- Where
- Eastern Tocantins, Brazil
cerrado savanna - Coordinates
- 10.359° S
46.699° W - Region
- About 34,000 km²
(Wikipedia) - State park
- 158,885 ha
created 12 January 2001 - From Palmas
- 241 km to Mateiros
(Tocantins state) - Golden-grass harvest
- 20 September to 20 November
(Naturatins, since 2007) - Advisory
- Brazil Level 2
The truck bounced for hours on red dirt through low twisted trees and stopped at orange dunes under a flat-topped ridge beside a clear stream. At a village doorway, women sat stitching rings and bowls from a grass that shone like brass wire. In a spring ringed with palms I tried to sink, and the water pushed me gently back up, like a host who will not hear of it.
The short answer
Jalapão is a semi-arid region of about 34,000 km² in the east of the Brazilian state of Tocantins, by Wikipedia’s figure, a landscape of cerrado savanna, plateaus with steep cliffs, orange dunes and fast, clear rivers. At its centre is Jalapão State Park, created by a state law of 12 January 2001 and covering 158,885 hectares in the municipality of Mateiros; Wikipedia calls it relatively inaccessible. Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism lists its highlights: the quilombola communities of Mumbuca and Prata, the Serra do Espírito Santo and its rock formations, and the fervedouros, springs of transparent water and moving sand in which, the ministry says, it is impossible to sink. The region is also the home of capim dourado, golden grass, and of the craft made from it.
Why it's worth knowing
A fervedouro is a spring that boils without heat. The water of an underground source pushes up through a bed of fine sand with enough pressure to hold a swimmer at the surface; the ministry describes visitors floating without any risk of sinking. The springs are small, and they are looked after accordingly. Visit Brasil, the national tourism board’s site, says each fervedouro limits how many people may be in it at once, that some sit on private land, and that visits in the region are scheduled in advance through a guide or agency.
The grass is wild; the craft belongs to the people who made it. Capim dourado, Syngonanthus nitens, grows in the region’s wet meadows, the veredas, and its stems turn gold and shine without polish. Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism calls Mumbuca, a quilombola community of 45 families and 142 people in Mateiros, the birthplace of golden-grass handicraft, and says the craft is its main source of income. Quilombola communities descend from quilombos, the settlements of people who escaped slavery in Brazil. A study in the journal Amazônica describes how the community’s year now follows the plant: a festival on the eve of the harvest in September, then weeks camped out in the veredas, 5 to 40 km from home, cutting and replanting. In 2011 Brazil’s intellectual property office registered the golden-grass handicraft of the Jalapão region as a geographical indication, at the request of its artisans’ association.
The harvest is regulated. Since 2007 an ordinance of Naturatins, the Tocantins environment agency, has allowed the grass to be gathered only between 20 September and 20 November, according to the Amazônica study, and Tocantins press reports describe Naturatins patrols against clandestine harvesting.
The field notes
Dunes from a mountain
Jalapão’s dunes are made of fine orange sand and reach up to 40 metres high, by Wikipedia’s figure and the Tocantins tourism board’s. The board explains where the sand comes from: the wind has carried it, grain by grain, from the sandstone of the Serra do Espírito Santo, the cliff-sided ridge behind them, and a trek to the ridge’s viewpoint reaches the top of the rock faces the dunes were made from.
Rivers and a waterfall
Most of the state park lies in the upper basin of the Sono river, which with the Novo and the Soninho drains to the Tocantins, Wikipedia records. On the Novo, the Cachoeira da Velha is a horseshoe-shaped waterfall about 100 metres wide and 15 metres high. The vegetation runs from dry and wet grassland and open scrub to gallery and riparian forest along the rivers.
A mosaic of protected land
The state park is one of several protected areas in the region. Wikipedia lists the Nascentes do Rio Parnaíba National Park, the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, which is a core area of the Cerrado Biosphere Reserve, and the Serra da Tabatinga and Jalapão environmental protection areas alongside it.
Buriti palms mark the wet meadows, the veredas, below the Serra do Espírito Santo.
Photograph: Vitor 1234 · Veredas at Jalapao · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
A fervedouro ringed with banana plants, where spring water rising through the sand holds bathers at the surface.
Photograph: Amanda Leite · Fervedouro Jalapão · CC BY-SA 3.0
Stems of capim dourado, golden grass, standing out of their rosettes in a wet meadow in May, before they turn fully gold.
Photograph: Claudia Helena Degaspari · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Golden-grass bowls, bags and wall pieces made in Mumbuca, the quilombola community Brazil's Ministry of Tourism calls the birthplace of the craft.
