Jalapão is the name of a deserted region of 34.000 km2 in the east of the state Tocantins between the city Palmas and the state Bahia. It is a flat and dry savanna with no trees higher than 2 meter and small rivers that slice deep through the red soil.
The area can be crossed via one rough road. A long trail of dust will mark the presence of a visitor. But visitors are to prepare themselves well for the trip because Jalapão is hostile and completely deserted.
Well, almost completely…
Read more at www.palmas.org
1 Pedra Furada (Cach. Fumaça)
2
Continue reading Itinerary: Jalapão
In the period 1730-1740 gold was found in the south-east of Tocantins (at that time the region was referred to as North of Goias, and the mines were called Minas de Goyazes).
Villages developped because of gold mines:
Natividade (1734), Almas (1734), Arraias (1736), Chapada (1736), Pontal (1738), Porto Real (1738), Conceição, Carmo, Taboca, Principe (>1740)
The mining came to a sudden end around 1800.
We have no information about gold digging today in Tocantins, but we have witnessed garimpeiros (gold diggers) in Chapada de Natividade and Monte de Carmo.
Natividade is the oldest town of Tocantins, and most historical buildings still exist. We visited
Continue reading Itinerary: Gold route
In Brazil, a useful compendium of city maps and main road networks is published by Guias Quatro Rodas http://guia4rodas.abril.com.br/, a Brazilian motoring organization, which also has guides to Rio, São Paulo and other cities, states and regions. These are easy to find in bookstores, newsagents and magazine stalls. Topographical and hiking maps are difficult to find, though very occasionally they are available from municipal tourist offices or national parks in Brazil.
A printable map that is up to date, you can find at http://www.transportes.gov.br/bit/mapas/mapas-print/estados/TO.htm
See an example below.
Garmin and Tomtom offer gps navigation including Tocantins and Palmas.
As far as we know, the first detailed maps of Tocantins were topographical maps scale 1:100000, based on photography and produced in the seventees by the Brazilian army. These maps each cover a region of about 50km x 50km. The particular map of the area where Palmas was to be constructed, will be very hard to find because the planners used them to draw on.
Early maps, as the French map of 1860 shown below, show that Tocantins until recently was quite unknown and undocumented. It was only in the ninetees that the area was geographically studied. The Seplan put together
Continue reading Tocantins historical maps
Streets and quarters in Palmas have no names but numbers, like in Brasilia.
Ask your hotel for the “Plano Diretor” of Palmas, which is the city map.
The city plan of Palmas is very simple. The main north-south ax is called Teotonio Segurado and the main east-west ax is called JK (Jucelino Kubitchek).
The avenidas in north-south direction are numbered NS01 etc, and the avenidas in east-west are called LS01 etc. All blocks are numbered as well, and it indicates the number of blocks from the center.
