of the planet’s most under-visited countries (ranking just 47th in international tourism receipts in 2019, despite ranking 6th in natural & cultural resources in the World Economic Forum’s T&T Competitiveness Index the same year), it isn’t a stretch to say that the Serra do Espinhaço may be one of most undervisited places on earth. In 2022, the region’s largest & most important conservation unit, Sempre Vivas National Park, received just 51 visitors (9 of which included GOGO members & guests), compared to 250,000 to Patagonia’s Torres del Paine (Patagonia) and 9,457 to the U.S.’s Gates of the Arctic (the least-visited National Park in the United States).