Photograph: Juliana Nashimoto Neme Francisco · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
The Cachoeira da Velha, a horseshoe waterfall on the Novo river, through cerrado and palms.
Photograph: João D'Andretta · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Buy the golden-grass work in the village where it is made, from the hands that made it, and keep your camera down while anyone is stitching unless they say otherwise.
- Leave the grass standing in the meadows. The harvest has its season and its people, and neither of them is you.
- Get into the spring slowly, and out of it when your turn is up. There is always somebody waiting at the edge.
- Climb the dunes late in the afternoon and stay until the sand turns from orange to rose.
- Try to sink in the spring. I tried with great determination and have marked it on the list as attempted, which is still my best result anywhere.
A stem of golden grass. One of the slender stalks of capim dourado, Syngonanthus nitens, that stand up out of the wet meadows of Jalapão, each topped with a small pale flower head. In the dry months the stalk turns the colour of polished brass and shines without any polishing at all. By state rule it may be cut only between 20 September and 20 November, and in the villages of the region it is stitched into rings, bowls and bags.
Tally, in the marginA woman stitched a ring almost to the end before it struck me that nobody had polished the thread. I had always assumed shine was something you did to a thing. Here it is something a thing does.
Getting there
How to get there. The gateway is Palmas, the state capital, which has an airport. Tocantins’s state Jalapão portal gives the distance from Palmas to Mateiros, at the centre of the region, as 241 km, and describes two routes: from the north through Novo Acordo and São Félix do Tocantins, or from the south through Porto Nacional and Ponte Alta do Tocantins, the last 165 km of it on dirt. It recommends a 4×4, because the roads to the attractions are all unpaved. Since visits are scheduled through a guide or agency (see below), a guided trip from Palmas is the practical way in.
When to go. The dry season, May to November, by the state portal’s account. The golden grass is harvested from 20 September.
What to book ahead. A guide or agency, who also handles the scheduling: Visit Brasil says visits must be booked at least four days ahead (seven in holiday periods) and that fervedouros limit how many people may enter at once. Beds in Mateiros or São Félix, or in community lodgings.
Safety. The State Department has Brazil at Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime and kidnapping (advisory dated 31 August 2026). Its Do Not Travel areas are the international land borders, informal housing developments and Brasília’s satellite cities; Jalapão is about 1,500 km from the nearest land border. The region is remote and roads are long: carry water and fuel, and drive in daylight.
Mark this place
Common questions
What is a fervedouro?
A fervedouro is a spring in Jalapão, Tocantins, Brazil, where water from an underground source rises through a bed of fine sand with enough pressure to hold a swimmer at the surface. Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism describes visitors floating without any risk of sinking. Visit Brasil says each fervedouro limits how many people may enter at once.
Can you sink in the fervedouros of Jalapão?
No. In the fervedouros of Jalapão, in Brazil’s Tocantins state, the upwelling water pushes bathers back to the surface; the Ministry of Tourism describes it as impossible to sink. Visits are limited in numbers and are booked ahead through a guide or agency.
What is capim dourado?
Capim dourado, golden grass (Syngonanthus nitens), grows in the wet meadows of Jalapão in Tocantins, Brazil. Its stems turn gold and shine naturally, and they are sewn into rings, bowls and bags. Brazil’s intellectual property office registered the golden-grass handicraft of the Jalapão region as a geographical indication in 2011.
What is Mumbuca?
Mumbuca is a quilombola community in Mateiros, Tocantins, in Brazil’s Jalapão region, which Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism calls the birthplace of golden-grass handicraft. The ministry gives it 45 families and 142 residents, with the craft as their main source of income.
When is golden grass harvested in Jalapão?
Capim dourado may be harvested in Tocantins only between 20 September and 20 November, under a 2007 ordinance of Naturatins, the state environment agency, according to a study in the journal Amazônica. The community of Mumbuca holds a festival on the eve of the harvest.
How do you get to Jalapão?
Jalapão is reached from Palmas, the capital of Tocantins, Brazil. The state’s Jalapão portal gives 241 km from Palmas to Mateiros by two routes, the southern one ending with 165 km of dirt road, and recommends a 4×4 because every road to the attractions is unpaved.
When is the best time to visit Jalapão?
The dry season, from May to November, is the best time to visit Jalapão in Tocantins, Brazil, according to the state government’s Jalapão portal. The golden-grass harvest opens on 20 September.
Is Jalapão safe to visit?
The U.S. State Department has Brazil at Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime and kidnapping (advisory dated 31 August 2026). Its Do Not Travel areas are the land borders, informal housing developments and Brasília’s satellite cities, all far from Jalapão in Tocantins. The region is remote, so travel with a guide, water and fuel.