Tourist Regions

Palmas, is the capital of the state of Tocantins. There are four other main towns - Lajeado, Miracema do Tocantins, Monte do Carmo and Porto Nacional. One of the main attractions in the Palmas area is Graciosa beach, on the banks of the Tocantins river, which draws up to 15,000 people a weekend during the "Tocantins summer", from July to September. Also near the capital is the Serra da Figura, a hill which can be climbed on foot. On the top there are many prehistoric inscriptions and representations of human figures, domestic objects, animals etc.

In Lajeado, there are white water rapids on the river known as Mares de Tocantins, and at Serra das Escritas there is a ten metre long panel with many forms of geometrical inscriptions, recalling the distant past of the first inhabitant of the region, prehistoric man. There is also the hill known as Morro do Segredo, shaped like a volcano, on the 250 metre summit of which, according to local people, mysterious lights as if from flying saucers can sometimes be seen. In the Serra do Lajeado there are examples of three types of vegetation - caatinga, cerrado and tropical forest - which are the natural habitats of dozens of species, some of them in danger of extinction, such as the eagle hawk, the king vulture, the tapir, the deer and the leopard.

Miracema do Tocantins is economically important, especially for pineapple production, and is also an attraction for its urban river beaches. The town is also the best place to buy arts and crafts made by the Xerentes Indians.

Monte do Carmo is a pleasant town almost 250 years old. With its simple type of eighteenth century architecture and narrow streets, the town preserves some of the stories and traditions of its first inhabitants. The church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo was built in 1801, at a time when gold production in the region was in decline. Monte do Carmo also has the Suero Waterfall. Legend goes that the inhabitants of the town would regulate their crop farming and cattle raising activities by the waterfall - or rather, by the sound it made. They believed it made a roaring sound to announce when it was going to rain.

Although it has many river beaches, Porto Nacional's feature most often shown on postcards is the Cathedral of Nossa Senhora das Merces. Constructed in the nineteenth century in brick and stone, its columns and arches are inspired by the romantic style of Toulouse in France, from where its Dominican friar founders came.

Termas & Gerais Tourist Region

The Termas & Gerais Tourist Region, in Tocantins, is made up of 11 municipalities and possesses some of the best colonial architecture in the state. The town of Natividade, 218 kilometres from Palmas, was protected by the National Heritage Institute in 1984 and shows clear Portuguese and French influences in its old buildings. One of its highlights is the Old Governors Palace, home between 1809 and 1815 to one of the earliest advocates of the separation of the state, the magistrate Joaquim Teotônio Segurado. Among its other attractions are the ruins of the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Negros, built by slaves. Planned to be one of the largest churches in the state, it was built in stone but never completed. Of its original structure, only the side walls and the main entrance arch remain, but even so it is used for the presentation of cultural events.

Another town in the region is Formoso do Araguaia. The extensive areas of land are irrigated by the Rio Formoso Project - an ambitious project to bring continuous irrigation to soya and rice fields - form a watery plain populated by ostriches, capivaras, deer and alligators. Trips by piroga - an indigenous canoe paddled by Indians themselves - are a good idea for anyone who wishes to know more of the region, which is bathed by the river Javaés.

Bico Tourist Region

The Bico region, in the state of Tocantins, is about 400 kilometres from Palmas and is known as "Bico do Papagaio" (the Parrot's Beak). During the era of military governments in Brazil, it was the setting for the "Araguaia guerrilla war", an armed conflict between "left" and "right" in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, occupied largely by indigenous peoples, it is an area of conflicts over land rights, and its main hope for economic growth lies in adventure tourism.

Washed by the waters of the Tocantins and Araguaia rivers, the Bico region has many islands, river beaches and vegetation of the Amazon Forest type. Most of the municipalities which make up the region - Araguaína, Araguanã, Araguatins, Tocantinópolis and Xambioá - are centres for tourists seeking good fishing and quiet places for camping and water sports, especially during the period from July to September. One of the main attractions is the island of Araguanã, where an "ecological boat" takes tourists for river trips or to special places for fishing.

Lagos Tourist Region

One of the main attractions of the Lagos region, in the state of Tocantins, is Bananal Island. More than 2 million hectares in area, it is one of the largest river islands in the world. Discovered in 1773 by the explorer José Pinto da Fonseca, when he was hunting Indians to enslave them, it was at first called Santana and later Bananal, owing to its extensive banana groves.

It has been an environmental reserve since 1959 and is bounded by the Araguaia and Javaés rivers. It is divided into two parts, the Araguaia National Park in the north, and the Araguaia Indigenous Park in the south, where the majority of Indians from the Carajás and Javaés tribes live. Both are open to the public. As it contains ecosystems of the Amazonian, Pantanal and Cerrado type; Bananal Island is considered ideal for developing projects for the study of such ecosystems. For this reason there is a Unesco plan to make the Island a Biosphere Reserve.